SoKy Local Business or "SoKybiz"

Many people in the marketing community have heard the term and read the book "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin. Basically, it's a fresh and new look at the five P's of marketing. Like many trendy books, this one pushes allot of buttons for those with traditional marketing ideas. For many people, this book was their first exposure to the term "viral marketing." I know, viral marketing sounds terrible especially for us in the computer industry but basically this new term is another way of saying "referral marketing." Or in the spirit of the purple, the new term makes the tired worn out concept of referral marketing fresh, new and exciting, or in a word (from the book), "remarkable."

I think there are some jewels in this book and it offers some really fresh looks at building a small business. For the small business person, the book offers some affordable methods of marketing by breaking the paradigm that it takes a mountain of money in advertising to make a product successful. Seth takes some pointed shots at big dollar ad campaigns and I think this plays a huge role in the success of the book.

Why "Purple Cow?" Because in the marketing community there is a term used frequently, "the five P's of marketing." Seth writes:

For years, marketers have talked about the "five Ps" (actually, there are more than five, but everyone picks their favorite handful): product, pricing, promotion, positioning, publicity, packaging, pass along, permission. Sound familiar? This has become the basic marketing checklist, a quick way to make sure that you've done your job. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but it used to be that if you dotted your is and paid attention to your five Ps, then you were more likely than not to succeed.

The book introduces another P and that P is Purple. I really loved the parallel and the illustrations he used to explain purple. Seth continues:

No longer. It's time to add an exceptionally important new P to the list: Purple Cow. Weird? Let me explain.

While driving through France a few years ago, my family and I were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road. For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out the window, marveling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.

Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring. They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow -- the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows -- is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible.

Even though the book was on the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times best seller list (in the business category), I viewed this book as one embraced by the fringe or the online blogging community. It was when a really good friend of mine who owns a integrated media marketing company, came home from vacation and said she was going to read the "Purple Cow." The book had been recommended to her by another traditional minded marketing person and this caused me to rethink my assessment of the book.

I started to find reference to the Purple Cow in many blogs, many articles and from many people. Then this morning I was making my rounds on the internet and on eCommerceTimes.com an ad jump off the page and punched me. When you think of a traditional company, there are a few that come to mind. In the computer industry, the "big blue" is the ultimate traditional company in my opinion. Well my friends, perhaps IBM will become the big Purple because the ad that jumped off the page likely would not have had it not been for a slight touch of red to the "Big Blue."

I've always told small business owners that we should pay attention to what the big companies are doing. I explained that McDonalds, Dell and IBM have the resources to do demographic studies, run sample campaigns and invest in target specific advertising to effectively reach their customers. I've suggested that by observing what the big dogs are doing, we can learn and develop our own marketing strategies with this information in mind.

Now I see the big blue dog known as IBM as well as the small start up companies adopting their own Purple Cows and making this beast of burden work for them. It stands to reason that there must be something to this Purple Cow idea and that maybe my business can benefit from the ideas offered by Seth. Suddenly, I'm seeing business and marketing opportunities in new shades of the color purple.

P.S. As I read the book, I could not help but think of the sequel; "Care and Feeding of your Purple Cow." Or; "Bringing the Purple Cow to Slaughter / an exit strategy that works."

This was posted by SoKy : 7:04 AM