Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, traditional marketing methods are increasingly ineffective. With consumers bombarded by countless advertisements daily, standing out has never been more challenging—or more crucial. In Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, Seth Godin argues that the key to success is no longer in playing it safe but in daring to be remarkable. This blog post will delve deeply into the concepts introduced in the book, offering insights into how you can create your very own “Purple Cow” to revolutionize your business.
In a world saturated with choices and noise, traditional mass-media advertising is failing. Seth Godin’s Purple Cow argues that the only way to succeed now is by building products and services so remarkable they market themselves, introducing a new “P” that demands true distinctiveness, making safety the riskiest strategy of all.
Who May Benefit
- Product Designers & Engineers: Marketing starts with design.
- Entrepreneurs & Start-ups: Seeking growth strategies without huge ad budgets.
- Chief Executive Officers: Facing the crumbling TV-Industrial Complex.
- Marketing Professionals: Required to fundamentally redefine their role.
- Career-Focused Individuals: Looking to be indispensable and noticeable.
Top 3 Key Insights
- The Purple Cow is the new “P”: Products must now be inherently remarkable—worth noticing and talking about—to survive in today’s crowded marketplace.
- “Safe is risky”: Playing it safe and making average products guarantees invisibility and eventual failure, as timid efforts go unnoticed.
- Target Sneezers with Otaku: Focus marketing efforts on influential early adopters (“sneezers”) who possess an overwhelming desire (“Otaku”) and willingly spread the idea.
4 More Takeaways
- The power of mass-media advertising (the TV-Industrial Complex) is fading rapidly because jaded consumers simply refuse to share their attention.
- Modern marketing means moving investment away from advertising and into repeated engineering and product innovation.
- Once a Purple Cow is established, the successful company must both milk it for profit and immediately reinvest those profits into launching the next Cow.
- To break into a mainstream market, niche targeting allows a focused idea virus to overwhelm a small segment and then diffuse to the masses.
Book in 1 Sentence
Success demands creating products so truly remarkable that they market themselves, because in a world of endless choice, boring means invisible.
Book in 1 Minute
The half-century era of the TV-Industrial Complex is over; massive advertising campaigns no longer guarantee success because consumers are simply ignoring them. If your product blends in like a regular cow, it is doomed to mediocrity. True growth comes from creating a Purple Cow—a product or service designed from the start to be irresistible, controversial, or extremely unique. This means shifting capital from promotion to product design and daring to be different. While criticism may follow (e.g., the Cadillac CTS, My Big Fat Greek Wedding), being truly remarkable is the only way to guarantee people talk about you, realizing that the fear of criticism is the primary hurdle to success.
1 Unique Aspect
The book radically redefines the job of a marketer: the role is no longer about communicating product value after manufacturing, but is instead about inventing, designing, producing, and pricing the product itself to ensure intrinsic remarkability.
Chapter-Wise Summary
The Problem With Compromise
“A camel is a horse designed by a committee”.
Companies built on mass-marketing principles often deliberately smooth out distinguishing features to appeal to the widest audience possible, pushing everything toward the center of the market. This safety is a compromise that eliminates the “rough edges” that make a product worth noticing. For instance, choosing vanilla ice cream (the safe compromise) means the product is fundamentally boring and cannot sustain fast growth. This is Part One of a dangerous Catch-22: marketers target the center of the market with watered-down products, which inevitably waste marketing dollars because the products are unexciting and ignored by the early adopters (Part Two). Compromise, driven by the fear of offending or appearing ridiculous, results in boring products that disappear in the clutter.
Chapter Key Points
- Compromise creates bland products.
- Avoid being safe and dull.
- Targeting the middle is inefficient.
Why You Need the Purple Cow
“Create remarkable products that the right people seek out”.
The old rule was to create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing; the new rule requires creating remarkable products that compel the right people to seek them out. Consumers today are adept at ignoring advertising and prefer to rely on their trusted networks of smart friends and experienced peers (“sneezers”) for recommendations. To break through the noise, a product must be remarkable enough to attract the few consumers willing to take a risk on something new: the early adopters and innovators. If a company wants growth, they must invest in the Purple Cow—products, services, or techniques so useful, interesting, or outrageous that the market actively seeks them out.
Chapter Key Points
- Remarkable products self-market.
- Ignore the majority of consumers.
- Market seeks out noted products.
The Diffusion Curve and Sneezers
“Ideas that spread, win”.
