The Purple Cow and the Wild Geese: Lessons in Creating Remarkable Products. A note to readers is that this was published in 2005. I find most of the book relevant today.
You need to have a remarkable product in a remarkable market.
Today’s potential consumers are too busy, there is too much noise, so you need to catch their attention. The old way of inventing a product and marketing it to the masses is dead.
Moore’s Crossing the Chasm – how (tech) products move through a population.
Godin states that this curve applies to both products and services. I agree. Further, I would postulate that this has to do with the innovators having a risk-taking mindset. He says that the old market targeted the middle-fat section of the curve – dependable, consistent, and safe! In today’s market, you should focus on the influence, not the size,i.e. early adopters.
The purple cow is like a mayfly. Short-lived for our attention-less society.
To figure out what is working look at the real world and look at the things that are working and find out what those things have in common. E.g threads, chatGPT,- they are working because they do what they say they will do. They are easy to use and most of it is spread by word of mouth.
There are plenty of good remarkable ideas out there, the problem is people need to execute.
Remember the thing you are selling can be an idea or a way of doing something differently.
Don’t invest in products that are no longer remarkable. Create something new.
Back to Moore’s curve, he says that innovators are such that they want to be the first to have it, but they may not need it – very small market size. Early adopters, however, require the product and are a much larger market size than the innovators. NOTE, you sell to this group only! As they will sell to the next group. Therefore, you need to make this product easy to use (think Threads and chatGPT). The early and late majority are followers, and buy it because they don’t want to be left out: this group doesn’t listen to anyone, except the early adopters. They like safety, security and keeping their comfortable shoes on. Finally, the laggards come in adapters). They don’t start to use a product until it is obsolete.
Please do not make a product for everyone, as they are already taken. You must target a niche. If successful it diffuses and migrates to the masses. Godin suggests putting your new ideas through this mini-analysis:
1. How easy is it to spread the idea?
2. How often will people spread this idea?
3. How tightly knit is the group you are targeting?
4. Do they trust each other?
5. How reputable are the people likely to spread your idea?
6. How persistent is your idea? E.g. mayfly or tortoise
Who is your target group? Find the most profitable. Who is most likely to spread the idea?
How niche can you make your product? International school teachers who are entrepreneurial and love taking risks.
Remember that you absolutely must stand out from the crowd. For good or bad. Fitting in equals failing. Boring = failure.
Godin has a great metaphor for following the leader. He talks of a flock of geese, and the reason why the geese follow the lead goose is because it breaks the wind resistance, and it is safer there. He infers that this leader sets the path, and the followers follow, despite the path being wrong at times. Godin goes on to say that this method is risk-averse, and stuck in the old ways of doing things. There is a paradoxical juxtaposition against Mary Oliver’s wild geese. In her poem, and from my perspective, the geese are to be seen as risk-taking. Whatever the case, I do like Goldin’s goose!
You cannot reach everyone all at once.
Measure every metric of your product, looking at what works and what doesn’t. Then analyze why.
Once you create the cow, milk it for everything it’s got and try to create an environment for the next one.
Make a collectable version of your product.
Find a market that has a passionate subculture, then make your product remarkable – not the other way around.
Godin talks again about the edge cases and tests ( the p’s) to see where you are most likely to succeed. What are the edge cases in education? You need to be irresistible to that tiny group.
Slogans act like scripts for the ‘sneezers’ to promote your product.
Sell something that people are already buying. What problems are you solving for your customer?
If you are a marketer, then you need to know how to design.
You should be passionate about your remarkable product.
You don’t need to be outrageous to be remarkable.
Come up with 10 ways to change your product, so that it becomes appealing to your target market.
So go ahead and milk your purple cow for all it’s worth, but don’t forget to keep an eye out for the next wild goose that’s ready to break through the noise and capture the attention of your target market!