Rating: 
Summary: Try "going to the edges" . . .
Review: It's a catch phrase the author Seth Godin uses with almost religious zeal to coax the reader away from the middle (the average, the usual, what everyone else is doing) and migrating toward the unusual, the unique, the remarkable!But this isn't just a business book about transforming companies from being average and boring as the subtitle might suggest. The permutations of the "Purple Cow" principle are endless and can even become very personal if taken to heart. The advice Godin hammers home is really a very simple but overlooked bit of wisdom for our time: don't settle for average. Businesses, individuals, communities, and families can survive and thrive on the edges. Yes, it's a little risky to leave the pack, to abandon the commonplace and the usual - regardless of the sector. No one can compete effectively by being average in a landscape saturated with mediocre players, boring products, and typical services. But at the edges, where most don't dare venture, people and products and companies can distinguish themselves and become truly remarkable by focusing on things which are new, unique, better, one-of-a-kind, etc. These are things worth talking about, worth passing along to a friend, worth returning for again and again. What better way to market a product or service than to have satisfied users buzzing about their wonderful experience with it? Godin is an evangelist, a sage, and a pied piper of word-of-mouth advertising. His writing style is . . . well, not a style at all, but a catchy and magnetic form of proselyting to any hopefuls that will listen - later to spread the good word themselves to the unenlightened who haven't yet received religion. When will you be converted? The best part of the Purple Cow experience is the many specific examples Godin shares of companies and products that he deems to be remarkable, i.e. worth talking about! Each one is a lesson for the perceptive, a "go thou and do likewise" challenge for any who dare risk venturing away from the middle. I loved the book. I have a quote hanging over my desk where I can see it everyday: "You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." That's something I believe Godin would preach, and sermonize, and lead the charge repeating as we all sailed into unknown and uncharted waters. Buy the book, internalize the message, implement the principle, become remarkable!
Rating:
Summary: You Can't Afford Not To Read This Book
Review: Okay, I admit - I've read all Seth's books. I was an early admirer of "Permission Marketing". I liked "Survival Is Not Enough". But... you could hand "Purple Cow" to someone who had never marketed a business, and if they followed the principles contained in the book I have no doubt they would succeed. I've been in the advertising and marketing business for over 20 years, and I don't usually have nice things to say about "marketing books" - because they're usually very near worthless. "Purple Cow" should be on the shelf of every person who is involved in any kind of marketing. Seth has the ability to take the very complex and make it seem so simple one is tempted to ask, "Well why didn't I think of that before? It's so obvious!" Get the book. Get several. Give them to your staff, your clients, your colleagues. They'll think you're a genius.
Rating: 
Summary: nothing earth shattering, but a quick good read
Review: My first inclination was to give Purple Cow 5 stars. However, I reserve that rating for exceptional products. Godin focuses on product differentiation in Purple Cow. He also rehashes a lot from his previous books. Purple Cow is better written and more organized than Godin's earlier works. This is a good, quick read for those new to marketing or for people who want to reinforce the importance and benefits of product differentiation. (Give this book 5+ stars for its title and cover design!)