Successful products follow the idea diffusion curve, moving from innovators and early adopters to the majority and finally the laggards. The large, profitable majority groups are highly skilled at ignoring marketers, listening instead to their experienced peers. The key agents in spreading an idea are the “Sneezers”—experts or influential people who tell their colleagues, friends, or admirers about a new product or service. To activate an idea virus, marketers must target a narrow niche rather than the huge mass market, focusing only on people who truly want what they are selling. In this niche, a few influential sneezers can reach the critical mass needed for the idea to spread.
Chapter Key Points
- Sneezers are key spreaders.
- Target a narrow, focused niche.
- The mass market ignores you.
Marketing is Engineering
“Marketing is the act of inventing the product. The effort of designing it”.
The big misunderstanding about idea viruses is that success happens randomly or automatically. In reality, success stories are engineered from the start to be successful. In a post-TV world, marketing is no longer about making a product attractive after it’s built; it’s about designing it to be viral-worthy in the first place. Companies must invest the money they used to spend on advertising into repeated engineering and product failures to find the next big idea. Companies that create Purple Cows, like JetBlue or Starbucks, are run by marketers at their core, meaning the CEO involves marketing in product design and training.
Chapter Key Points
- Success must be engineered.
- Marketing is integral to design.
- Embrace product development risk.
The Problem With the Cow (and Fear)
“The Cow is so rare because people are afraid”.
The primary obstacle to creating a Purple Cow is fear. We are conditioned from a young age to “play it safe,” color inside the lines, and avoid criticism. When a product is remarkable, it’s likely some people won’t like it—criticism is part of the definition of remarkable. Choosing to be safe, anonymous, and un-criticized is, paradoxically, the most dangerous strategy in a crowded marketplace, because fitting in means failing. The only way to be remarkable is to risk serious criticism. Being safe is truly risky.
Chapter Key Points
- Fear leads to unremarkability.
- Criticism is proof of standing out.
- Boring is the riskiest strategy.
The Magic Cycle of the Cow
“The creator of the Purple Cow receives huge benefits”.
When a Purple Cow is created, the rewards—money, prestige, power, and satisfaction—are extraordinary. However, the benefit is not permanent; even hugely successful Cows like Starbucks eventually become boring. The challenge is twofold: first, “milk the Cow” for everything it’s worth, maximizing profit quickly, and second, create an environment where you are likely to invent a new Purple Cow to replace the first one when its benefits inevitably trail off. This process requires reinvestment and accepting repeated failure in the search for the next innovation. If a company fails to take the next risk, they inevitably start the downward slide toward being a commodity.
Chapter Key Points
- Milk the Cow fast.
- Reinvent immediately and repeat.
- Failure is part of the process.
10 Notable Quotes
- “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”.
- “The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable”.
- “Stop advertising and start innovating”.
- “The old rule was this: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing. The new rule is: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out”.
- “If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable”.
- “Boring always leads to failure. Boring is always the most risky strategy”.
- “The vast majority of the curve ignores you. Every time”.
- “Marketing is the act of inventing the product. The effort of designing it”.
- “It is useless to advertise to anyone (except interested sneezers with influence)”.
- “The purity of the message makes it even more remarkable. It’s easy to tell someone about the Leaning Tower [of Pisa]”.
Understanding the Concept of the Purple Cow
In the past, businesses followed a traditional marketing approach, often referred to as the 5Ps of marketing: product, pricing, promotion, positioning, and packaging, among others. These elements served as a guiding framework for companies to strategize and market their offerings effectively. However, in today’s saturated market, these traditional strategies are no longer sufficient.
What is a Purple Cow?
The “Purple Cow” represents something truly remarkable—something that stands out in a field of monotonous brown cows. Imagine driving through the countryside, where you see countless brown cows grazing. At first, you might find them interesting, but as you continue, they all begin to blend together, losing their appeal. Suddenly, you spot a purple cow. It’s unexpected, unique, and grabs your attention. This is exactly what Godin argues businesses need to become in order to capture and retain customer interest in today’s market.
The New World of Marketing
The marketing landscape has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. The mass-advertising era, which dominated for much of the 20th century, is no longer effective. Consumers have grown immune to the barrage of advertising messages they encounter daily, making it harder for businesses to stand out.
