Purple Cow Summary (8/10)

The rules of the game have changed? What are you going to do about it?

That’s really Godin’s challenge. And I see the book as exactly that. A challenge to stretch the limits of what you can do. Go beyond conventional wisdom, even shun conventional wisdom completely, don’t be afraid to be different.

Books often have a lot of advice packed into them. Some even have never-ending checklists of what people ought to do. This isn’t that kind of book. This is a book about what not to do. Don’t try to be like your competition, don’t try to beat them at their own game, don’t try to play by their rules. Find your own game, your own market niche, your own competitive advantage and go all in. Of course, that doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Most often, when you’re doing something new, something different, odds are you’ll fail.

But here’s the key insight. The other way isn’t safer. In fact, the other way is almost proven to fail. That’s something entrepreneurs can take note of. It’s very tempting to try to build a me-too product with slight deviations thinking it’s the safe road to at least relative success. That’s the most tempting road, even. Godin is telling us to resist the temptation at all costs.

There’s a cool story Jordan Peterson tells about how Zebras are actually camouflaged animals. It’s quite counter-intuitive when you think about it since black and white stripes on an animal aren’t something that merges with the environment. It would be hard to imagine the evolutionary advantage black and white stripes would have in repelling or evading predators such as Lions. But they are in fact evolutionarily advantageous. Why? When Lions are approaching a flock of Zebras, it’s really difficult for that Lion to zero in on one particular Zebra. In fact, it’s nearly impossible, so the Lion decides to put a halt to the chase. When some scientists decided to put some red paint on the back of a zebra, it became easy prey. It stood out from the pack and became supper. It’s not surprising, then for people to want to move into the center of the pack. To want to be invisible, not take risks. It’s not irrational at all.

The Comfort Zone

So what Godin is prescribing runs completely counter to our survivalist mechanisms that we so faithfully depend on. People who stand out have a higher chance of winning, but they also have a higher chance of being eaten. It’s important to note that taking that leap isn’t for everyone. Some people might easily find it to be too overwhelming. However, in the world of business, where stepping outside of the pack means risking failure instead of death for a much more realistic chance of actually winning, it’s worth it. And I think that’s really what Godin is trying to say in this book.

• You have to design something remarkable. Designing something worth talking about from the get-go will save you a lot of pain later on.
• Your two strategies are to find the sneezers and advertise to them or build noteworthy products that the market will actively seek out. (Sneezers are customers who are the early adopters who will go around spreading the words about your brand to others out of their own volition) 
• The profitable groups aren’t always in the center, they’re often on the sides. They’re the sneezers, the customers you would choose if you could choose your customer’s. That’s who you should be aiming at.
• Early and late majority customers are happy. They’re not gonna listen to you. They might listen to their peers, but they don’t care about what you have to say.
• After you do create a purple cow. Milk the success as much as possible. Create an environment to help you create your next purple cow.
• The idea of being remarkable isn’t a notch better than very good. It’s the opposite of that. People remember things that are amazingly good or amazingly bad. Everything that can fit in the spectrum in between those two extremes is not remarkable. In other words, what’s remarkable is whatever is on the edges.

The Paradox

The same word of mouth that can make your product a success can also get people to ridicule you. Permission is when you reach your core audience, your fans, and that’s when you get to start talking at liberty.

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Only 6 percent of the brands in the top 100 used the now obsolete methods of constantly reminding them us of their brand. Basically, pure advertising spend. He’s saying that it’s highly unlikely for your strategy of pure ad spending to work. Out of those who are successful, very few have.

Create Switching Costs

An interesting idea I think Seth conveys at the end of the book is that there is a kind of hidden, underlying strategy to creating a purple cow. Often, it’s not just that it’s different, it’s that sometimes doing something that is different and even difficult can create switching costs for users and result in a very loyal following – what he calls “sneezers.” He gives Linux as a case study. If your product is so easy to use just like everyone else who is a building product that is easy to use, it’s also easy for your customers to switch to something else. No sunk costs. No switching costs. 

Solving a specific problem is better for marketing. People who want a specific problem solved will be more receptive to marketing messages especially if it directly addresses the particular concerns they might have in this situation. Don’t go to where the competition is at. Go somewhere else, preferably as far away as possible. If your competition claims to be the fastest, don’t try to be faster. Being the slowest might be the perfect antidote.

Explore the limits. Being the easiest, cheapest, most difficult, most expensive, fastest, slowest, most hated, the copycat, oldest and newest. Explore the polarities. Don’t settle for mediocrity.