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Summary: Focus Guide for Agents of Change
Review: This is a remarkable book written to bring out the best in remarkable people. If you have that spark of life that makes you special then Seth Godin is speaking to you. On every page I found key points that help me focus on what I need to do to get what I want. Godin wrote this book for me even though we had not met yet.
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Summary: Hyperbole does not a business make
Review: Seth Godin is perhaps a "master" of marketing, but the books do not present cutting-edge techniques or thoughts, but merely hyperbole. I prefer down to earth approaches, especially the likes of HH Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness at Work, or even Asia's latest "Dot ZEN" by a tag team of co-authors from the Far East. Pretty unique and quirky, and refreshing!
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Summary: Brings little to the table
Review: Let me explain. This book takes one great idea, be remarkable, and then spends several thin chapters explaining via examples what it is important. That's all it is. Nothing more. The strength of this book lies in that it's a quick read. The weakness is that it has only one message. As someone starting a company, Echoscribe Inc (www.echoscribe.com) looking for the marketing edge, this books adds very little. The book is geared more towards large companies with marketing departments who market on a philosophy rather than small businesses who market on a budget. I purchased this book because it's a best seller. But, honestly, I don't know why. Move my friend and read this in the stall at your local bookstore. I give it 3 stars largely due to the respect I have for the author.
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Summary: the book captures the theme
Review: This book is a major coup. First, the cover is so outlandish and so symbolic of the work's subject matter, it's like getting hit by a two-by-four as you're making your way to the next gate at the airport. BUY ME BUY ME BUY ME!!!My rule of thumb for reading all these marketing/business "pundits" (especially if they're cut from the high tech cloth): find the one work which is their best and stick to it. Otherwise, your brain will become so taxed with monotony that purple cow hallucinations will, in fact, be induced.
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Summary: You Can't Tell A Book By Its Cover
Review: The author did not deliver what he promised offering no practical advice but rather a remediation on differentiating - an age-old marketing standby.
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Summary: Naughty Mr Godin
Review: At the beginning of this book (which I only purchased because it was a 'buy two for reduced price' deal) Seth Godin goes to great lengths to describe how, during a vacation in Europe, he was admiring a field of Holstein cows and was suddenly inspired to consider what an impact a purple cow would have in the herd of black and whites. What a pity there is a well known brand of European chocolate whose packaging has been branded with purple cows for many years. May I suggest his divine inspiration came not in the lush valleys but in a candy store, safe in the knowledge that the majority of his American readers would not make the connection? The book looks like it is the history of the chocolate company! I'm afraid after this self-congratulatory paragraph I was left with very little faith in any other 'original thought' this particular author might dazzle us with, but as I suspected, there was little realisation of any originality in the entire book. As they might say in certain parts of Europe, "Qu'elle surprise!" This book is merely a Harry Beckwith Wannabe. With purple spots.
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Summary: a good read
Review: I've read this book about three times now, always picking up on something new with each read. When applied to your buisness (I own a few websites) it can work real well. Of course, trying to instill these changes at your day job - well, thats another story. hehe.. but a good solid read. Quick. To the point.
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Summary: Nothing Particuarly New Here, and a Slightly Flawed Premise
Review: This is a not highly originally book which is apparently using a gimmicky title and cover to make itself stand out. I'm not sure why because Seth Godin has written better books and it's not like he necessarily needs to go the gimmicky "look-at-me, look-at-me" route to sell books. All Godin has done here is write a book on branding an positioning. Godin is trying very hard here to sell us on the idea that what he suggests is new and different and that the old ways of marketing do not work. Hate to tell him this, but talk to people who are genuinely out there fighting for customers in the marketplace and you find that the old ways still work quite well. P&G has managed to stay pretty successful (not that they don't have an occasional bump in the road) sticking to a tired-and-true marketing formula, as have many other companies. This book is simply about product or service differentiation that attracts attention (as a purple cow in a field of brown ones would). It's not necessarily new and different, and some of his example s may well be flawed. For example, JetBlue is a marvelous success (and I wish that would come to our part of the country), but all they did was build on the Southwest Airlines template for success. JetBlue also had the marked advantage of being one of the best financed start-ups in airline history. I think their success is more the result of good management more than anything else. And for the most part, Godin seems to use examples of companies that are now well-established in the marketplace, e.g., Starbucks, HBO and Krispy Kreme. While I think he's use of JetBlue does not necessarily support his premise, at least it is a relatively new entity. Why did he not use more examples of newer companies? Would that not have supported his "Purple Cow" premise more readily? Too much of what Godin is writing about here is reminiscent of the internet boom and busts, where so many companies were simply about an eye-catching marketing idea rather than a good business plan and business model. That is an essential flaw in the overall premise also. Just standing out is not enough to make a company profitable and successful. Corporate history is replete with companies that stood out and then quickly flamed out. A company still needs to be well managed and actually have a product or service people are interested in. Godin has written better books with better ideas. This one simply seems to be based on a gimmick with little substantive evidence behind it.
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Summary: A Brief Essay Stretched into a Short Book
Review: Purple Cow is probably the most overrated business book published in 2003. Let me save you money and time. Read the summary below rather than buying and reading this book: Marketing should begin with a differentiated product or service that gets attention (like a purple cow does among a field of brown ones). Be sure that those who care deeply about that differentiation learn about your product or service (as Krispy Kreme does by providing free donuts when it opens a new store). Those who care will e-mail and tell everyone they know (the ideavirus concept Mr. Godin has written about before). Keep adding new differentiated enhancements to your product or service (pretty soon you don't find a purple cow so interesting). Start looking for totally new business models that provide a breakthrough like your first purple cow did. Don't waste your time and money on advertising. Alternatively, it's dangerous not to do this because your product or service will be lost among all of the other brown cows (undifferentiated offerings). I congratulate Mr. Godin on his marketing skill. Turning these few old saws with a few new examples into a best seller is outstanding marketing. Otherwise, I would grade this book as a one star effort. It will only be of value to those who have never read anything about the power of business model innovation. To learn how to do successful business model innovation, you will have to look elsewhere. I was particularly disappointed that he relied on examples that are so old. Starbucks, HBO and Krispy Kreme, for instance, haven't done a business model innovation in years. Only the JetBlue example is recent. Yet the world is full of new examples he could have talked about. Actually, the book's key metaphor is flawed. While a purple cow (like the title and cover of this book) will certainly get your attention (and may get you to spend a few dollars to investigate it), is there really anyone out there who wants an actual purple cow because it provides any value other than uniqueness? The example reminds me of the old-time professional wrestler, Gorgeous George, who always wore purple and used that color in everything he owned (including his car and turkeys on his ranch near Yucaipa, California). Yes, the purple attracted your attention . . . but unless you liked his wrestling, that one glance was the end of it. I remember driving to his ranch to see a purple turkey, but never went back. Actually, the charity cows that are painted and decorated by different artists and then auctioned off in different cities would have made a better metaphor for this book. Like much of what pretends to be new and different in business books today, this book is simply dressed up on modern clothes and new terms. I suggest you read Strategy Maps, the Innovator's Solution and Corporate Creativity if you want to learn how create these changes successfully in a company. As I finished the book, I began to realize that much of what is wrong with business gurus today is that they love to tell their own ideas . . . but are seldom willing to do the hard work necessary to locate and measure how to do what they espouse. It made me realize that I should always "walk my talk to teaching people how to do what I encourage them to do."
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Summary: Purple Cow is Way Cool!
Review: Great Book!
Must read for marketing majors!
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