Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Posted by Miles Evans

Best Marketing Books Review Part II: Purple Cow

Skip ahead to some of Amazon’s reviews of Purple Cow or continue reading...

Continuing along with my series on the best marketing books ever written comes one of the top offerings by a well known ad room genius, Mr. Seth Godin. Seth likely needs little introduction but for those of you living in your parents basement he recently did a speaking engagement at the Googleplex, has authored several best selling marketing books, and is the mastermind behind the recently launched Squidoo.

I was lucky enough to conduct a quick interview with Seth a month or so ago, and his publicist was kind enough to ship me some books - all the way to Bangkok for free. Yes Seth actually answers emails. When was the last time an unknown hack blogger like myself got this type of service, straight from the author? Look closely and you will see this is a simple yet subtle example of being remarkable.

I can’t say enough about this book. I first read Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable in 2003 and I must confess as I look at the current situation online today, reading it again is like being hit with a truck. The premise of the book is that conventional marketing methods (build a product and then advertise as much as you can afford) are obsolete. Seth proposes that succeeding today has everything to do with building a remarkable product and nothing to do with running full page ads in the Wall Street Journal. And he’s right.

In a market brimming with too many choices and less time to make them one has to be remarkable to stick out. A Purple Cow so to speak.

Take for example some of the best known Purple Cows of the last decade: Starbucks, Ipods, The Aeron chair, IKEA, Amazon, Prada, or even Viagra. Every one of these companies built a remarkable product – a product people were excited to tell their friends about. These sneezers as Godin calls them are essential to building your brand today, and without a remarkable product you will only guarantee your success at being overlooked. You simply must have a purple cow to get noticed.

Godin goes on to explain that the best areas to find your cow is at the edges. Sit down and ask yourself‘ if we could do anything, what would we try? If some of these ideas scare you, you are likely on the right track. Most of the trends that end up becoming gospel were started by a small group of people on the fringe, where the early adopters dwell. The trick is to get this group to market your product for you, and the only way to accomplish this is by giving them something to talk about.

Remarkable is the opposite of very good. If you have a product that is very good, go back to the drawing board.

If you tried a new airline and landed safely you would not likely tell anyone about it. After all that’s what airplanes do. Now say if everyone in coach had a chance to be bumped up to unsold first class seats via a lottery system, and you won - there is now a damn good chance you would tell your friends. This is the Purple Cow at work.

As with Godin’s other books Purple Cow is chock full of insightful case studies and examples from dozens of big and small companies alike. I love books like this. It is hard not to get the juices flowing with tons of real world examples, and this book does not disappoint. The last few chapters are almost entirely made up of quick one page case studies.

Purple Cow and Seth Godin are themselves a Purple Cow. In fact I would go so far as to say that Seth’s books have effectively changed the marketing landscape as we see it. If you read the book you will see examples that people have actually acted on today. It’s quite remarkable!

Grab your copy of Purple Cow today at Amazon for only $13. Giddy'up!

Seth is also the author of the most read ebook in history Unleashing the IdeaVirus. You can grab a free copy of it here. Who loves ya?

More information on Seth Godin can be had at his website.

Posted May 06, 2006 at 02:56 AM | Permalink | Trackback URL | Del.icio.us | DIGG!