Seth Godin and His Purple Cows 

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not.  You’re either remarkable or invisible.  Make your choice.  That’s the opening statement on the dustcover of change agent, professional speaker and author Seth Godin’s Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.  The copy goes on to say “Cows, after you’ve seen one or two or ten, are boring.  A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. 

 In 145 fast-paced pages, Godin makes his case for the need today to “stand out in the crowd”, no matter what your business is, large or small.  I have plucked a nugget from page 67 to share with you. 

Excerpts: Page 67 of Purple Cow by Seth Godin 

. The opposite of “remarkable” is “very good.” 

. Ideas that are remarkable are much more likely to spread than ideas that aren’t. Yet so few people make remarkable stuff.  Why? I think it’s because they think that the opposite of “remarkable” is “bad” or “mediocre” or “poorly done.”Thus, if they make something very good, they confuse it with being virus-worthy. Yet this is not a discussion about quality at all. 

. If you travel on an airline and they get you there safely, you don’t tell anyone.  That’s what’s supposed to happen.  What makes it remarkable is if it’s horrible beyond belief or if the service is so unexpected (they were an hour early! They comped my ticket because I was cute! They served flaming crepe suzettes in first class!) that you need to share it. 

Questions for your agency 

Based on Godin’s comment about “very good” as the opposite of “remarkable”… 

. Is the agency just providing very good service? 

. Would it be worth spending some time to brainstorm ways to provide a remarkable service that generates positive word of mouth advertising? 

. Could you create a remarkable logo? A remarkable positioning slogan?  

(Ed. Note: “virus-worthy” ideas and products catch on quickly and spread widely like a virus epidemic. We offer a coaching service for agents who want to produce something helps them stand out from the thundering herd of me-too agents…something “remarkable”!)