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit of a Replay for Seth & Nothing New to the Ad Pro
Review: The essance of this book is quite simply to make your business unique, make it stand out, and start people talking about it --- recommending it to others. The idea isn't new but it's good to read it again. Simply put, Seth reminds the reader to not be boring. To not be invisible and not even to be "very good" but rather to be remarkable. He says that people don't talk about or recommend "very good" products or services; that they expect very good. But people do talk about "remarkable" products or services. That's probably true and I tend to endorse that thought. Furthermore, Seth claims that television marketing (among other types of advertising) is quite dead, thank you. He says that the old, established companies like P&G and General Mills made their names and sold their products with television advertising and that we still buy from old ads we saw thirty years ago. In other words, the Wheaties we bought because Billie Jean King was on the box still keeps us buying Wheaties today. (Whether BJK was on a box of Wheaties or not I don't know. But I can dream that a woman made the cover of the great cereal at least once in those days.) Well, there's a dab of truth in that. But just a dab. Television still sells a ton of stuff. Granted, some of the ads are very bad. Some are cute and win awards but they don't win customers for the ad agency's clients. Television and radio and Internet advertising are not dead, however. Now having said all that, I do agree with Seth when he says that to succeed today most businesses must be remarkable. But, unfortunately, that doesn't mean you can't have a bad product and still succeed. Microsoft is known for its poor products and shoddy security but it's a rich, successful company while software companies with far finer products are struggling. Ah, but a Microsoft is admittedly the exception. Seth knows how to market his books and this one is no exception. It will do well. Is this book better than the many other books on marketing? Is it unique or does it give new information? Not really. One of the books on advertising that was a hot seller a number of years ago said that a product or service didn't have to be great to be a success. It just had to be "good enough". So who is right? Do you have to be remarkable or just good enough? Well, you tell me. This book will make Seth some nice change. Maybe he'll go to France again on what he earns from it. Is it remarkable or just good enough? Well, it's good enough that it interested me sufficiently to buy it. It's good enough that I got a few ideas from it. But it's not remarkable enough that I'll give it five stars and suggest you run out and buy it. Susanna K. Hutcheson
Executive Copy Director and Owner
Powerwriting.com LLC
Rating:
Summary: Will change the way you look at marketing
Review: Seth does it again, plain and simple. The notion that "being remarkable" (simply defined as being worthy of making a remark about) needs to be BUILT IN to every new product, service, and idea will force both entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 companies to rethink slapping some slick marketing campaign on the same old same old and hoping for the best. That era is over, and Seth's book is loaded with details on exactly how, why, and what you can DO about it. Nobody in business should miss reading this book. Mine is highlighted, dog-eared, and post-it-noted thoroughly and I end up going back to it again and again for its simple (but far from simplistic) wisdom.
Rating:
Summary: You Can't Afford Not To Read This Book
Review: Okay, I admit - I've read all Seth's books. I was an early admirer of "Permission Marketing". I liked "Survival Is Not Enough". But... you could hand "Purple Cow" to someone who had never marketed a business, and if they followed the principles contained in the book I have no doubt they would succeed. I've been in the advertising and marketing business for over 20 years, and I don't usually have nice things to say about "marketing books" - because they're usually very near worthless. "Purple Cow" should be on the shelf of every person who is involved in any kind of marketing. Seth has the ability to take the very complex and make it seem so simple one is tempted to ask, "Well why didn't I think of that before? It's so obvious!" Get the book. Get several. Give them to your staff, your clients, your colleagues. They'll think you're a genius.
Rating:
Summary: Are you remarkable? Do you want to be?
Review: Seth Godin fans rejoice! The marketing guru has done it again with his new book, Purple Cow. The man who has changed the way we think and even talk about marketing with Permission Marketing and Unleasing the Ideavirus extends his reach into the business world in general with Purple Cow, theorizing that you and/or your company must be remarkable to get noticed.
This book is a quick read and well worth the afternoon it will take you. I found the case studies with real world Purple Cows excellent ways to demonstrate remarkability. After reading Purple Cow, you'll want to check out Seth's new e-book, 99 Purple Cows, with 99 more real world examples of the remarkable.
Rating:
Summary: You can apply these principles to anything
Review: I read an excerpt from this book in Fast Company and had to buy this and the accompanying "99 Cows". This is a great, eye- opening read because of its simplicity and brilliance. You can apply these principles to many things - I have been telling people about the "purple cow" principle as much as possible. If you want to be remarkable, this book has some good ideas to get you started or get you thinking about ways to apply the principles to your own situation. It's a fun read and very refreshing for a business-related publication. I highly recommend reading this and "99 cows".
Rating:
Summary: Will change the way you look at marketing
Review: Seth does it again, plain and simple. The notion that "being remarkable" (simply defined as being worthy of making a remark about) needs to be BUILT IN to every new product, service, and idea will force both entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 companies to rethink slapping some slick marketing campaign on the same old same old and hoping for the best. That era is over, and Seth's book is loaded with details on exactly how, why, and what you can DO about it. Nobody in business should miss reading this book. Mine is highlighted, dog-eared, and post-it-noted thoroughly and I end up going back to it again and again for its simple (but far from simplistic) wisdom.
Rating: 
Summary: Rip-off artist
Review: Godin brilliantly lifts his title from the famous poem by Gelett Burgess. Classic Godin, (remember "yoyodyne"?) he doesn't in fact differentiate his new work so much as borrow interest from someone else's work, to which he gives little credit, and from which he wrings credibility and goodwill that are not properly his. There's no good ethics here.
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