Good is the New Cool
Afdhel Aziz & Bobby Jones
“We are at a crossroads: either we can try to prop up the old, broken marketing model, or we can create a new model, one that is fit for the unique challenges of today.”
Are you ready to change the world?
Do you want to know how businesses can be cool—and good?
Do you want to pivot from the dated, advertising-driven marketing model to the new, purpose-driven model?
Do you want a company that succeeds on three fronts—culture, commerce, and conscience? Do you want to future-proof your business for the next two generations?
Do you want to learn from the best marketers, social entrepreneurs, and culture creators in the industry?
Marketing has an image problem. Media-savvy millennials and Gen Z consumers, no longer trust advertising, and they demand increased social responsibility from their brands—while still insisting on cutting-edge products with on-trend design. As always, brands need to be cool—but now they need to be good, too. It’s a tall order, and with new technology empowering consumers to bypass advertisements altogether, it won’t be long before the old, advertising-based marketing model goes the way of the major label.
If only there was a new model, one that allowed companies to address environmental, civic, and economic issues in a way that grew their brand and business, while giving back to society, and rebranding as a powerful force for good. Enter Good is The New Cool, a bold new manifesto from marketing experts Afdhel Aziz and Bobby Jones. In provocative, whip-smart, and streetwise style, they take aim at conventional marketing, posing the questions few have had the vision and courage to ask: If the system is broken, how can we fix it? Rather than sinking money into advertising, why not create a new model in which great marketing optimizes life?
With seven revolutionary new principles—from “Treat People as Citizens, Not Consumers,” to “Lead with the Cool”—and insights and interviews from a new generation of marketers, social entrepreneurs, and leaders of such brands as Zappos, Citibank, The Honest Company, as well as the culture creators working with artists like Lady Gaga, Pharrell, and Justin Bieber, this rule- breaking book is the new business model for the twenty-first century, and a call to action for anyone committed to building a better tomorrow. This visionary book won’t just change your business—it will change the world.
Book Praise
Every business, brand, and individual involved in the business of brands should sit up and take note.
—Paul Woolmington, CEO, Canvas Worldwide
With people saying they wouldn’t care if 74 percent of brands disappeared tomorrow, marketers need to reimagine why their brands exist and how they engage with people. The intersection of the three c’s (culture, commerce, and conscience) is the winning formula for marketers who understand they are no longer selling to people, but how they now must engage with them.
—Carol Cone, CEO, Purpose Collaborative
Afdhel Aziz is a brand strategist, consultant, and speaker whose award-winning work for Nokia, Heineken, Procter and Gamble, and Absolut has been featured in The New York Times, Vice, The Guardian, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, and more. He has been a featured speaker at the Cannes Lions, SXSW, and Advertising Week.
Bobby Jones is a leading expert in marketing to teen and millennial consumers and has developed strategies and award-winning campaigns for companies such as Ford, Moet Hennessy, and Adidas. He currently serves as the chief marketing and communications officer for Peace First, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing young people around the world with the necessary skills and commitments to imagine and implement compassionate solutions to injustices.