⚡️ What is Purple Cow About?
Have you ever driven past a field of cows and just… ignored them? That’s the core problem Seth Godin tackles here. Most products are brown cows—functional, fine, and completely forgettable. If you want to survive the noise of the modern world, you have to be a Purple Cow. It’s not enough to be ‘very good’ because very good is boring and nobody talks about boring stuff. You have to be remarkable, literally worth making a remark about.
In this classic, More summaries by Seth Godin, the author argues that the old way of marketing—shouting at the masses through TV and magazines—is officially dead. People are too busy, too choice-overloaded, and they’ve developed a sixth sense for filtering out ads. I’ve read dozens of Marketing book summaries, but this one sticks because it shifts the focus from how you sell a product to how you design it in the first place.
🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
- Remarkability must be baked into the product itself rather than added later as a layer of advertising.
- The mass market is a graveyard for new ideas; you must target the obsessed ‘sneezers’ who will spread your concept for you.
- Playing it safe is the most dangerous move you can make because being average makes you invisible in a crowded landscape.
🎨 Impressions
I’ll be honest: when I first picked this up, I thought it was just going to be another marketing pep talk. But Godin has this way of making you feel slightly uncomfortable about your own career and business. He doesn’t just say ‘be different’; he says ‘if you’re not being criticized, you’re probably failing.’ That hit me hard. It’s a short, punchy book that feels more like a manifesto than a textbook, which is exactly why it works.
There’s a specific section on the ‘Death of the TV-Industrial Complex’ that felt prophetic when it was written and feels like common sense now. I found myself dog-earing the pages where he talks about ‘Otaku’—that obsessive interest some people have in things like hot sauce or sneakers. It made me realize that most of us are wasting time trying to convince people who don’t care, instead of delighting the people who are already obsessed.
📖 Who Should Read Purple Cow?
If you’re an entrepreneur trying to launch a new product or a designer who feels like your best ideas are being watered down by ‘committees,’ you need this book. It’s perfect for anyone who feels like their marketing budget is being flushed down the toilet with zero results. However, if you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to run Facebook ads or manage a CRM, you’ll be disappointed. This is about big-picture strategy and product philosophy, not tactical checklists.
☘️ How This Book Changed My Thinking
Before reading this, I thought marketing was something you did after the product was finished. I thought you built something ‘good’ and then hired a smart agency to make people buy it. Now, I see that the marketing *is* the product.
- I stopped trying to appeal to the ‘average’ customer and started looking for the edges where the obsessed fans live.
- I realized that being boring is a choice, and it’s usually a choice made out of fear of being laughed at.
- I started asking ‘is this remarkable?’ during the design phase, not the launch phase.
✍️ 3 Quotes That Stuck With Me
- “The opposite of remarkable is ‘very good’.” — This reminds me that being ‘good’ is just a way of blending in with everyone else who is also ‘good’.
- “Safe is risky.” — A classic Godin-ism that highlights how the world has changed; trying to avoid failure now guarantees it.
- “Don’t be afraid to be the mostest.” — It’s a call to push your product to the extreme edges of price, speed, or design.
📒 Summary + Notes
Godin builds a case for a total paradigm shift. He argues that we’ve moved through three eras: before advertising (word of mouth), during advertising (buy ads, sell products, buy more ads), and after advertising (the world we live in now). In this current era, the ‘TV-Industrial Complex’ is broken. You can’t just buy your way to success anymore because the audience is both fragmented and cynical. The only things that spread are ideas that are worth spreading—what he calls an ‘ideavirus’.
The arc of the book moves from the ‘why’ (traditional marketing is dead) to the ‘how’ (identifying the edges and finding the right people). He introduces the concept of the ‘sneezer’—the early adopter who is so excited about your product that they ‘infect’ everyone around them with the idea. By the end of the book, the message is clear: if you aren’t building a Purple Cow, you’re building something that is destined to be ignored and eventually replaced by someone who had the guts to be remarkable.
🧠 Core Ideas Explained Simply
While the book is punchy, a few of Godin’s central frameworks deserve a closer look to understand how they actually function in the real world.
The Ideavirus
Think of this as the original ‘viral marketing.’ Godin suggests that an idea spreads like a virus when it’s easy to share and worth talking about. You don’t create the spread yourself; you provide the conditions—a remarkable product—that allow your customers to do the spreading for you. If your product doesn’t have this ‘infectious’ quality, no amount of advertising will make it go viral.
Otaku and Sneezers
Why do some people wait in line for three hours for a specific brand of doughnut? That’s ‘Otaku’—a Japanese word for an obsession that’s more than a hobby but less than a cult. Your goal isn’t to market to everyone; it’s to find the people with Otaku for your category. These people are your ‘sneezers.’ They have the social capital and the desire to tell everyone else why your Purple Cow is the best thing since sliced bread.
01: Not Enough Ps
Why isn’t the old marketing mix working anymore? For decades, we relied on the 5 Ps: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Positioning, and Publicity. But something changed. You can follow all the rules, get the pricing right, and nail the positioning, and still, your product will probably sit on the shelf gathering dust. The world has too many options and not enough time. If you don’t add a new P to the list, the others simply don’t matter as much as they used to.
02: The New P
There’s a new letter in the alphabet of business success, and it’s the Purple Cow. A Purple Cow is something remarkable. Godin uses the analogy of driving through the countryside. At first, the cows are beautiful, but after twenty minutes, they’re boring. A purple cow, though—now that would get you to stop the car. Remarkable doesn’t mean ‘better.’ It means ‘worth noticing.’ If your product is just a slightly better version of what’s already out there, you’re still just a brown cow.
