If you take a stroll down your memory lanes just ten years, you will be surprised by how much innovation has transpired in technology. For every successful Facebook created out there, there are probably another hundreds of products and brands like Segway, vonage, Dreamcast and Nokia N-Gage that never made it.

There are probably multitudes of reasons why some make it and some don’t. I am sure that you can find scores of books providing commentary around these failed ventures and initiatives and experiences learnt. On a recent trip to a nearby mall, I noticed that the brands that focus on young people that are still standing tall are somehow associated with the words “Cool”, “Hip” or “trendy”. Coolness expresses freedom: Most important, what makes a product or brand cool, rather than just likable, classy, or fun, is that it expresses autonomy. Cool people and brands go their own way and do their own thing. One way that a brand can become cool is with innovative products. Creating products that are new and different is inherently autonomous. Furthermore, this attribute “Cool” has a tendency of always flowing down. It’s one directional. You singing your favorite Frozen tune on your way to work is probably not “cool”. If you have kids, especially teenagers with a little brother or sister, you must have noticed this. The young one is always trying to grow up! Trying hard to impress and sometimes imitate his or her older brother/sister.

Brands that have understood this directional flow of “cool” have been pretty successful in their business ventures. If the product appeals to the young adults, and is a hit with the teenagers, there is a strong likelihood that it will be a well positioned for the brothers and sisters of these teenagers as the product matures and technology evolves. The Brand will still retain that coolness vibe.

I wonder in a nascent market place such as virtual reality, How is the marketing playbook playing out? Would you associate the Gear VR or the HTC – Vibe as cool? I think that the HTC-Vive campaign is perhaps positioned in the cool quadrant. With their recent road shows across US, they have been showcasing and raising awareness of their product and platforms to a generation that can afford the product and are young. The product also is “autonomous” to a large degree in that it is not expecting you to plug in a particular brand of Smartphone to experience the value proposition. As I mentioned in my previous article, Samsung doesn’t allow that “autonomy”. It will not be surprising if they bundle the Gear VR with their latest Samsung edge 7 phones. Lenovo recently announced a similar bundling move.

If the game developers are successfully able to target the HTC-vibe platform and provide an immersive experience to teenagers and young adults that is “cool”, every other kid in the neighborhood will want to try it. Here HTC is well positioned since vibe already has 65 million users on its software platform. On its own, there is a chance that a piece of cardboard or a device that covers your face will not quite be considered cool and may derive other connotations that are not so popular.