But this isn't just a business book about transforming companies from being average and boring as the subtitle might suggest. The permutations of the "Purple Cow" principle are endless and can even become very personal if taken to heart. The advice Godin hammers home is really a very simple but overlooked bit of wisdom for our time: don't settle for average.
Businesses, individuals, communities, and families can survive and thrive on the edges. Yes, it's a little risky to leave the pack, to abandon the commonplace and the usual - regardless of the sector. No one can compete effectively by being average in a landscape saturated with mediocre players, boring products, and typical services.
But at the edges, where most don't dare venture, people and products and companies can distinguish themselves and become truly remarkable by focusing on things which are new, unique, better, one-of-a-kind, etc. These are things worth talking about, worth passing along to a friend, worth returning for again and again. What better way to market a product or service than to have satisfied users buzzing about their wonderful experience with it?
Godin is an evangelist, a sage, and a pied piper of word-of-mouth advertising. His writing style is . . . well, not a style at all, but a catchy and magnetic form of proselyting to any hopefuls that will listen - later to spread the good word themselves to the unenlightened who haven't yet received religion. When will you be converted?
The best part of the Purple Cow experience is the many specific examples Godin shares of companies and products that he deems to be remarkable, i.e. worth talking about! Each one is a lesson for the perceptive, a "go thou and do likewise" challenge for any who dare risk venturing away from the middle.
I loved the book.
I have a quote hanging over my desk where I can see it everyday: "You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." That's something I believe Godin would preach, and sermonize, and lead the charge repeating as we all sailed into unknown and uncharted waters.
Buy the book, internalize the message, implement the principle, become remarkable!
I was an early admirer of "Permission Marketing".
I liked "Survival Is Not Enough".
But... you could hand "Purple Cow" to someone who had never marketed a business, and if they followed the principles contained in the book I have no doubt they would succeed.
I've been in the advertising and marketing business for over 20 years, and I don't usually have nice things to say about "marketing books" - because they're usually very near worthless.
"Purple Cow" should be on the shelf of every person who is involved in any kind of marketing.
Seth has the ability to take the very complex and make it seem so simple one is tempted to ask, "Well why didn't I think of that before? It's so obvious!"
Get the book. Get several. Give them to your staff, your clients, your colleagues. They'll think you're a genius.