By its very nature, "cool" is a nebulous distinction. What is cool one year, or even one month, may not be the next. Yet some products are able to remain consistently cool year-in and year-out. In their quest for a share of the $171 billion of purchases that kids influence every year, marketers strive to develop such cool products. These the author terms "Ever-Cools." The Barbie doll represents a perfect example of an "Ever-Cool" product. Barbie rides the trends and fads, assuming various guises to reflect current coolness. Mothers who had Malibu Barbie dolls now buy Baywatch Barbies for their daughters. This is an exploration of achieving the elusive Ever-Cool status. Author Gene Del Vecchio is the president of his own consulting firm in Valencia, California. He is the former senior partner, director of planning & research in the Los Angeles office of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the world's sixth-largest agency network. While there, he developed products targeted toward children for companies including Baskin-Robbins, Disney, Good Humor-Breyers, Hershey, Kraft Foods, and Mattel.