The Decline of Traditional Marketing
In the earlier days of marketing, businesses could rely on mass media—such as TV, radio, and print ads—to reach a broad audience effectively. This approach worked well when consumers had limited choices and information. However, as markets became saturated with similar products and services, consumers learned to ignore these ads, rendering traditional marketing less effective.
Enter the Purple Cow
To break through the noise, businesses need to appeal to a select group of customers—particularly the Innovators and Early Adopters, as described by Geoff Moore in Crossing the Chasm. These individuals are the first to embrace new and remarkable products, and they play a crucial role in spreading the word to the broader market. In essence, creating a “Purple Cow” is about designing a product or service that is so unique and noteworthy that it compels these early adopters to take notice and share it with others.
Why You Need a Purple Cow
Playing it safe might seem like a prudent strategy, but in today’s crowded marketplace, it’s a surefire way to become invisible. The most successful companies today are those that take bold risks and create products that stand out as outliers. Examples include:
- JetBlue Airways: Revolutionized air travel by offering a high-end experience at affordable prices.
- Starbucks: Transformed coffee consumption into a lifestyle with its unique ambiance and premium offerings.
- Vanguard: Became a leader in the investment world by offering low-cost index funds, challenging the traditional high-fee model.
These companies succeeded because they didn’t just try to be better; they aimed to be different. They created “Purple Cows” that people couldn’t help but notice and talk about.
Creating Your Purple Cow
So, how do you go about creating your own Purple Cow? While there’s no foolproof formula, Seth Godin offers several principles and ideas to guide you in crafting something truly remarkable.
Exploring the Edges
The key to creating a Purple Cow is to constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible. This means exploring the fringes of your industry and testing new ways to make your products or services stand out.
- Product: Can you create something that is the most durable, the simplest, or the most complex in your industry?
- Pricing: Could you offer something at an unprecedented low or high price point?
- Promotion: How can you market your product in a way that’s never been done before?
- Positioning: Can you position your brand in a unique niche that no one else has claimed?
- Publicity: What unconventional methods can you use to generate buzz?
- Packaging: Is there a way to package your product that will make it irresistible?
- Pass-along: How can you encourage word-of-mouth and make your product shareable?
- Permission: How can you build a relationship with your customers so that they want to hear from you?
Testing and Iterating
Creating a Purple Cow is inherently risky, but it’s a necessary risk if you want to succeed in today’s market. Godin suggests embracing short, repeated development cycles to continually test and refine your ideas. This approach allows you to adapt quickly to market feedback and discover what truly resonates with your audience.
The Importance of “Otaku”
One of the key concepts introduced in the book is “otaku,” a Japanese term that refers to an intense passion or obsession. To create a Purple Cow, you need to find people who have an otaku for what you’re offering—those who will go out of their way to seek out and talk about your product. These are the individuals who will become your most vocal advocates and help spread your message to a wider audience.
Embrace Remarkability in Your Career
The principles of the Purple Cow don’t just apply to businesses—they can also be applied to your personal career. In a world where job markets are increasingly competitive, standing out is just as important. Whether you’re looking to advance in your current role or switch careers entirely, embracing remarkability can set you apart from the crowd.
Getting the Most from Purple Cow
Purple Cow is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone looking to stand out in today’s competitive market. The book is filled with short, digestible chapters, each packed with real-world examples of companies that have successfully created their own Purple Cows. Whether you’re in the business of selling products, services, or even yourself, the lessons in this book are highly applicable.
For those serious about making a remarkable impact, consider diving deeper into the book’s concepts. Seth Godin also offers a wealth of additional resources on his website, sethgodin.com, and his blog, seths.blog.
About the Author
Seth Godin is a renowned American author and entrepreneur known for his work in marketing and leadership. He founded and later sold a book packaging business, launched Yoyodyne to promote permission marketing, and served as Yahoo’s vice president of direct marketing after selling Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for $30 million. In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo, which was later sold to HubPages in 2014. He has authored over 20 books, many of which have become bestsellers, making him a leading voice in modern marketing.
How to Use This Book
Challenge your team to identify your product’s “edges,” embracing aggressive prototyping and public releases to determine what customers find truly remarkable.
Conclusion
You stand at a crossroads: choose the path of invisibility, anonymity, and safety, or seize the opportunity for distinction and greatness. Reject the obsolete belief that average efforts combined with loud advertising will generate growth. The new paradigm demands that you design for the few, the obsessed, the influential “sneezers”. Stop waiting for permission to be remarkable, because nothing else is working—go create your Purple Cow!.