Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Rating:
Summary: Purple works...I've tried it!
Review: Seth Godin is the most astute marketer of the last 10 years. His latest book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable arrives at just the right time to save the corporate world from ruin.

Hyperbole? Not at all.

As an adjunct professor in a nearby university, I have the privilege of teaching the principles of direct marketing and advertising to the next generation of adcats and DM pros. I base a lot of my class lectures on both personal experience (I've been a direct marketing guru for nearly 15 years) and cutting edge books -- especially those from Seth Godin.

What I like most about Seth Godin (in addition to his witty, insightful style of writing) is that he walks his talk...and doesn't bother to sugar coat what's going on in the world today. He tells it like it is. Or, more accurately, how it should be.

Seth is right: This is the most challenging time in history to be part of the American workforce.

Recent news reports reveal the unemployment rate (at 6.4%) to be the highest in nine years. But the fault doesn't lie with The White House.

Companies these days are actually more interested in playing it safe than in reaching for the stars. Ditto for employees. Remarkable ones aren't getting hired any more. Ones that "fit in" are. (Remarkable ones are routinely shown the door.)

The result is an endless parade of boring products, services, and employees.

And let's not overlook Hollywood. Or the whiney music industry.

Both churn out such bland tripe that they seem bent on drowning the world in a sea of mediocrity. So they have no one to blame but themselves if sales are down.

Enter the Purple Cow.

Seth's message is simple: BE REMARKABLE.

That's it. He calls on companies to be unique and exciting. He calls on employees to be extraordinary, to think big thoughts, to stand out.

Here's a personal example. I put the principles of Seth's book to work in my own advertising agency. When I started PurpleCrayon Direct earlier this year, I aimed for a target audience roughly the same as every other agency...and got literally zero reponse.

So I stepped back, rethought my strategy, and relaunched PurpleCrayon Direct to a completely new and unique audience: Artists. We now work with painters, musicians, actors, writers, sculptors, dancers, poets -- anyone who makes his or her living (or would like to) as an Artist with a capital "A."

And it worked. Big time. The buzz has been amazing.

So I know from observing society (and talking to friends out of work and looking for jobs) that America is in trouble. Forced sameness is crippling the human spirit and destroying hope.

But I know from personal experience what the answer is: BE REMARKABLE.

Thanks to Seth Godin's latest book, I'm more excited than ever before about my professional life. I may still go down in flames with my agency. But at least I'll go down giving it my best shot, being true to myself and to my clients.

I highly recommend Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.

It worked for me. It'll work for you, too.

Rating:
Summary: It's not just for "business"
Review: The Purple Cow should not be subtitled "Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable." This undersells the messages in this book. (Was that a marketing ploy by the author?)

The premise of the Purple Cow is applicable to everyone's daily life, even if you are not a business person. The subtitle should be "Transform Yourself and Your Life by Being Remarkable."

Rating:
Summary: You're Kidding, Right?
Review: This book is probably best for someone who really does not know anything about marketing, and even that is probably stretching it a bit. For what you get, this book is way overpriced.

In a nutshell, you are to 'stand out' with your marketing efforts, like the proverbial Purple Cow in the title standing out in a herd of Guernseys. Really? I thought the point of advertising was to blend in with your competition's efforts. I really don't understand what point Godin is trying to get across --- why in the world would any marketer want their ad to stand out vis-a-vis the competition?

Here's a thought: Considering the "tired old boring run-of-the-mill" ads out there - such as the Miller Lite Catfight girls (by the way, be on the lookout for a new ad starring Pamela Anderson) or Reebok's Terry Tate Office Linebacker (a must-see classic) and finally keep an eye out for a new Bud Light ad called "Meeting Mom"- A boring, traditional ad might just stand out in this market.

So, in summary, a small book (160 pages!) with small "no duh" ideas that you should consider an insult to your intelligence. Did you not take Marketing 101? Does the term "product differentiation" not mean anything to you? If you didn't, got an "F", or lack a modicum of common sense and are somehow responsible for a Marketing effort (uh-oh!), then do your employer a favor opt for the express shipping on this mini book.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT CASE STUDIES.
Review: Purple Cow is a good but not a great book.
A purple cow? How strange and fascinating could that be? This books talks about how a product can be a Purple Cow (So Remarkable that can't be ignored).
The best thing about this book is all the case studies that Seth Godin talks about; Like all of Godin's books, this is an original book about the new practice of marketing.

Rating:
Summary: Purple Cow is not "very good"
Review: And - if you read this book, you'll find out that "very good" is really "BAD". Seth rocks - and this book is a quick, pithy, breezy march through a bunch of ideas and examples about what works and what doesn't work. About what, you ask? About "being remarkable". Why should you care? Because, if you don't care about being a Purple Cow, the best you'll ever be is good, which is bad.

