Purple Cow may easily just be a simple marketing ploy, devised to pique customers’ interest so that they will buy the book. It nonetheless captivates the essence of the book: that modern businesses need to stand out in order to succeed in today’s economy.
Below, I’ve listed all of Seth Godin’s thoughts and examples that I thought were especially profound.
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The marketing old guard is quick to defend the power of the TV commercial. They’re delighted to point out the great success stories of years past, and to happily articulate why only TV can get the awareness needed to launch a new product or maintain an existing one. Yet Sergio Zyman, the marketing guru who was there for most of Coca-Cola’s rebirth, points out that two of the most popular TV commercials of all time –“I’d like to teach the world to sing” and “Mean Joe Greene” — sold not one more bottle of Coke. They entertained and got attention, but they translated into no incremental revenue. He jokes that the commercial should have been, “I’d like to teach the world to drink.” In Sergio’s words, “Kmart has plenty of awareness. So what?”
Statistics can easily be manipulated to conform to one’s desired belief. Thus, it’s important to remain impartial with data, and analyze them yourself. Don’t believe that just because something is conventional that it is true as well.
We’re biased toward our own creations. It is necessary to combat this, and apply Pareto’s Principle: what 20% of things achieve 80% of the results? Knowing such hard facts makes it that much easier to go against convention.
We’re always averse to change. Naturally, anything that challenges the status quo will be confronted with opposition. Interestingly, those that fall into this category usually comprise of the strongest supporters of such new technology or idea.
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If a product’s future is unlikely to be remarkable– if you can’t imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product — it’s time to realize that the game has changed. Instead of investing in a dying product, take profits and reinvest them in building something new.
Copycats never reign. Only those that produce an unfair advantage, whether that be customer service, quality, or price, win. As Peter Thiel states in Zero to One, forgo competition. Choose a market and specific niche where you’ll own a monopoly and branch out from there.
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You must design a product that is remarkable enough to attract the early adopters — but is flexible enough and attractive enough that those adopters will have an easy time spreading the idea to the rest of the curve… The goal? To make it easy for someone to stumble onto the product. They start with people who will drive twenty miles, and finish with people too lazy to cross the street.
There is a bell curve that delineates what percentage of the population to target before a product or service becomes mainstream. Although those first early adopters are quintessential to later success, it is also imperative to remain attractive for later adopters. This involves continuously reiterating a minimum viable product, for the general market will be far less forgiving than early adopters who are eager to test-drive a new product or service. The Lean Startup covers this process in great detail.
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Ducati is cheating. Because they don’t have to make motorcycles for the entire market, they can specialize in high profit, amazing bikes, which sell out every year.
Mark Zuckerberg arguably cheated the twin brothers by taking their idea to market; you may have heard of it: it’s now called Facebook.
Ray Kroc later bought the McDonald’s name so that the original McDonalds brothers would go completely out of business for their own fast-food restaurant.
Obviously, these two examples are on the extreme end, but it exemplifies just how indifferent business can be. It’s survival of the fittest. Those who innovate, capitalize on strengths, and possess an unfair advantage win.
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None of these companies are using the old-fashioned advertising-based techniques to win. To their entrenched (but nervous) competitors, these companies appear to be cheating because they’re not playing by the rules. Why aren’t you cheating?
Rules cage aspiring competitors. They stifle their potential. Yet, breaking out of the cage always seems too risky. It’s a choice: take the risk, break out, and be remarkable or remain forever mediocre.
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When faced with a market in which no one is listening, the smartest plan is usually to leave. Plan B is to have the insight and guts to go after a series of Purple Cows, to launch a product/service/promotional offering that somehow gets (the right) people to listen.
Hmmm…
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What this bank might realize is that by focusing on these innovative customers, the bank may be able to bring in even more highly profitable risk-seeking customers, leaving the slow and declining sector to seek other (less profitable) banks.
This is smart. Selectively choose who to target as your customers and clients, and strip the rest. This is another example of the 80/20 principle at play: only focus on those that can bring maximum results to your business.
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There may be a lot of consumers out there, but they’re busy consumers, and it’s just easier to go with the winner. (Of course, this is true only until the “winner” stops being interesting — and then, whether it’s cars, beer, or magazines, a new leader emerges.)
Of course, it’s easy to opt for 10xing your competitors, as preached by executives like Peter Thiel. In practice, this is difficult. However, by ensuring your product is just 1% better than your nearest competitor creates a ripple effect, in which customers will, one by one, switch over to your product or service (unless, the process of switching over is too difficult. Then, they’ll remain stagnant).
