Is Your Site A Purple Cow?

Looks like we’re talking about cows again. :)

Seth Godin is my favorite marketer. He runs a great blog.

He wrote a book called Purple Cow. This book claims the markets today are saturated with countless similar products. Seth compares these products to the cows you see while driving on a country highway. The cows may be good quality cows. They may look interesting at first, but they’ll be forgetten because they all look alike.

Seth writes that seeing a purple cow would evoke a different reaction. The purple cow would stand out. It would be remarkable, because we would make remarks about it to our friends.

Seth suggests that businesses today must be purple cows. Businesses must figure out a way to stand out from the crowd of similar products. Today’s consumer has never had more products to choose from. Many of these products are good quality, yet most of them will be ignored. Why? Because the consumer is limited with time and money.

The consumer can’t buy every quality product. The consumer can’t be aware of every quality product. There’s too many of them. Most quality products will be ignored. However, consumers will buy the purple cows, because they’re different.

How can we relate the purple cow principle to online business?

We can ask ourselves relevant questions. Thinking through questions is a way to evaluate how “purple,” or remarkable, your site is. Here are some questions to consider.

• What content are you producing that your competitors are not producing?
• What makes your site different from other sites in your niche?
• What unique value does your site bring to the internet community?
• How will you promote your site in a unique way?
• How will your site stand out from other sites in your industry?

I asked myself these questions and realized I had to think of ways to make this blog different from the rest.

I can’t just be a great online business blogger. There are too many of those around. I have to do things that those bloggers aren’t doing.

With that in mind, here is one thing that should separate me from the crowd.

I plan on doing a lot of practical case studies like this one. I’m thinking of doing case studies on article marketing, pay per click, press releases, forum marketing, ranking for certain keywords through this blog, finding friends who will trade Diggs, and other online business topics.

I don’t know if this is the best course of action. But at least I’m doing something different from the norm. This gives me a chance to create a purple cow.

Here is a great quote from Seth from his Fast Company article:

Why There Are So Few Purple Cows
If being a Purple Cow is such an effective way to break through the clutter, why doesn’t everyone do it? One reason is that people think the opposite of remarkable is “bad” or “poorly done.” They’re wrong. Not many companies sell things today that are flat-out lousy. Most sell things that are good enough. That’s why the opposite of remarkable is “very good.” Very good is an everyday occurrence, hardly worth mentioning — certainly not the basis of breakthrough success. Are you making very good stuff? How fast can you stop?

Some people would like you to believe that there are too few great ideas, that their product or their industry or their company simply can’t support a great idea. That, of course, is absolute nonsense. Another reason the Purple Cow is so rare is because people are so afraid.

If you’re remarkable, then it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise — ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.

Playing it safe. Following the rules. They seem like the best ways to avoid failure. Alas, that pattern is awfully dangerous. The current marketing “rules” will ultimately lead to failure. In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

Feel free to drop your comments. I’d like to hear your ideas about making your site a purple cow.