Purple Cow, by Seth Godin - Animated Book Summary

do you ever wonder why some products spread like wildfire while others quietly die why do people talk about one business and ignore another well stay right there don't move because we're about to discuss the why the what and the how of being remarkable in this summary of purple cow by seth godin let's jump into the lessons from this book lesson one what is a purple cow if you're a marketer you know all about the five ps of marketing they're usually a combination of the following product pricing promotion positioning publicity or packaging now however seth godin

has identified another p one that matters exponentially more than the other p's above the new p is purple cow picture this you're driving along a country road the air is crisp and clean and the sun is shining you look over and you see a brown cow on the side of the road eating grass you haven't seen many cows before so this cow is really interesting however after four hours of driving the same brown cows are no longer interesting to you you've seen too many of them and you've become habituated to the sight of brown cows

well that's marketing and advertising in today's world we are constantly bombarded with advertisements there are too many brown cows to notice any one particular brown cow now think about this what if you're driving on that same country road and you look over to see a purple cow munching on some grass now that would get your attention because that would be remarkable the sight of a purple cow would likely be enough to get you to stop your car get out and take a picture a purple cow would be worth talking about in fact it would be

difficult not to talk about a purple cow so think about this what if your product or service was a purple cow what if people had to talk about your business that's what this book is all about let's move on to lesson two the world has changed there are more choices available to the average consumer than ever before and somewhat ironically the same consumers have less time to sort through these choices than they ever have the old method of marketing was simple because there weren't so many things to choose from you create an average ordinary safe

product you buy tv and newspaper ads you get more distribution you sell more products you make more money you buy more ads with the profit and you repeat the process this strategy was based on selling average products to average people it was based on marketing to the masses and it worked for years however those days are gone because the market is saturated with ordinary products all the average products have been made marketed and sold the old method is broken the new method of marketing is totally different and much less simple it requires companies to take

risks to create remarkable and interesting products and then to cleverly market those remarkable products to a very specific and targeted group of people the new goal of marketing is to get noticed to catch someone's attention to be a bright purple cow in a field full of brown cows the days of average are over ideas that spread when and thus we have to make things that are more interesting not more average the alternative to the old method of marketing the only real way forward is to make something worth talking about something that's the crux of purple

cow marketing seth godin says it like this my goal in purple cow is to make it clear that it's safer to be risky to fortify your desire to do truly amazing things once you see that the old ways have nowhere to go but down it becomes even more imperative to create things worth talking about this is a great segue to our next lesson let's move on to lesson three and talk about the idea diffusion curve in crossing the chasm jeff moore explained how new products and ideas move through a population along a curve called the

idea diffusion curve each successful new business innovation travels along this curve from left to right through the following five groups of consumers the innovators the early adopters the early and late majority and finally the laggards the key concept to understand about the idea diffusion curve is this the people on the left side of the curve the innovators and early adopters are risk takers most successful innovations are first adopted by the left side of the curve before they are adopted by the majority in other words you must sell your product service or idea to a few

risk takers before you can sell to the masses let's talk about the individual groups of consumers for a minute the innovators are a small group of people that must have the cutting edge stuff they're eager to try something new and they're driven by their desire to be the first to have use or own something they don't necessarily need a given product but they want it they're pioneers for example innovators are the people who wait in line for hours or even days to get their hands on the new iphone now let's talk about the early adopters

the early adopters are a larger group that is a bit more reasonable than the innovators they want the new products and technology for the benefits the new stuff provides they want an edge over the rest of the population and they are willing to invest in something risky to gain that edge these people buy the new iphone because it has a better camera and because it has new features that can increase their productivity next comes the majority this group doesn't necessarily want new stuff but if enough people buy the new thing they're willing to buy it

too however they want to know it's safe before they purchase and thus they need a little convincing for this reason the majority is more likely to listen to the reasonable early adopters than the renegade innovators back to the iphone example the majority will buy the iphone but only after the early adopters show them how cool it is and how easy it is to use they buy when the early adopters prove to them that it's safe to buy on to our final group the laggards the laggards are the last to buy they switch when they have

to when the stuff they have becomes obsolete or is no longer available these are the people that buy an iphone only when their grandchildren force them to or when their nokia phone from 2003 finally breaks they buy only because they have to with the old way of marketing you could simply target the largest group the majority but not anymore now there's too much noise for the majority to hear you instead you have to appeal to the early adopters once the early adopters embrace a new product they sell it to the majority however the early adopters

aren't going to do a good job of selling your product thus your product must be so attractive and interesting that it's easy for the early adopters to convince the majority to buy it you have to give the early adopters a purple cow something that the majority can easily recognize as remarkable this leads us to the next concept lesson four people only talk about remarkable stuff ideas that spread are much more likely to succeed than those that don't plain and simple seth cleverly coined these ideas that spread idea viruses an idea virus won't get started on

its own it needs a little help and that's where the sneezers come in sneezers are the special subset of the population often on the left side of the curve that talk to other people and rave about products they love if sneezers love your product service or idea they will sell it to anyone who will listen sneezers are the key to spreading an idea virus sneezers want to talk about remarkable stuff so the best way to reach sneezers is to create an idea virus a remarkable product a purple cow and release it into a niche find

the smallest definable market segment possible and target that group that way the early adopters will be more likely to notice your purple cow and try it and the sneezers will be more likely to talk about it this sets the stage for the idea virus to spread through that niche and eventually expand into adjacent market segments and eventually if you're lucky the majority seth tells us it is useless to advertise to anyone except interested sneezers with influence your ads and your products shouldn't cater to the masses your ads and products should cater to the customers you'd

choose if you could choose your customers to summarize you want sneezers they are your ideal customer to say this using seth godin lexicon sneezers spread idea viruses find the sneezers advertise to them and reward them and they will carry your idea virus to the majority let's move on to the final lesson lesson five create remarkable things if you want your idea to spread it must be remarkable purple cow marketing is about creating something remarkable before you try to sell it purple cow thinking should thus be a part of your product's design the purple cow philosophy

should permeate the earliest stages of your business endeavor to ensure that you create something worth talking about in other words the idea virus must be built into the product or service it sounds simple right so why don't all companies do this why do companies stay put even when they know they're in a sinking ship because of fear part of creating something remarkable is that you will experience criticism and failure guaranteed remarkable products polarize people when you create something that makes you or your company stand out when you're the purple cow in a field of brown

cows people are going to stop and notice some will love it and some will hate it don't take it personally some people just don't like purple remember this if you're worthy of criticism to some you're worthy of adoration and admiration to others now what about failure the key to getting past the fear of failure is to understand that remarkable products are born out of the ashes of failure remarkable products by definition are risky and some risky products are going to fail in fact most of them are if you keep creating and keep designing with remarkability

in mind eventually you'll create something people want to talk about and the idea virus will spread don't be afraid to stand out to be remarkable to be different get noticed well e-learners that's it for purple cow by seth godin if you loved this video please like it and subscribe to my channel and please tell me what book you'd like to hear about next in the comments below and i'll see you next time on mentally fit