Comments

How can I be HIP if I'm too busy being WOW! There's a big chance that your terms are overlapping with a result of diluting the impact. Instead of Tom Peters Change Agent, respectfully I submit that you are falling into Tom Peters Overuse of Words Agent.

Posted by Helen at January 18, 2005 11:20 AM

I hate Hip - I strived throughout my entire concious life to avoid being hip. Dangerous area -usually it's the people and companies that are trying the hardest (to be hip) that fail by the biggest margin......

Give me WOW and changing the world any day

Posted by PaulH at January 18, 2005 11:30 AM

What is the definition of hip? Cool? I read the words but I'm not sure if I'm on the same page as the rest of society. I've always been a little geeky, myself. :-)

Posted by M.R. Maguire at January 18, 2005 11:42 AM

Hip is ZIP. Hip sells in the short term, but do you want all the latest HIP or the latest AND BEST CLASSIC products and services that ENRICH and attain LOVEMARK status?

Posted by John at January 18, 2005 12:01 PM

Chasing Hip is just that... chasing / following / responding. Maybe this is symantics or differences in definition, but in my book, Hip lasts about 30 seconds - it's shallow. Now shallow can be profitable...for a while. And if you are one of that 1% of 1% of people on the face of the earth who truly has "it" - in other words are always first - then this might be a strategy of leadership. Otherwise it is chasing - not leading.

Remember, even Apple has not been Hip throughout the last 20 years.

In many ways Hip does not fit with so many of the other core principles: Lovemark, Loyalty, Brand, and even Design (Design=deep/lasting Hip=shallow/30 sec.)

As always, good to think these things through looking for application to our own world. But, I think this concept does not fit all. Know your customers, know your service, know your experience, know your-self.

Posted by JimS at January 18, 2005 12:06 PM

Hipness is about awareness -- awareness of the trends, ideas, talents, culture around you.

Coolness is about always keeping things in perspective -- treating little things as little, big things big, timeless design and values trumping the momentary fashions.

Posted by Kirk Samuels at January 18, 2005 12:20 PM

Maybe HIP is Pre-WOW. The Internet was HIP before it became the infrastructure for WOW Sites. Blogs are HIP, but only become WOW when they become a conduit for WOW Value-Add Business Models. Thoughts?

Posted by RTodd at January 18, 2005 12:27 PM

Hip is all about looking outwards for cues, WOW is about looking inwards for cues. WOW is better. Take a look at this exchange from The Simpsons and substitute 'hip' for 'cool':

Marge: Am I cool, kids?

Bart+Lisa: No.

Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring, right?

Bart+Lisa: No.

Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here.

Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool.

Bart: Well, sure you do.

Lisa: How else would you know?

Posted by Jonathan at January 18, 2005 12:48 PM

HIP: temporary
COOL: timeless

Posted by Mastery at January 18, 2005 1:35 PM

Uhm, cool is not timeless. i.e. Fonzy. To me, cool resists change. It's the guy who went to his 20 year class reunion still wearing a leather bomber and RayBans as he pulls up in his Camaro. Hip requires innovation and re-innovation. Connecting with the customer and their culture to understand what gives them a buyer's buzz, what holds their loyalty, and what brings them a sense of community.

Of course, this may all come down to symantics of how everyone defines these terms hip and cool.

Posted by Dustin at January 18, 2005 1:43 PM

HIP = temporary, I agree. To be hip implies that you're in-touch. To remain hip(as the next hip things come along) means to remain in touch so that you can reinvent/reimagine/rehipitize. A good thing, IMO, provided you're in touch with the right thing(s).

If hip-ness has something to do with the masses then I'd imagine it behooves us to understand what's hip(to BE hip?)

Nothing new below, but insightful nonetheless:

The Conquest of Cool : Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism, by Thomas Frank

The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, by Richard Florida

Quest for Cool Takes Stage in New Development Efforts
http://www.kiponline.org/news_article11.htm

Posted by Russell A. Hatfield Jr. at January 18, 2005 1:51 PM

double "hipness" is the fact of being - "Cool in Continuum"..

"search the beginning - not becoming but by itself !!" -Anon

Ok thats a mind teaser ..have fun !!

Posted by /pd at January 18, 2005 1:56 PM

Do you see how Tom was trying to say "Desire" and everyone reverted to "self acceptance"? Do you see how everyone's mind immediately went into defense mode? ...that is one of the primary issues we need to address with marketing, emotions. We fear desire but we need desire because it makes us who we are, however it pits us against our need for acceptance. Marketing must be an emotional transformational agent to help us be the "I" we want to be within the "Group" we want to belong to. Hip is good, desire is good, being your authentic self is good, participating in a group is good. Feeling alive is the goal.

Posted by Wendy at January 18, 2005 4:03 PM

Wendy - Tom - Dustin - To me Hip is significant in that it may lead a cultural trend that could be enduring, beneficial, profitable, meaningful.

Hip is healthful in a culture - in that a society that has time for frivolity of Hip and celebrity-lifestyle fun - is a playful, healthy laissez-faire culture, n'est pas?

Posted by Brad at January 18, 2005 4:47 PM

What is hip? Tell me, tell me, if you think you know . . .

(with apologies to Tower of Power)

Posted by Ron at January 18, 2005 7:06 PM

Hip, Cool or WoW - these are all the same and it depends on how you define them. But it is what is in your mindset and what you do to be wow, hip or cool. Just change the world, Just do it. Execution is better than talk.

Make it a WoW. AlwaysWoW!!!

Posted by Andreas at January 18, 2005 9:32 PM

The arguments for hip being temporary miss the whole point.

Apple is a "hip" company. Why? Because they CONSTANTLY redefine themselves.

You're hip if you are able to change (and change successfully) to the point where people or customers look to you for that fresh state that says 'that's where we want to be'.

Yes, what constitutes "hip" changes regularly - so therefore, as a company, do you embrace change and provide that leadership into what is becoming popular (before it does so) or do you follow the trend?

The "hip" people typically drop a trend once it gets too popular - that is , they go find ANOTHER market to conquer.

With trying to read too much into what Tom was saying, I think that sums it up.

That's not to say that you should just drop what you're working on for the sake of being cool. But you need to be able to turn on a dime if what you're doing doesn't make sense or isn't going to change what you want to do. You need to be able to convince people that you're doing is really going to "Change the world" which is exactly what the hippies and "hip" people can do.

Posted by Andrew at January 20, 2005 9:01 AM

Cool! I have been following Tom Peters for eons and I have never posted to his comments until today. Several months ago I read a comment on Tom Peters' blog about a company who was recording conference session in the IT world. I followed the lead over to itconversations dot com and discovered the new WOLRD of Podcasting!

The result of being HIP and FRESH, High Octane Trading (HOT) Radio! Since then our customers have embrace Podcasting and HOT Radio and membership is UP!

Posted by Ricardo Rabago at January 26, 2005 11:11 AM