Richard Koch provides a good example of this: the incrementally larger fish will end up much bigger than the rest of the fish in the pond since it has an unfair advantage in speed and size. Perhaps that 1% advantage may lead to 10x results.
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The Cow is so rare because people are afraid. If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise — ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
Interestingly, the more remarkable a product or service is, the more polarizing it becomes. There will be strong proponents of both sides. This produces a domino effect, where more attention will be projected toward the product or service simply due to relevance. Free marketing!
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Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in first grade. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in. The safe thing to do was to color inside the lines, don’t ask too many questions in class, and whatever you do, be sure your homework assignment fits on the supplied piece of card stock. We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades), and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus. Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people (like your boss?), and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.
When I first read this, I couldn’t help but think about this video that delineates the issues of the modern education system. Both sides have merit, but it’s important to remain open to new perspectives.
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In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.
Hence purple cow.
To extenuate Seth’s point, standing out doesn’t just involve being uncommon. Albino cows are uncommon. They wouldn’t warrant nearly as much attraction though, as a purple one. Why? Because a purple cow is creative. It’s unfathomable. It’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Our attention is only drawn to the most extremes. For example, sure there are other multi-billionaires. But when queried about the richest people today, we instantly think of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos. The extremes.
This same principle must be applied to business to remain remarkable.
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Jon Spoelstra, in Marketing Outrageously, points out the catch-22 of the Purple Cow. If times are tough, your peers and your boss may very well say that you can’t afford to be remarkable. After all, we have to conserve, to play it safe; we don’t have the money to make a mistake. In good times, however, those same people will tell you to relax, take it easy; we can afford to be conservative, to play it safe.
Since just about everyone else is petrified of the Cow, you can be remarkable with even less effort. If successful new products are the ones that stand out, and most people desire not to stand out, you’re set!
Additionally, this mentality is existent even in prosperous periods. Authorities will say that now’s the time to save up, for who knows what catastrophic event will happen in the future. Playing it safe is perpetual. It’s not contingent on the economy’s performance. It’s a problem with mindset, an internal construct, rather than an external one.
Major corporations store enormous reserves of capital for the next big thing. They’re hoping for the next Internet, when we might potentially be staring at it. Augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence… any of these may be prominent within the next few years and decades.
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We’ve been raised with a false belief: We mistakenly believe that criticism leads to failure. From the time we get to school, we’re taught that being noticed is almost always bad. It gets us sent to the principal’s office, not to Harvard.
Failing is good. The name’s attached to such a negative connotation that people do not even consider a failure a thing: some prefer the mantra, “I don’t fail. I win or I learn” instead.
Regardless of belief, there is always a way back to the top. Being noticed by the principal may allow you to strike a connection, and if behavior improves dramatically, may warrant a letter of recommendation that may precede an acceptance to Harvard.
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So how are you going to predict which ideas are going to backfire and which are guaranteed to be worth the hard work they take to launch? The short answer: You can’t.
As with everything, some luck is always involved.
What is in our control though is elevating our chances through minimizing risk. Moreover, the more you try, the luckier you get.
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The problem with people who would avoid a remarkable career is that they never end up as the leader. They decide to work for a big company, intentionally functioning as an anonymous drone, staying way back to avoid risk and criticism. If they make a mistake and choose the wrong bird to follow, they lose. When a big company lays off ten thousand people, most of those people probably don’t deserve to get fired. They were doing what they were told, staying within the boundaries, and following instructions. Alas, they picked the wrong lead bird.
You can’t keep the world the way it is, even if you buy the influence of Congress. The lesson of the Cow is worth repeating: Safe is risky.
Rather do something you love and fail than do something you don’t love and fail. A monotonous nine-to-five job may seem secure, but extraneous factors outside of your control– an accidental incident, shareholder consensus, boss’ irritable mood, bankruptcy, negative media attention– may derail that security at any time.
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What tactics does your firm use that involve following the leader? What if you abandoned them and did something very different instead? If you acknowledge that you’ll never catch up by being the same, make a list of ways you can catch up by being different.
Let’s examine the macroscopic impact of this.
Long-intact major corporations of specific disciplines may be disrupted by a myriad startups. Instead of a few leaders with a lot of followers, the converse may occur. Yet, some individuals may recognize that a company’s vision aligns with their own mission and values and choose to propagate that organization to become a new power player. And the cycle continues, except this time, better services and products are always produced.
