PURPLE COW By SETH GODIN
Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: Portfolio
Date of Publication: May 2003
Number of Pages: 160 pages
PURPLE COW
“Transform your Business by Being Remarkable”
How challenging is it to get your idea to spread and How can you do it successfully?
When was the last time you noticed a cow on the side of the road, pulled over and looked at it really close? How boring! What if it was a purple coloured cow? We wouldn’t pull the brakes fast enough!
A Purple Cow means something that would really stand out, something shining out of the crowd.
How did the Four Seasons or Walmart become famous? How have Nokia or Nintendo been selling and marketing the same product for so many years?
The reason that these products are still selling is because they needed something precisely remarkable.
A leader of a famous company is indeed a leader, precisely because he/she did something remarkable. That remarkable thing is now taken, so it’s no longer remarkable when you decide to do it.
Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. Not just slapping on the marketing function as a last-minute add-on.
For a purple cow company to run, marketing should include the act of inventing, designing, producing, pricing, and selling the product by the marketers.
But in a crowded market place, fitting in is failing. It is simply being invisible. The problem is that most are just running a company, not marketing a product. Today, that’s a remarkably ineffective way to compete. So, how do you stand out?
Imagine being the first person to invent frozen pizza. What about Disney or Starbucks? The Japanese developed a pen that was fun to write with. On the other hand, an invention of the electric piano stole Yamaha‘s market.
The old rule was: “Create safe products and combine them with great marketing.”
The new rule is: “Create remarkable products that the right people seek out. “
In exchange for taking a risk, marketers who follow the purple cow will always get it right. We can simply look at Marvel comics, Marriot, AOL, Yahoo and Google to name a few.
Challenges to overcome once you decide to do something remarkable.
1. Milk the purple cow for everything it’s worth. Extend it and profit from it.
2. Invent an entirely new purple cow to replace the old one when the time comes.
But these are contradictory goals.
Solution: Create two teams: The inventors and the milkers. Put them in separate buildings. Hold a formal ceremony when you move a product from one group to another. Celebrate both.
The book, the Purple Cow by Seth Godin suggests 10 ways to raise a purple cow.
Questions tackled: How do ideas spread? Why do some charities, movies, architects, politicians, potato chips and cars succeed, but others just as good apparently fade away?
The main idea the book is trying to promote is: Be Original.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Seth Godin is a best selling author and entrepreneur. His book, Purple Cow, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s all about how companies can transform themselves by being remarkable.
Seth Godin holds an MBA from Stanford and was called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week.
Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: Portfolio
Date of Publication: May 2003
Number of Pages: 160 pages
PURPLE COW
“Transform your Business by Being Remarkable”
How challenging is it to get your idea to spread and How can you do it successfully?
When was the last time you noticed a cow on the side of the road, pulled over and looked at it really close? How boring! What if it was a purple coloured cow? We wouldn’t pull the brakes fast enough!
A Purple Cow means something that would really stand out, something shining out of the crowd.
How did the Four Seasons or Walmart become famous? How have Nokia or Nintendo been selling and marketing the same product for so many years?
The reason that these products are still selling is because they needed something precisely remarkable.
A leader of a famous company is indeed a leader, precisely because he/she did something remarkable. That remarkable thing is now taken, so it’s no longer remarkable when you decide to do it.
Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. Not just slapping on the marketing function as a last-minute add-on.
For a purple cow company to run, marketing should include the act of inventing, designing, producing, pricing, and selling the product by the marketers.
But in a crowded market place, fitting in is failing. It is simply being invisible. The problem is that most are just running a company, not marketing a product. Today, that’s a remarkably ineffective way to compete. So, how do you stand out?
Imagine being the first person to invent frozen pizza. What about Disney or Starbucks? The Japanese developed a pen that was fun to write with. On the other hand, an invention of the electric piano stole Yamaha‘s market.
The old rule was: “Create safe products and combine them with great marketing.”
The new rule is: “Create remarkable products that the right people seek out. “
In exchange for taking a risk, marketers who follow the purple cow will always get it right. We can simply look at Marvel comics, Marriot, AOL, Yahoo and Google to name a few.
Challenges to overcome once you decide to do something remarkable.
1. Milk the purple cow for everything it’s worth. Extend it and profit from it.
2. Invent an entirely new purple cow to replace the old one when the time comes.
But these are contradictory goals.
Solution: Create two teams: The inventors and the milkers. Put them in separate buildings. Hold a formal ceremony when you move a product from one group to another. Celebrate both.
The book, the Purple Cow by Seth Godin suggests 10 ways to raise a purple cow.
Questions tackled: How do ideas spread? Why do some charities, movies, architects, politicians, potato chips and cars succeed, but others just as good apparently fade away?
The main idea the book is trying to promote is: Be Original.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Seth Godin is a best selling author and entrepreneur. His book, Purple Cow, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s all about how companies can transform themselves by being remarkable.
Seth Godin holds an MBA from Stanford and was called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week.
Business Book Review Written By: Rhea Sachdev
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