Purple Cow and Parody
October 24, 2005 | By Jack Yoest
Seth Godin's
Purple Cow
In his bestseller, Purple Cow, Seth Godin says that your marketing campaign must stand out from the herd of common "brown cows" to be noticed.
A "Purple Cow" would be eye-catching.
Today's products and services must "be different, remarkable, extraordinary, exciting...challenging" to standout. To succeed.
So how would you know if you got it right?
Seth Godin reminds us that:
For decades, mass marketing through television worked wonders and it sold billions of dollars worth of products. It even worked for the internet...for awhile.
But no longer. Seth, once the President of Direct Marketing for Yahoo, gives a number of benchmarks for success today. One that caught my attention was parody.
An advertising and marketing program might be labeled a success when it is cited as comedy or satire. If Saturday Night Live makes fun of your brand -- you've got a winner. Seth writes:
If you can show up in a parody, it means you've got something unique, something worth poking fun at.It means there's a Purple Cow at work.
By this parody definition, Your Business Blogger has become a "success." And wife Charmaine. We got hit by Tbogg.
Quite an honor. I think.
Tbogg, was the winner of the 2003 Koufax Most Humorous Award for left/liberal blogs. He gets over 7,900 visits daily. (And to his credit he unmasks his sitemeter.)
A link from Tbogg is almost as good as an insta-launch from Glenn Reynolds in the blogosphere.
The anonymous Tbogg described one of my posts as paste-eating stupid and Charmaine as a fat drunken cow. Funny.
It'd be funnier if Tbogg called her a purple fat cow.
Later, Tbogg criticises Charmaine's spelling. For comparison, Michelle Malkin is merely a crazy-a** bi*ch.
Parody, as I think Seth would correctly describe, is a bit different from being the butt of a joke.
But it sure feels the same. In any event, Seth is right: Sales and marketing and advertising these days requires being a Purple Cow, with a thick hide.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Seth's Blog has more with his new book, The Big Moo. Good reviews from readers. I will be joining fellow Seth supporters and reviewing also.
Mudville Gazette is running a test on Open Post.
More Than Fire has more on Cow and Moo.
Outside the Beltway has Traffic Jam.
The Indepundit has Liberty Call.
Comments
Just received the Big Moo and have read through it. What I find astonishing about it is that 33 people provided the material and as readers we have no way of knowing who wrote what. Some of the articles are ridiculous and some are interesting, but who's responsible for the ludricous suggestions and who's responsiblle for the nuggets of insight is a mystery. Why?
Seth Godin gets credit for a book he did not write. It's a sneaky way for him to promote himself and I regret plonking down my cash.
Posted by: Noel Guinane | November 1, 2005 3:27 PM