Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable.

• Author: DeBaugh, Mark
• Position: Marketing edge - Book Review

There's a new "P" in marketing, and the highly acclaimed marketing guru, Seth Godin is milking it for all it's worth in his new book, "Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable." What's a purple cow? According to Godin, it's something remarkable, worth talking about, new and interesting.

Godin further defines the purple cow or remarkable marketing theory as "the act of building things worth noticing right into your product or service.... If what you're offering isn't remarkable, it's invisible." In his book, points out that busy consumers are ignoring the messages in mass marketing. He points to an example of how people who read The Wall Street Journal did not remember the company that sponsored the advertisement identified.

Most companies will try to recreate a purple cow to match the competition that's dominating the market. According to Godin, it's hard to "follow the leader" when the leader first created the purple cow that got everyone's attention. When you do it, it's boring because it has been done before, according to Godin.

To get closer to "having a cow" you must choose your customers. Godin writes that you must find the group that's most profitable (sneezers), the group that's most likely to sneeze or spread your product. You must figure out how to reach these potential customers and rater to them through advertising, rewards, etc.

How do you know if your marketing is working? Measurement is key to a company's success, according to Godin. Companies that constantly measure their effectiveness are able to modify their product and advertising to better reach the sneezers that will readily adopt their product

Creating purple cows can be costly and exhausting. Godin reassures his readers that they don't have to...