Are You a Purple Cow or a Plain Brown One?

AnnieInfinite — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:03:17 +0000

: Cover via Amazon

One of the most influencial marketers for me I have to say is Seth Godin, his approach to marketing is no-nonsense while still being quirky and that so totally appeals to me. His book “Purple Cow” if you haven’t already heard of it is a book I can highly recommend, and it certainly gave me insights into marketing I never got out of a text book.

This one book I credit with changing my whole philosophy of marketing and I believe listening to Seth Godin via his concise yet remarkable blog posts a must for anyone in the marketing industry no matter how big or small your organisation is.

Here’s an exceprt from his book, “Purple Cow’ and what it means to be the purple cow in your industry or niche:

“You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.
What do Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, Apple, Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that you don’t? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired ‘P’s marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed – Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few-aren’t working anymore. There’s an exceptionally important ‘P’ that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow.

Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It’s built right in, or it’s not there. Period.”

Godin writes that you should review all your P’s (product, price, promotion, positioning, etc.) and figure out where your edges (advantages) are and where the competition is located and go where they’re not. Godin uses Jet Blue as an example of getting over the edge of service and pricing. This airline company delivers what none of the competitors possess and manages to make a profit doing it.

Marketers are farmers on the “purple cow farm.” In order to create a cow, a marketer must be involved in the entire process. Godin writes that marketing is the “act of reinventing the product, the effort of designing it, the craft of producing it, the art of pricing it, and the technique of selling it.”

The whole theory of being a purple cow is summed up in this phrase, “the act of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. . . . If what you’re offering isn’t remarkable, it’s invisible.”

Now ask yourself, what’s remarkable about your business? What’s remarkable about you? Those are the things to build on, not fitting in, not making everyone else comfortable with who you are or what you represent – be bold, stand out!

Don’t be a brown cow – get purple-ised!

Now tell me how you’re going to do that in a comment on this post – I would love to hear your purple cow story

The Zen Bull

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Post tags: Business, Marketing, Online Marketing, Purple Cow, Seth Godin

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Are You a Purple Cow or a Plain Brown One?