Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Purple Cow is a neat little book. It's full of short essays about the importance of a innovative marketing.

Godin argues that marketing used to be buying print, TV and radio ads. A company created a product, and it was the marketing department's job to sell it, mostly by buying ads.

Today, customers tune out ads, and marketing has to change. He advocates ideas that have been advanced by many others, sometimes under different names.

He advocates using customer loyalty and enthusiasm to get more customers. He points out that word-of-mouth is the single most effective form of marketing. Haven't you turned to a friend for advice on what to buy? Why? It's fast, it's easy, it builds a relationship, buying the product your friends have already bought makes you feel like one of the gang, and it's sometimes the very best method for making a purchasing decision.

He also talks about the importance of setting yourself apart from the competition. It might be by finding a special niche - providing a product or service first. It might be by offering the best product, or by offering the most exclusive product, or by offering the cheapest product -- or the best service. But then, you really have to provide the service.

Marketing, he suggests, needs above all to be distinctive to make itself heard amid the din of marketing messages. He talks about outrageousness. The example he uses here is a slogan for the restaurant chain, Hooters: "Delightfully tacky, always unrefined." Being tacky and unrefined will definitely turn some customers off. But it will also turn some customers on. Ask yourself: which are your customers? Like to be turned on or turned off? You don't know? Find out! Put yourself in their shoes!

He argues that you should think about outrageousness, if only as an exercise in leaping out of the box of your current thinking. It's definitely not the right strategy for every product or every customer. His point is to include every possibility as an aid to creativity and innovative synthesis.

Above all, he argues, abandon the illusion that you can avoid risk altogether by continuing to do what you're already doing, or what worked in the past, or what your competitor is doing, or what seems safely conventional or unlikely to offend. The old adage of making one product for everyone doesn't work anymore. He argues, persuasively, that choosing a marketing strategy because it's safe is less likely to work in this environment, in part because the old rules have been exploded and things are changing so fast. The only safe course, he argues, is to fight hard by taking some chances and setting yourself apart from the pack.

Interestingly, he talks about how cell phones have become boring now that everyone who needs one has one and everyone who merely wants one has one too. He talks about Motorola and how phone manufacturers are looking for the next big innovation. This seems particularly prescient in a post-iPhone world (this book was originally published in 2002).

He talks about the importance of design and how marketing might once have been primarily about how to position the product in the marketplace but is now every aspect of the product, including its design. He advocates giving designers a place on the marketing team. Steve Jobs' success would seem to be a case in point.

What's another way to set yourself apart? Be honest! He cites an example in which McDonald's in France suggested to consumers that they should not eat at McDonald's more often than once a week, an approach that reflected an awareness of different cultural assumptions about food in France.

Godin argues the importance of passion: he explains that it's vitally important to understand the needs and wants of the consumer, and if you're a surfboard company it makes sense to have a staff full of surfers. If you're a dialysis machine manufacturer, it may not be possible to staff your marketing department with dialysis patients but you can still spend time talking to your customers and use your imagination to put yourself in their place and imagine what they need.

The significance of the title is this: on vacation with his family in the country, he saw that his entire family was charmed by some cows they saw. As they continued on their journey, they saw many more cows and cows started to lose their charm. After they'd seen so many cows, the only new cow that would be likely to interest them would be a purple cow!

Seth Godin wants you, your product, and your company to be a purple cow!

Godin addresses himself to marketers and suggests that they use this fun and easy-to-read book full of mini-case histories of marketing efforts to convince managers and troops that this is the way forward. Recent history shows that he's right.