Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Seth Godin is the most astute marketer of the last 10 years. His latest book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable arrives at just the right time to save the corporate world from ruin.Hyperbole? Not at all.As an adjunct professor in a nearby university, I have the privilege of teaching the principles of direct marketing and advertising to the next generation of adcats and DM pros. I base a lot of my class lectures on both personal experience (I've been a direct marketing guru for nearly 15 years) and cutting edge books -- especially those from Seth Godin.What I like most about Seth Godin (in addition to his witty, insightful style of writing) is that he walks his talk...and doesn't bother to sugar coat what's going on in the world today. He tells it like it is. Or, more accurately, how it should be.Seth is right: This is the most challenging time in history to be part of the American workforce.Recent news reports reveal the unemployment rate (at 6.4%) to be the highest in nine years. But the fault doesn't lie with The White House.Companies these days are actually more interested in playing it safe than in reaching for the stars. Ditto for employees. Remarkable ones aren't getting hired any more. Ones that "fit in" are. (Remarkable ones are routinely shown the door.) The result is an endless parade of boring products, services, and employees. And let's not overlook Hollywood. Or the whiney music industry.Both churn out such bland tripe that they seem bent on drowning the world in a sea of mediocrity. So they have no one to blame but themselves if sales are down.Enter the Purple Cow.Seth's message is simple: BE REMARKABLE.That's it. He calls on companies to be unique and exciting. He calls on employees to be extraordinary, to think big thoughts, to stand out.Here's a personal example. I put the principles of Seth's book to work in my own advertising agency. When I started PurpleCrayon Direct earlier this year, I aimed for a target audience roughly the same as every other agency...and got literally zero reponse.So I stepped back, rethought my strategy, and relaunched PurpleCrayon Direct to a completely new and unique audience: Artists. We now work with painters, musicians, actors, writers, sculptors, dancers, poets -- anyone who makes his or her living (or would like to) as an Artist with a capital "A."And it worked. Big time. The buzz has been amazing.So I know from observing society (and talking to friends out of work and looking for jobs) that America is in trouble. Forced sameness is crippling the human spirit and destroying hope.But I know from personal experience what the answer is: BE REMARKABLE.Thanks to Seth Godin's latest book, I'm more excited than ever before about my professional life. I may still go down in flames with my agency. But at least I'll go down giving it my best shot, being true to myself and to my clients.I highly recommend Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.It worked for me. It'll wo

Most businesses are stiving to be very good. But Very Good is not a strategy for success. Let me relate my story....Three months ago I joined the local club. It has everything: pools, tennis courts, aerobics...a really nice place.I was bored in just a week. Don't get me wrong, the place was Very Good. They had nice warm towels, the staff were polite, everything was very clean...but looking back at it, I wanted Remarkable. A month later I quit the club. The staff contacted me and wanted to know What Was Wrong?!Nothing was wrong. I wanted remarkable.I wanted to be surprised by a quartet playing classical music in the lobby. I wanted a unannounced course on how to make margaritas. I wanted a "fire evacuation" where all the members would meet for pizza in the parking lot.The club was sickenly Very Good!Purple Cow is about how Remarkable is your only strategy for the future. We've just about perfected everything - cars, stereos, coffee shops - into Very Good. Now we need Remarkable.When I began reading Purple Cow, I realized that Very Good and Remarkable are on two different spectrums. Becoming Very Good will mean that you will NEVER be Remarkable.Get the book! Read it! Leave it where someone will find it and discover its insights.

Seth has done it again. In the Purple Cow, he challenges you to expand your creativity thinking, to get you to look at the same-old-same-old from a new perspective. This book is filled with case studies and examples of what does and does not work in the world of the Purple Cow, and how to stand out and get noticed, without following the traditional methods of marketing and PR. I dare you to get even half-way through this book without having your head fairly bursting with ideas on how to improve upon and existing product or service - or creating a whole new one. The information contained in this book is a must have for anyone interested in changing the direction of their business. Don't just be very good - Be Remarkable. Be a Purple Cow.~Ziggy~

Okay, I admit - I've read all Seth's books.I was an early admirer of "Permission Marketing".I liked "Survival Is Not Enough".But... you could hand "Purple Cow" to someone who had never marketed a business, and if they followed the principles contained in the book I have no doubt they would succeed.I've been in the advertising and marketing business for over 20 years, and I don't usually have nice things to say about "marketing books" - because they're usually very near worthless."Purple Cow" should be on the shelf of every person who is involved in any kind of marketing.Seth has the ability to take the very complex and make it seem so simple one is tempted to ask, "Well why didn't I think of that before? It's so obvious!"Get the book. Get several. Give them to your staff, your clients, your colleagues. They'll think you're a genius.