Purple Cow – Book Review

Purple cow is a book about being remarkable, standing out in a world where it is safer to fit in.

This book is remarkable in its title “Purple Cow” and its length, containing just 144 pages.
Rating: 9/10

Why Purple Cow?

While Seth Godin was travelling in France with his family, they saw cows. At first, they were enamoured, but as they rode along, the sight of cows became more boring. They may have been looking at cows with great personalities or beautiful cows. It no longer mattered. You know what would have drawn their attention? Purple cows.

The book “Purple cow” addresses companies trying to build remarkable products and individuals who want to be remarkable in their career. A remarkable product is worth your attention, will make you pause, is worth talking about.

I can’t remember where I first saw this book. But, I’ve seen it mentioned by YouTube creators, branding experts, and in one of Ronnie’s branding course.

In this book review, I share key lessons and quotes from the book.

Does advertising still work?

Seth Godin listed real-life examples of marketing strategies that worked and strategies that were ineffective.
Decades ago, advertising could guarantee a product’s sales and success. Dozens of companies built their reputation and market share on the back of advertising.
However, now, advertising is not as effective as it used to be. This is because people have less time now to choose and some are comfortable with what they already use.

More people are becoming adept at avoiding advertisements. Therefore, it is important for companies to incorporate remarkability into their products.

Also, the vast majority of people are comfortable with what already works for them. And your best bet is to sell your product to people who are looking and eager to change. The product also has to be remarkable that the early adopters will talk about it to others.

Although not mentioned in “Purple Cow”, a product that comes to mind is flaticon. If you use the flaticon free version, you have to attribute them. Attribution on your blog-post in effect serves to advertise their product. It’s a win-win.

Being safe is risky

You see, you really have one choice – to stand out or to be invisible.

“So it seems that we face two choices: to be invisible, anonymous, uncriticized, and be safe, or to take a chance at greatness, uniqueness, and the Cow.”

-Seth Godin

If it were easy to be a purple cow, more people would be. Being remarkable opens you up to criticism. But then, it also opens your product to be talked about. You need to strike a balance though and not be outrageous.

“So how are you going to predict which ideas are going to backfire and which are guaranteed to be worth the hard work they take to launch? The short answer: you can’t ….You can’t know if it is remarkable enough or too risky. That’s the point. It’s the very unpredictability of the outcome that makes it work.”

– Seth Godin

This is particularly disappointing, if you were expecting that this book will give you a definitive way on how to be remarkable.
There is none.

Seth Godin recommends that you test the boundary, explore the limits, copy from another industry, and ask “why not?”

Why won’t you take that step? Are your fears valid or are you playing safe?

You already have what it takes to be remarkable. Don’t let fear hold you back.

If you love this, you should check out my blog post on how to deal with shame or other book reviews.