Purple Cow By Seth Godin
Short, sharp and still uncomfortable. Seth Godin argues that being very good is no longer good enough—you have to be remarkable.
Drive past a field of brown cows and you’ll stop noticing them within a minute. A purple one, though, you’d tell people about. That simple image is the whole argument of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.
Written in the early 2000s, the book takes aim at what Godin calls the TV-industrial complex: make an average product for average people, then buy enough advertising to force it into their heads. He argues that model is dying. People have too many choices and too little time, and they have learned to ignore what doesn’t interest them.
His alternative is to build the marketing into the product itself. Make something worth making a remark about, and the people who care will do the talking for you.
Pivotal takeaways
- Remarkable means worth remarking on. Not louder, not bigger. Something people genuinely want to tell a friend about.
- Safe is risky. Playing it safe feels sensible, but a product nobody notices is the riskiest thing you can launch.
- Market to the people who care. Find the small group obsessed with your category. If they love it, they’ll spread it to everyone else.
- Very good is invisible. Customers expect quality now. Being very good just gets you into the field with the brown cows.
Why it’s a must-read
At Pivotal, we believe marketing starts long before the first ad goes live. If a product, a service or a website doesn’t give people something to talk about, no amount of budget will fix it. Godin gives you the language to have that conversation honestly—with yourself as much as with anyone else.
It’s also a quick read. You can finish it in an evening, and you’ll spend the following week looking at your own offer with slightly narrowed eyes.
Some of the examples have dated, as examples always do. The principle hasn’t. If anything, a feed full of competent, forgettable content makes the purple cow more valuable than ever.
Rating: ★★★★★
A small book with a big, awkward question at its heart. Read it, then look hard at the thing you sell and ask whether anyone would bother to mention it. If the honest answer is no, you know where to start.
Your take. What’s the most remarkable thing about your product—the bit people actually mention? Share in the comments, and let’s find the purple cows.