August 05, 2005

Purple Cow

In addition to the fiction I've borrowed from the library, I've got some non-fiction for general self-improvement, of me or my money situation (can't hurt, eh?) Finished off Purple Cow by Seth Godin (I forget if I picked it off this list or somewhere else, but anyways...)

I guess Godin's forte is marketing and Purple Cow is a small, easy to read book. Since my general job has little to do with marketing (my "clients" are a defined set and they have not much of a choice, heh heh), it's just good to know in general, and something I should keep in mind if I ever make my own foray out into business, or whatever.

After having read through the book once, I feel like going through it again and taking more detailed notes. Godin does put some symbols to indicate "takeaway points" that the reader should note, so I'll include those here. But I guess I should just jot down stuff 1st time around for his other book that I've borrowed currently.

Anyway, here's whatta whatta:

The "Purple Cow" is essentially something remarkable. Godin talks about how TV advertising has become old hat as commercials are no longer holding viewers' interest (I guess maybe except during the Super Bowl) and instead of feeding money into advertising, it should be spent making a better product. Also, your product shouldn't be aiming for the consumer majority else it'd be lost in vanilla-land. Instead, you should target a niche, where the innovators and early adopters are actively seeking something like your product. Then your "ideavirus" will be "sneezed" by these people to the majority. Then, milk that cow quickly and use your monies to develop the next purple cow!

When going for remarkable, it just has stand out to get mouths moving: So you could have the worst service or ugliest doo-hickey, but ppl will talk about it, eh!

Here are the takeaway points:


  • Instead of trying to use your technology & expertise to make a better product for your users' standard behavior, experiment with inviting the users to change their behavior to make the product work dramatically better

  • If a product's future's unlikely to be remarkable - if you can't imagine a future in which ppl 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 & reinvest them in building something new.

  • It's not an accident that some products catch on & some don't. When an ideavirus occurs, it's often 'cuz all the viral pieces work together. How smooth & easy is it to spread your idea? How often'll ppl sneeze it to their friends? How tightly knit is the group you're targeting - do they talk much? Do they believe each other? How reputable are the ppl most likely to promote your idea? How persistent is it - is it a fad that has to spread fast before it dies, or will the idea have legs (& thus you can invest in spreading it over time)? Put all of your new product developments through this analysis, and you'll discover which ones're most likely to catch on. Those're the products & ideas worth launching.

  • Differentiate your csts. Find the group that's most profitable. Find the group that's most likely to sneeze. Figure out how to develop/advertise/reward either group. Ignore the rest. Your ads (& products!) shouldn't cater to the masses. Your ads (& products) should cater to csrs you'd choose if you could choose your csrs.

  • Make a list of competitors who're not trying to be everything to everyone. Are they outperforming you? If you could pick 1 underserved niche to target (and to dominate), what would it be? Why not launch a product to compete w/ your own - a product that does nothing but appeal to this market?

  • What tactics does your firm use that involve following the leader? What if you abandoned them & 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.

  • What would happen if you gave the marketing budget for youer next 3 products to the designers? Could you afford a world-class architect/designer/sculptor/director/author?

  • What could you measure? What would that cost? How fast could you get the results? If you can afford it, try it. "If you measure it, it will improve."

  • Are you making very good stuff? (as opposed to remarkable) How fast can you stop?

  • Buy a bottle of Dr. Bronner's. Now, working w/ your factory & your designers, Bronnify a variation of 1 of your products.

  • How could you modify your product/service so that you'd who up on the next episode of SNL or in a spoof of your industry's trade journal?

  • Do you have the e-mails of the 20% of your csr base that loves what you do? If not, start getting them. If you do, what could you make for these csrs that would be super-special?

  • Could you make a collectible version of your product?

  • What would happen if you took 1 or 2 seasons off from the new product grind & reintroduced wonderful classics instead? What sort of amazing thing could you offer in the 1st season you came back (with rested designers)?

  • Go to a sci-fi con. These're pretty odd folks. Do you appeal to an audience as wacky & wonderful as this one? How could you create one?

  • Where does your product end & marketing hype begin? Can you redefine what you sell in a ~ way to Dutch Boy?

  • Do you have a slogan or positioning statement or remarkable boast that's actually true? Is it consistent? Is it worth passing on?

