The purple cow is considered a special creature and its example has not been seen in the real world. The interesting thing is that if there was a purple cow, there would no longer be a technique called the purple cow in marketing, and we would not have written an article about it. The purple cow is a symbol of distinctiveness and in this article, we want to use this distinction and explain to you how to implement the purple cow technique in your business.
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Introducing the Purple Cow book
Purple Cow’s book is about why, how, and how to stand out. The story began when Seth Godin, an American entrepreneur, proposed the idea of the purple cow in 2002. He believed that in addition to the 4Ps of the marketing mix:
- product
- price
- promotion and
- place and distribution channel (place),
Another P should be added called a purple cow. This entrepreneur published his purple cow idea in a book that attracted the attention of many people.
At the beginning of the book, Godin tells the story of his trip with his family driving in the French countryside, and watching the cows. Godin’s point is that white, black, and brown cows are just one cow after a while; But if there was a purple cow among them, it would attract the attention of many people. Few people don’t slow down and even pull over to see a purple cow.
He goes on to explain that businesses must have a purple cow to survive in the modern business world; That is, a significant idea, product, or service that differentiates them from the competition. Ordinary cows quickly disappear from the mind of the audience, and only purple cows and remarkable ideas stand out; Ideas that are passed on to people for a long time.
To have purple cows in the marketing fields
To have a purple cow on our farm, we have to raise it from the beginning and let it graze freely in our farm space. In the world of marketing, you can’t just borrow a purple cow and use it to get attention.
Also, make sure that if your product is a little cheaper or a little better quality, you don’t have any purple cows!
The purple cow is considered 100% distinction and superior, you have to market the cheapest product or be the highest quality. So when all the showcases are filled with regular cows, you put a purple cow in the showcase that can’t be found anywhere else.
Using viral marketing
Once you have your purple cow on display, let customers know about it with a small investment in viral advertising. You have a unique idea, product, or service, and with low-cost advertising to the target community, it will virally make you famous and increase your sales.
Seth Godin says:
With the internet and social media, we are inundated with a world of products and information bombardment, and the only thing that cuts through the noise is word-of-mouth (viral) marketing.
We need to create a product that people will introduce to each other using word-of-mouth marketing. In this case, we spent less money and our marketing was done in the best way. Now, if you want to make your product spread by word of mouth among people, you have to make a few people who are your target community carriers of this virus. This category is the early adopters who quickly embrace a new product and have no guard against it. If you win the heart of this group of people, you have found your virus carriers.
For which stage of marketing is the purple cow strategy effective?
We have to identify our purple cow from the beginning and this is an opportunity for marketers to participate in the process of creating a product. Businesses should be careful that to use the purple cow marketing technique, the marketer cannot be notified at the end of the story. A marketer should be with you from the beginning and identify the purple cow of your business or create an idea to have a purple cow.
The era of traditional marketing is over!
Today’s audience is different from the audience of two decades ago, and the impact of traditional advertising has greatly decreased. The result is that today’s audiences pay more attention to the quality and creativity of your advertisements, and by maintaining these things, you will have more loyal customers.
In the past, the world of competition was not as it is today, and you had your customers with a simple product of relative quality. Despite the smaller population, the variety of products and producers in the market was also less. Marketers used a simple strategy to sell their products that was appropriate for that time.
But now the story has changed, other advertisements, without distinctive features, are annoying to the audience. Audiences now make many comparisons between similar products and do not choose a brand so simply.
It is no longer possible to impose your product on the audience with the force of many tools and advertisements. The fruit of this type of strategy is temporary and short-term customers. Customers who quickly notice a poor-quality product will go to your competitor in no time.
That’s why we encourage you to have a purple cow. In this strategy, you are not going to do anything extraordinary; But if you want to remember your brand when it comes to a product and stay in the market, you need to be creative and unique.
Disadvantages of Purple Bull’s strategy in marketing
If we want to be honest, not everyone dares to own a purple cow, and this is what distinguishes the purple cow technique. The purple cow is considered an unusual creature and some people are not interested in seeing it.
For this reason, you must have the courage and confidence to do something creative and different to use this technique. On the way to your goal, it is possible that many audiences will not welcome your idea and you will hear many criticisms along the way; So prepare yourself for these purple cow technique problems.
Examples of brands with a purple cow
It’s time to hear some concrete and successful examples of the purple cow strategy to better understand this concept and maybe get inspired by these ideas in action:
Tesla and the Purple Cow technique
One of the attractive examples of the purple cow strategy has been implemented by the famous Tesla brand. Tesla products are more than a car with beautiful design and superior performance. This brand beautifully represents Godin’s purple cow.
Tesla knows that in a crowded market to fit in is to fail, and in a crowded market not to stand out is to be invisible.
Tesla’s Model S is among the electric cars evaluated on the market according to Seth Godin, a masterful example of purple cow marketing.
Purple Bull Strategy for Walmart and Amazon
Other examples include the retail company Walmart, whose purple cow is considered to be the cheapest, or Amazon, which is the easiest way to buy any product in the world, and that is its purple cow.