Why did I choose this book?
I'm starting to see more and more that traditional marketing channels do not work so well anymore. In this book, I wanted to find out how to think about business and marketing in the 21st century.
Why Purple cow?
Try to remember when you were traveling through the countryside last time and you were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right to the road. For dozens of kilometers you gazed out the window marveling about how beautiful everything was.
Then, within twenty minutes you start ignoring the cows. The new cows are just like the old cows, and what once was amazing was now common. Worse than common. It was boring.
Cows, after you see them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they are still boring.
A Purple Cow, though. Now that would be interesting. At least for a while.
The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable.
What does remarkable mean?
Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. It’s Purple Cow.
Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow.
The problem with the purple cow
It is actually the problem with fear. If being Purple Cow is such an easy, effective way to break through the clutter why doesn't everyone do it?
Some people would like to believe that there are too few great ideas or that their product or their industry can't support a great idea. This, of course, is nonsense.
The Purple Cow is so rare because people are afraid.
If you're remarkable, it's likely that some people won't like you. That's actually part of the definition of remarkable. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
Where did we learn how to fail?
In primary school. From the beginning of the first grade you probably started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in.
The safe thing was to think inside the box and don't ask too many questions.
We run schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts.
Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. But these rules set a pattern for most people or projects that pattern is dreadfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.
Our projects have an advantage.
In Tiimiakatemia we have an advantage over the giant brands with big factories. Most of the big companies have built hierarchies and systems that make it awfully difficult to be remarkable. We have an excellent culture for creating remarkable products In Tiimiakatemia.
Our projects have nothing to lose and we should believe that we can change the rules of the game.
Conclusion
I must say that while reading the book the author had an influence on my thinking about business in 21st century. The book motivated me to bring in to the projects in Tiimiakatemia a slightly different approach.
