Mktg: Creating a Purple Cow
Transform your Business by being Remarkable
a Book Review – Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 05/13
Author: Seth Godin makes a convincing case that in this world of exploding choices of products and decreasing consumer “attention span” the only way to survive is to make the product “so remarkable” that the consumer is sold right from the first exposure/ experience.
The standard Ps of Marketing are: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Positioning, Publicity, Packaging, Pass-along, Permission. Most marketing involved doing a combination of these Ps for a given product. That model doesn’t work that well anymore
The TV-Industrial complex cycle (of today) is creating a Product, buying TV ads, getting more Distribution (to reach everyone possible), to sell more Products, and using the Profits to create more “new” Products. That cycle doesn’t work that well any more.
The only Solution to these dying method is to create a Purple Cow product.
Tips to make “remarkable” (Purple Cow) products:
– Experiment with inviting users to change their behavior (free samples, trials) and reward them with dramatically better results.
– If a current product can’t be improved to become a “remarkable” product, take the profits and invest in building something new.
– Remarkable products will succeed only if there are early Adopters who “spread the word” about your product. Find these EA’s and get your product in front of them or in their hand – to impress them.
– Advertising, PR & Promotion must be targeted to “early Adaptors” with influence.
– To target your “early Adopters” with influence, you have to differentiate your customers into the most profitable group, the most likely to Adopt group, and the rest.
– Market to & Reward the first two groups and ignore “the rest” -for now.
– The reason why there are so few Purple Cows is that companies want to play it safe. But being “safe” is boring and your Customer could lose interest in the long run.
– The opposite of Remarkable is just “very good”. You have to go from “very good” to Great to get attention. So stop making just “very good” products ASAP, if you want to really grow your company.
– Use the 80/20 Rule. “20% of your Customers, give you 80% of your Business. Take care of this top 20% by finding out what they want and giving it to them. They’ll continue to be loyal to you and will spread the word to others.
– Make a Collectible version of your product to increase the interest & demand.
– There is no single step-by-step formula for creating a Purple Cow product. But now that you know the principles, you can create your own Road to Riches.
Comments: Do you have any ideas of how to make a Product “remarkable”?