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Herman Miller got it right, though. Sitting in the Aeron chair sent a message about what you did and who you were, and buying the chairs for your company sent a message as well. Soon after the Aeron came out, Seth Goldstein — founder of SiteSpecific (the first online direct-marketing ad agency) — took his very first venture-capital check and went straight out to buy more than a dozen Aeron chairs. That got him on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
Be unique, even if it requires sufficient capital, for it very well might pay off.
Interestingly, others’ perception of you can have a dramatic impact on your success and reputation. Neil Patel, Forbes 30 under 30 marketer, did a series of experiments, where he lavished on material belongings, including clothing, cars, watches, and even his homes. The result? A significant return on investment plus a luxury lifestyle.
Additionally, it was a remarkable experiment too, for it was unique and no one has thought about chronicling their experience like this before. This provided him with further attention. Neil Patel not only dressed like a purple cow, but catalogued his experiment like a purple cow too.
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Instead, it’s about putting the marketing investment into the product instead of into the media.
A prime example of this would be Tesla. It’s popularity was spread solely through word-of-mouth because it was such a radical product. When this happens, competitors attempt to derail Tesla in their own advertisements, which gives them further exposure and free marketing.
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“The best design solves problems, but if you can weld that to the cool factor, then you have a home run,” says Mark Schurman of Herman Miller.
Great quote.
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Mass marketing demands mass products. And mass products beg for mass marketing.
Note the dichotomy that Seth paints. Although I’m unsure if it is deliberate, but Seth insinuates that mass marketing requires mass products. This means that marketing efforts are futile without a great product. However, he also claims that mass products beg for mass marketing. Mass products are just begging to be released and recognized to the world; yet, this is not always the best approach. If done well, a home run can be hit, such as the case with Dollar Shave Club. But if the product is good enough, although it begs for mass marketing, it isn’t necessary. It isn’t a demand.
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What’s the point of advertising to everyone a product that doesn’t appeal to everyone? By following this misguided logic, marketers ensure that their products have the minimum possible chance of success.
This is a reason why social media marketing has become so reliable and effective over the past few years. Whereas billboard signs, television commercials, and newspaper ads may reach more people, they aren’t targeted. This equates to wasted capital and marketing efforts. Again, that 80/20 principle. What 20% of the population will provide me with 80% of the results?
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Remember, those ads reach two kinds of viewers:
- The highly coveted innovators and adopters who will be bored by this mass-marketed product and decide to ignore it.
- The early and late majority who are unlikely to listen to an ad for any new product, and are unlikely to buy it if they do.
Early majority pride themselves in the art of discovering innovation. They try out something usually because it’s a novelty and they know it’s unconventional. Whereas if someone introduces this, it instantly because less coveted.
On the other hand, the late majority won’t just convert due to an additional ad they see. Sure, the average person needs exposure 7–8 times before they buy, but late adopters need much more. They will rely on other factors, on friends’ testimonials, upon watching countless reviews, and when they feel the time is ‘right.’
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By targeting upscale Latino groceries, Zespri found under-served produce buyers who had both the time and the inclination to try something that was new and exclusive.
Seth rears an excellent point: when stuck determining what segment of the market to target for, ask if there is an underserved population you could tap into. Context.
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Starbucks was remarkable a few years ago. Now they’re boring. But that first burst of innovation and insight has allowed them to grow to thousands of stores around the world.
By extension, one can create a remarkable company at first, and then stop innovating. And the company will still be recognized across the globe. However, this does allow competition to catch up. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before Starbucks becomes overtaken by an underdog.
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Once you’ve managed to create something truly remarkable, the challenge is to do two things simultaneously:
- Milk the Cow for everything it’s worth. Figure out how to extend it and profit from it for as long as possible.
- Create an environment where you are likely to invent a new Purple Cow in time to replace the first one when its benefits inevitably trail off.
I’m reminded of a philosophy a group of Deloitte consultants published in their book, The Three Rules: the run-just-to-stand-still effect.
How do you do better than your competition? You follow correct advice. But paradoxically, if the advice is right, it will be universally adopted. Consequently, it will then not improve your overall performance, which positions that original advice as wrong.
No matter how high you soar, gravity will drag you down. Takeoff is optional, landing is mandatory. Competitors will improve, leaving you with no advantage at all. But you can still fly higher and farther than others.
