BornEntrepreneur

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

By: Seth Godin

Key Points:

P’s of marketing
Product, pricing, promotion, positioning, publicity, packaging, pass-along, permission

What is a Purple Cow?

A Purple Cow amongst typical black and white cows is something remarkable
“Something remarkable is worth talking about.”
“Stop advertising and start innovating.”

Spreading Idea
“Ideas that spread win.”

Ideaviruses = ideas that spread
Sneezers = key spreading agents of an ideavirus (experts who tell colleagues and friends)
“Every market has a few sneezers. They’re often the early adopters, but not always.”

• Ideas that spread are niche ideas not huge market ideas.
• Market to innovators and early adopters (who will spread the message to the masses).
• You need to measure to figure out what’s working (and cut what’s not) to help spread the ideavirus faster.

If you’ve managed to create something truly remarkable, the challenge is to do two things simultaneously:

1. milk the cow for everything it’s worth
2. replace the first cow before the benefits inevitably trail off

Purple Cow in products

• Most people make boring or safe products so that no one doesn’t like their product. They get a committee involved and sand off the rough edges.
• “Go for the edges.” – Go for the extremes
• “The same world of mouth that can make your product a huge hit can also lead to someone snickering at you.”
• “It’s not about being weird. It’s about being irresistible to a tiny group of easily reached sneezers. Irresistible isn’t the same as ridiculous.”
• Dutch Boy Paints – they changed the can so it’s easier to carry, pour, and close.
• “This is marketing done right. Marketing where the marketer changes the product, not the ads.”

• Marketing is done to a product.
• Marketing is the product.
• If you create a remarkable product/service that is remarkable, people will want to talk about it with everyone they know.

Example of Marketing in services
Haagen Dazs – puts business cards in stores with store owner’s info; people notice and tell others

People as Purple Cows

• People can be Purple Cows by being remarkable.
• Resumes are not that important.
• Connections and being remarkable are vital because you can get a job anywhere if people spread the news about how great a job you do.

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