Purple Cow, by Seth Godin

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After reading Survival Is Not Enough, I figured I would go ahead and pick up another of his books since it was in the office library. This was another very quick read, with one good idea. To wit, Godin suggests that it is no longer good enough to have an outstanding message or advertising campaign; your company has to have a product that stands out from the rest of the marketplace, something that is really different and attracts attention – for instance, a “Purple Cow”. The downside to creating something really different is that it won’t appeal to everybody. Some people will hate it, some will love it, and that’s okay; that means it is not in what Kathy Sierra calls the Zone of Mediocrity.

The rest of Godin’s book is filled with inspiring stories of companies that took chances, catered to the extremists rather than the mass market, leveraged the gossip power of early adopters (he calls them “sneezers”), etc.

I liked the book, but there’s not a lot there. Borrow it if you can.

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