Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

This was a short read but I liked Godin's perspective on standing out from the crowd. It appeals to my nature as a contrarian and trouble-maker, and I think on some level I've intuitively operated as he suggests. Lots of interesting ideas to think about here.

I am growing to love Seth Godin more and more. He's a marketing guru with a widely-read blog. He's written several best-sellers, including a book I reviewed not to long ago, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, which I loved. I finally got around to reading his most popular book, Purple Cow. I completely understand why it's so popular. It's a tremendous little book!

The basic concept is that if you're driving through the country-side and see thousands of cows, eventually you don't even notice their presence. But if while driving you see a purple cow...well, that's worth stopping for. In other words, to thrive in today's world, it's not enough to be good, you need to be remarkable!

Purple Cow really got me to thinking about what sets our church show more apart from any other church in town. Is there something about us that is remarkable enough to make people stop and notice? I know skeptics will say, "Jesus' gospel message is pretty remarkable. That should be enough." But I will risk being called a heretic and say, that's not necessarily true.

I think churches have done a masterful job over the last howevermany years of taking the the truly remarkable 'good news' and transforming it into the boring news. Few are surprised by this message, because few churches are passionate about it. The sad (and exciting) news is that a 'purple cow' in the church world is a church that is actually Christ-like. So what are some counter-church-cultural ways we can be Jesus to our communities that would make them do a double-take? It's got me thinking...

The purple cow principle is so true, too. While Jamie and I were in Scotland, we spent a lot of time driving through the
countryside. It was beautiful and I guarantee you we saw at least a million sheep during our week there. At first it was quaint, but by the end of the week it was hardly worth noticing. However halfway through the trip I spotted something out of the corner of my eye that made me pull over and take pictures. Pink sheep! We asked several people during the week and showed them the picture, but nobody could give us a good reason. Maybe I should knock-off Godin's idea and write a church version called Pink Sheep! Hmm... show less

The Purple Cow stands out, because it is remarkable. In a field of black and white cows, the purple cow is the one that you would remember – turning to your travel companion and saying, “did you see…?”

That’s the premise of Seth Godin’s book from 2002, a highly enjoyable spin through the act of being remarkable, and how businesses have transformed their fortunes by standing out from the crowd.

It is an inspiring read, prompting you to evaluate everything from your business models to your personal behaviour – and establish whether what you do is really outstanding.

I devoured this again in one sitting on a 2 hour plane ride – and have come away with a new set of ideas I’ll be implementing, including some that will make my show more support teams even more remarkable, and also some that will hopefully make me a step closer to ‘awesome’. show less

I think when this book was first published it was revolutionary. Certainly the premise of the book is still relevant in today’s social media world. But as it was originally published in 2003, parts of the book have not aged well. Talking about Nokia and Motorola when it comes to phones seems quaint. The world before iPhone was a different place. But I still think the idea of a Purple Cow is needed in a business to get noticed.

Nice and very short book about... being remarkable.

Seth Godin tells many short anecdotes where he explains how being remarkable can make one (person/company/product) a leader. It is mainly because of sneezers - people who are early adopters and really love exceptional things. If you get their attention, they will do a lot of initial marketing, so it is much better to ignore the majority at first and target this group.

However Seth also talks that ironically in a lot of cases companies or products which started as Purple Cow and became market leaders then try to play safe, smooth rough edges and become dull.

Don't be boring, stand out!

Interessante ma praticamente tutti gli esempi di prodotti di successo sono tratti dal mercato americano e non sono di riferimento per un lettore europeo. Emblematica la frase che spiega come il sogno si tutti gli imprenditori è quotarsi in borsa (per diventare ricchi, aggiungo io), mentre il sogno di un imprenditore italiano è gestire la propria azienda.

Having read Tribes from Seth Godin and enjoyed it I decided to give Purple Cow a go. Written in a very similar, easy-reading style, I took away two key messages from Purple Cow:

1. Be Remarkable
2. Focus on the Innovators and Early Adopters

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. By building remarkable features into products (as opposed to thinking of marketing as just slapping some paint on top of the product or service) the idea is that the Innovators and Early Adopters (aka the "Sneezers") will essentially sell the product or service for you. It is therefore important to ensure that it is an easy sell for them.

I found many of the examples show more to be a bit too US centric but the key points were still easy to comprehend. Whilst the message is very simple, this book provides some great motivational passion for creating products that stand out and make a difference. A recommended read. show less