  • If you're in an intangibles business, your business card's a big part of what you sell. What if everyone in your company had to carry a 2nd business card? Something that actually sold them (and you). Something remarkable.

  • If someone in your organization's charged w/ creating a new Purple Cow, leave them alone! Don't use internal reviews & usability testing to figure out if the new product's as good as what you've got now. Instead, pick the right maverick & get out of the way.

  • All of a sudden, it's obvious why you need a permission asset. Give ppl an e-mail to write to. Write back. You're on your way.

  • Go take a design course. Send your designers to a marketing course. And both of you should spend a week in the factory.

  • Make a list of all the remarkable products in your industry. Who made them? How did they happen? Model the behavior (not mimic the product) and you're more than halfway to making your own.

  • Is there someone (person/agency) in your industry who has a track record of successfully launching remarkable products? Can you hire them away, or at least learn from their behavior? Immerse yourself in fan mags, trade shows, design reviews - whatever it takes to feel what your fans feel.

  • Can you create a culture of aggressively prototyping new products & policies? When GM shows a concept car @ the NY Auto Show, there's more than ego involved. They're trying to figure out what car nuts think is remarkable. I'm not pitching focus groups here (they're a waste). I'm talking about very public releases of cheap prototypes.

  • You're prolly guilty of being too shy, not too outrageous. Try being outrageous, just for the sake of being annoying. It's good practice. Don't do it too much 'cuz it doesn't usually work. But it's a good way to learn what it feels like to be @ the edge.

  • What would happen if you told the truth?

  • Remarkabe isn't always about changing the biggest machine in your factory. It can be the way you answer the phone, launch a new brand, or price a revision to your software. Getting in the habit of doing the "unsafe" thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to learn to project - you get practice @ seeing what's working & what's not.

  • If you could build a competitor that had costs that were 30% lower than yours, could you do it? If you could, why don't you?

  • References available upon request? Nonsense. Your references are your resume. A standard resume is nothing but an opportunity for a prospective employer to turn you down. A sheaf of over-the-top references, on the other hand, begs for a meeting.

  • Visit Monster.com. Millions of resumes, all in a pile, all waiting for someone to find them. If you're in that pile, it's not a good place to be. Before you start looking for a job, consider what you could do today so you never have to worry about that.

  • The big ? is this: Do you want to grow? If you do, you need to embrace the Cow. You can maintain your brand the old way, but the only route to healthy growth is a remarkable product.

  • Explore the limits. What if you're the cheapest, fastest, slowest, hottelt, coldest, easiest, most efficient, loudest, most hated, copycat, outsider, hardest, oldest, newest, the ... most! If there's a limit, you should (must) test it.

  • Is your product more boring than salt? Unlikely. So come up w/ a list of 10 ways to change the product (not the hype) to make it appeal to a sliver of your audience.

  • Think small. 1 vestige of the TV-industrial complex is a need to think mass. If it doesn't appeal to everyone, the thinking goes, it's not worth it. No longer. Think of the smallest conceivable market, and describe a product that overwhelms it w/ its remarkability. Go from there.

  • Outsource. If the factory's giving you a hard time about jazzing up the product, go elsewhere. There are plenty of job shops that would be delighted to take on your product. After it works, the factory will prolly be happy to take the product back.

  • Build & use a permission asset. Once you've the ability to talk directly to your most loyal csrs, it gets much easier to develop & sell amazing things. W/o the filters of advertizing, wholesalers, & retailers, you can create products that're far more remarkable.

  • Copy. Not from your industry, but from any other industry. Find an industry more dull than yours, discover who's remarkable (it wont' take long) and do what they did.

  • Go 1 more. Or 2 more. Identify a competitor who's generally regarded as @ the edges, & 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.

  • Find things that're "just not done" in your industry & do them. JetBlue almost instituted a dress code for passengers. They're still playing w/ the idea of giving a free airline tkt to the best dressed person on the plane. A plastic surgeon could offer gift certificates. A book publisher could put a book on sale. Stew Leonard's took the strawberries out of the little green plastic cages & let the csrs pick their own - & sales doubled.

  • 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/inertial or a historical lack of someone asking, "Why not?"


Okay, hopefully I won't get in trouble for typing all that down, hehe. Else someone better tell me..

Posted by curse at August 5, 2005 09:06 PM

Comments