Rating:
Summary: Recycled Notcom from King Spam
Review: I guess the cheap shipment option with Amazon precluded the trick packaging. I remember first reading Godin in Fast Company I believe, and then a few years later, participating in one of the Fast Company: Company of Friends groups nearby, one of the enterprising dotcommers said he had met with him.

From this person's description, he was the Dalai Lama of the internet. So, I picked up Permission Marketing and IdeaVirus in the intervening years.

Of course, permission marketing is now just called spam. Anyway, Purple Cow describes how traditional television advertising is no longer effective, and how marketing in the future needs to be conceived when the product is conceived. I guess I buy into that...but I don't think he is the first one to say it. Sergio Zyman comes to mind. He also goes into some examples of viral marketing once again, and in one chapter says Starbucks is passe since it is so large....but then in another chapter praises it for consistency across the world.

I guess you can have it both ways.

That is my quick summary of the book.

Rating:
Summary: PURPLE COWDUNG..
Review: You know, before this book we were all sitting about in our drab marketing cubicles scampering to look EXACTLY like each other, with no glimmer of novelty in our existence. But then along came Mr. Godin with a sententious little epiphany -- Hey, why not be different, cuz people will notice, you know!

You bet. And if this primeval rainbow had to be squeeze-dried and smudged into a book, perhaps the least we could have been blessed with would be ONE piece of wisdom on HOW to be different.

That's missing. As is anything else of any meaning here, barring about a dozen not-so-amoosing cow puns on the carton, or perfectly predictable notions about "setting up a dialog with your customers".

"Ideavirus" was somewhat passable in its content but this monograph belongs snugly in the milk carton whence it emerged. Actually, come to think of it, the carton is the only thing I may want to keep.

Rating:
Summary: Are you Remarkable or just Very Good?
Review: Most businesses are stiving to be very good. But Very Good is not a strategy for success. Let me relate my story....

Three months ago I joined the local club. It has everything: pools, tennis courts, aerobics...a really nice place.

I was bored in just a week. Don't get me wrong, the place was Very Good. They had nice warm towels, the staff were polite, everything was very clean...but looking back at it, I wanted Remarkable. A month later I quit the club. The staff contacted me and wanted to know What Was Wrong?!

Nothing was wrong. I wanted remarkable.

I wanted to be surprised by a quartet playing classical music in the lobby. I wanted a unannounced course on how to make margaritas. I wanted a "fire evacuation" where all the members would meet for pizza in the parking lot.

The club was sickenly Very Good!

Purple Cow is about how Remarkable is your only strategy for the future. We've just about perfected everything - cars, stereos, coffee shops - into Very Good. Now we need Remarkable.

When I began reading Purple Cow, I realized that Very Good and Remarkable are on two different spectrums. Becoming Very Good will mean that you will NEVER be Remarkable.

Get the book! Read it! Leave it where someone will find it and discover its insights.

Rating:
Summary: Where being Very Good is well...Boring
Review: Seth has done it again. In the Purple Cow, he challenges you to expand your creativity thinking, to get you to look at the same-old-same-old from a new perspective. This book is filled with case studies and examples of what does and does not work in the world of the Purple Cow, and how to stand out and get noticed, without following the traditional methods of marketing and PR.

I dare you to get even half-way through this book without having your head fairly bursting with ideas on how to improve upon and existing product or service - or creating a whole new one. The information contained in this book is a must have for anyone interested in changing the direction of their business.

Don't just be very good - Be Remarkable. Be a Purple Cow.

~Ziggy~

Rating:
Summary: Purple is good
Review: I recently received a copy of Seth Godin's new book (I hesitate to say "newest" as he is so prolific.) Purple Cow is a fun look at ways you can differentiate yourself and your organization by separating yourself from the herd and standing out in your field (so to speak.)

I wonder if Purple Cows are what Sacred Cows become if they want to avoid becoming hamburger...or, if Mr. Pine has one in his backyard? Anyway, read this book. Yes, if you like me have always found it easier to ask forgiveness than permission, or long ago decided to wear purple even if you weren't old, you might find the message familiar, but, what the heck, it's a still a good, fast read. Maybe it will help you persuade others that purple is good. I guarantee you'll get at least one idea you can use from it if you face a changing economy and marketing environment. (And, don't we all?)

At the very least, you've got to admire the marketing case that this book itself provides. Read 99 Cows, or if the Seeking Purple Cows link is still below, click on it to learn more about this fascinating exercise.

If you've rarely strayed from the familiar, please read this book. By the time you've finished this slim volume, you'll see the power in taking the risks and reaping the rewards of being remarkable!