Purple cow

 

The world of marketing is full of ideas taken mostly from the field of psychology with the goal of persuading possible prospects to buy.  Looking deep enough one can find from the most conservative ideas to wildest ones such as using hypnotic suggestions in the sales copy as a way to drive sales. One idea or concept in particular which happens to make part of the “more conservative” group is the idea of a purple cow.

What is it?

The idea of a purple cow is probably intuitive to some or nothing but something from the past that doesn’t work anymore. The term comes from the book “The purple cow” by Seth Godin where he attempts to make the reader understand that the secret of the success of a product is not necessarily related to the sales copy, but on the product itself. In a few words a purple cow is a product that while it brings massive value to the user, it  is also an outlier  when placed next to other products in the same category or niche.

Why should I care?

well according to the book, this approach to marketing and life in general changes everything. Instead of wasting massive amounts of money trying to hypnotize your way into turning possible prospects into loyal fans through advertising, one should instead invest its time and money in creating a purple cow. Invest time and money in creating something so valuable and distinct from anything else the public has seen that making people buy it becomes less of a struggle to a no brainer. In our everyday lives this might mean something as simple as  changing from trying to look intelligent, to actually making effort to become more intelligent. The difference between trying to make something look goof, to actually make something good.

 

Conclusion: Purple Cow-The book

This was just a glimpse of what the book purple cow has to offer. For the ones who believe that as long as one has a good marketing strategy or a good sales copy one can sell anything to anyone, this book can be a little challenging to read. While the so called “mind controlling” techniques can drive sales for a short period of time, if the product is not inherently valuable, the buyers of today are less likely to become fans and the successes of today nothing but memories tomorrow. As Abraham Lincoln said:

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

 

It is all about knowledge and experience 😉

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