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Factories set quality requirements and try to meet them. That’s boring. Very good is an everyday occurrence and hardly worth mentioning.
People are obsessed with talking to others about the process, yet they are concerned themselves about the result. In a manufacturing plant, a contractor might advertise all the systems and implementations they have in place to meet requirements, when in actuality, all the client cares for is the end result.
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All too often, these marketing efforts are the result of a compromise. Either a budget compromise (“We don’t have enough money to launch a new product; let’s launch a new slogan”) or a product compromise (“That will offend our existing customer base; let’s do something less radical”). Almost without exception, these compromises are worse than doing nothing.
The term “all or nothing” is especially applicable to marketing too.
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- Get permission from people you impressed the first time. Not permission to spam them or sell them leftovers or squeeze extra margins from them. Permission to alert them the next time you might have another Cow.
- Work with the sneezers in that audience to make it easier for them to help your idea cross the chasm. Give them the tools (and the story) they’ll need to sell your idea to a wider audience.
- Once you’ve crossed the line from remarkable to profitable business, let a different team milk it. Productize your services, servicize your products, let a thousand variations bloom. But don’t believe your own press releases. This is the inevitable downward slide to commodity. Milk it for all it’s worth, and fast.
- Reinvest. Do it again. With a vengeance. Launch another Purple Cow (to the same audience). Fail and fail and fail again. Assume that what was remarkable last time won’t be remarkable this time.
How to guide in becoming a red panther.
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Because it’s too popular. And it’s boring. The new Stew (Stew Jr.) used the Purple Cow to spread the word and to grow. And it worked. But now that he has already spread the word, it’s more profitable to milk the Cow. Stew exchanged me (someone with a food and service otaku and a big-time sneezer) for ten ordinary grocery consumers.
One point I disagree with Seth.
Sure, ultimately, some trade-offs need to occur. Businesses could trade the time and attention they spent in curating a devoted following for a larger market.
However, this shouldn’t be the case for all businesses. For example, in the consulting realm, it is always necessary to retain clients, since the cost of acquiring a new one is often high. Moreover, they could introduce new clients.
A balance must be struck.
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The Bloomberg, on the other hand, is very expensive (more than a $1,000 a month) and very tricky to use. And that’s why traders and other investors insist on it. They’ve gone through the pain of learning how to use it, and they’re not prepared to give up that expertise.
Going back to Seth’s point on cheating. Some products are valuable, but the value comes from the knowledge of knowing how to operate a complicated interface. Think Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Word. None are cheap software, but they’ve been mass adopted, and converting to open source software is oftentimes an experience we are unwilling to undergo.
Thus, they are able to charge an unfair premium.
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He could stay anywhere he wants to. As best as I can tell, he stays there because the entire staff at the café knows how to bring him his iced tea. In a tall thin glass, with ice, with a little carafe of hyper-sweet sugar water on the side. He doesn’t ask for it; they just bring it. Every person who meets with Ted at the hotel notices it. I think it makes Ted happy that his friends notice it. Having something personalized can make one feel special.
Another example of cheating.
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L.L. Bean can sell mail-order clothes to people who don’t trust mail order. It’s the guarantee that makes it work. Take a pair of pants, light them on fire, send in the ashes, and L.L. Bean will refund your money. Stories like that make it easy for a sneezer to spread the word.
Remarkable.
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Why go kiteboarding? I mean, you can ski or snowboard or windsurf or water-ski. Yet kiteboarding is one of the fastest-growing sports today. Strap a surfboard to your feet, hold onto a huge kite, and start racing across the water at thirty miles an hour. Unless, of course, you get dragged along the beach. So dangerous, it’s worth talking about. So dangerous that those who seek out new and dangerous sports are drawn to it.
Remarkable.
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Ask, “Why not?” Almost everything you don’t do has no good reason for it. Almost everything you don’t do is the result of fear or inertia or a historical lack of someone asking, “Why not?”
Go one more. Or two more. Identify a competitor who’s generally regarded as at the edges, and outdo them. Whatever they’re known for, do that thing even more. Even better, and even safer, do the opposite of what they’re doing.
These two paragraphs encapsulate the core essence of Seth’s book.
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’Twas a long journey, but we’re finally at the end!
If this provided any value for you, please share with a friend! Also let me know if there’s any particular book you want me to cover, and I’ll try to do that!
