Purple Cow

K.R. Drewel

The book in a nutshell

Contents1. What is Purple Cow?2. Who is Seth Godin?3. So what exactly is a Purple Cow?4. Why do companies need a Purple Cow?5. What are sneezers? 6. What is an Otaku?7. What is the secret formula? (The ‘magic’ cycle of

the cow)8. Discussion

What is Purple Cow?

• It’s a book about marketing written by Seth Godin in 2002.

• It’s about transforming your business by being remarkable.

• It still kicks ass and makes sense, even though the book is ten years old.

Who is Seth Godin?• Bald marketing guru who

makes a lot of money by writing these sort of books.

• Also a very influential blogger (sethgodin.com)

So what exactly is a Purple Cow?Seth describes it as one of the new marketing P’s:

“The essence of the Purple Cow is that is must be remarkable. In fact, if remarkable started with a P, I could probably with the cow subterfuge, but what can you do?” (pg.2)

In short: A Purple Cow is a product (or sometimes service) that dares to stand out.

Why do companies need a Purple Cow?

We all know this doesn’t work anymore… The media landscape is shifting.

Why do companies need a Purple Cow? “Among the people who might buy your product , most will never hear about it. There are so many alternatives now that people can no longer be easily reached by mass media”

• Too many products• Hard to stand out

Bottom-line

This is very confusing. Not just for consumers, but for companies too.

The big question is: How can companies and their

products be remarkable?

The book covers a few steps on how to be remarkable. There are two main rules.

First rule: Make an awesome product.

This one actually makes the most sense. Your product should always be the Purple Cow. Your marketing could be awesome, but product should always come first. Halfway

through

Second rule: Get people to like your awesome product.

You can do that by finding ‘Sneezers’….

What are sneezers?“Sneezers are the key spreading agents of an ideavirus. These are experts who tell all their colleagues or friends or admirers about a new product or service on which they are a perceived authority. ”pg. 31

They’re not always early adopters…

Early adopters sometimes are careful with sharing ideas. Sometimes they don’t have enough credibility.

So how do you create an idea that spreads?

1. Don’t try to make a product for everybody. 2. Sneezers in markets for ‘everybody products’ have too

many choices.3. Create ideas that spread in a niche market. With a

niche you can segment a chunk of the mainstream4. This in turn will create focused ideas

Look for people with an Otaku.

What is an Otaku?

“Otaku describes something that’s more than a hobby but a little less than an obsession. (…)People read Fast Company because they have an Otaku about business. (…) Otaku, it turns out, is at the heart of the Purple Cow phenomenon.”

Some examplesAs a company you have to connect with this people. These are the sneezers who first hear about your Purple Cow. They also help to improve your product.

Find influential people to talk about your product.

Bottom line

Is there a secret formula?

No. But there is something that Seth calls ‘The Magic Cycle of the Cow’. It consists of 4 simple steps.

1. Get permission2. Work with sneezers3. Let a different team milk4. Reinvest

Almost there!

1. Get permission from people you impressed the first time

Let people know when you might have another Cow. Make them feel special.

2. Work with sneezers Make them ‘sell’ your story for you.

3. Let a different team milk the product

4. Reinvest

Launch another Purple Cow. Fail as much as you can to learn as much as possible. Assume that previous remarkable things won’t be remarkable now.

Let other teams milk the cow. Do it as fast as possible. Don’t believe your own press releases.

That was Purple Cow in a nutshell. Please read this book. It’s fun and easy to read and it will

give you a lot of insights.

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Discussion:Purple Cow is written in a very easy way. Seth Godin makes a lot of assumptions by using his gut feeling. This is often regarded by marketers as something bad. What do you think?

Is having a gut feeling about a product or service a bad thing for marketers? Or is it necessary to develop a Purple Cow?