03: Boldfaced Words and Gutsy Assertions
It’s time to stop whispering and start shouting—but only about the right things. Godin sets the stage by telling us that the rules have changed forever. The old rule was: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing. The new rule is: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out. This requires a level of guts that most corporate committees just don’t have.
04: Before, During, and After
Think about how you bought a car twenty years ago versus how you do it today. Before the advertising age, we bought based on what our neighbors said. During the golden age of TV, we bought what the commercials told us to. Now, in the ‘after’ era, we’ve come full circle, but with a digital megaphone. We’re back to word of mouth, but it’s word of mouth on steroids. If you’re still acting like it’s 1965, you’re burning money.
05: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Sliced bread wasn’t a miracle of baking; it was a miracle of marketing. Otto Rohwedder invented sliced bread in 1912, but it was a total failure until Wonder Bread started marketing the *convenience* of it. In the past, you could take an ordinary product like bread and make it a hit through sheer advertising muscle. Today? That strategy is a relic of a bygone era. You can’t ‘Wonder Bread’ your way to the top anymore.
06: Did You Notice the Revolution?
The world changed while we were busy watching TV. We moved from a world of scarcity to a world of infinite choice. When there were only three TV channels, everyone saw the same ads. Now, there are millions of channels (literally and figuratively), and we’ve all learned how to ignore the noise. The revolution wasn’t just technical; it was psychological. We stopped listening to marketers because we had to.
07: Why You Need the Purple Cow
You’re invisible. That’s the harsh truth Godin wants us to face. Most businesses are invisible because they’re busy trying to fit in. But in a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. You need the Purple Cow because it’s the only way to get people to pay attention to you for free. If you’re not remarkable, you have to pay for attention, and attention is getting more expensive every single day.
08: The Death of the TV-Industrial Complex
The ‘Interruption Marketing’ model is officially on life support. This was the system where you bought ads to sell more product, and then used the profits to buy even more ads. It was a giant, self-sustaining loop. But the loop broke. People have TiVo (remember this was written in 2003!), the internet, and a million other ways to avoid being interrupted. When you can’t buy attention at scale, your only choice is to earn it by being interesting.
09: Before and After
How does the math change when you stop buying ads? In the ‘Before’ world, the marketing budget was spent on media. In the ‘After’ world, the marketing budget is spent on the product. Godin argues that if you have $10 million, you’re better off spending it on a product that is so cool people talk about it, rather than a mediocre product and $10 million worth of commercials.
10: Consider the Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle was a car that should have failed. It was ugly, slow, and weird. But it was a Purple Cow. It stood out so much that it became a statement. People who drove it were telling the world something about themselves. It didn’t try to be a ‘better’ Ford; it tried to be a ‘different’ car entirely. That’s the power of leaning into your weirdness.
11: What Works?
What works isn’t a formula; it’s a process. You can’t just copy a Purple Cow, because once it’s been done, it’s no longer remarkable. If you try to build another Starbucks, you’ll fail because Starbucks already exists. What works is finding the edges that haven’t been explored yet. You have to look at what the leaders are doing and then do the exact opposite, or go ten times further in one direction.
12: Why The Wall Street Journal Annoys Me So Much
Does it bother you when people complain about the very thing they need to change? Godin vents about companies that run massive, boring ad campaigns in the WSJ and then wonder why their stock price is flat. They are addicted to the old way because it feels safe. But seeing a boring full-page ad for a bank doesn’t make anyone want to switch banks. It just makes the bank feel like part of the scenery.
13: Awareness Is Not the Point
Awareness is a vanity metric. Just because people know you exist doesn’t mean they care. You can spend millions on a Super Bowl ad so ‘everyone knows who we are,’ but if they aren’t ‘sneezing’ your idea to their friends, you’ve failed. True success isn’t awareness; it’s advocacy. You want people to be so obsessed with your product that they feel compelled to tell someone else about it.
14: The Will and the Way
You don’t need a bigger budget; you need more guts. The ‘Way’ to be remarkable is often obvious—it’s the ‘Will’ that’s missing. Most companies have dozens of ideas for how to be a Purple Cow, but they kill them in meetings because they’re afraid of offending someone or taking a risk. The path to the cow is littered with the corpses of ‘safe’ ideas that were designed to please everyone.
15: Case Study: Going Up?
Imagine you’re in the elevator business. How do you become remarkable? Otis Elevators did it by changing the interface. Instead of buttons inside the car, you pick your floor in the lobby. It’s faster, it’s smarter, and it was so different that every building owner talked about it. They didn’t just make a faster motor; they changed the experience. That’s a Purple Cow in a ‘boring’ industry.
16: Case Study: What Should Tide Do?
What happens when you’re a market leader in a commodity like laundry detergent? Godin argues that Tide can’t win by just being ‘whiter.’ They should stop trying to reach the mass market and instead create a product for the person who is obsessed with their clothes. Maybe a detergent that costs $50 a bottle but makes your cashmere last forever. Go to the edge, or get ready to be ignored.
17: Getting In
The goal isn’t to get ‘in’ with the masses; it’s to get ‘in’ with the influencers. In any market, there is a small group of people who are looking for the next thing. They are the ones who read the blogs, go to the trade shows, and try the weird stuff. If you can’t win them over, you’ll never reach the middle of the curve. You have to market to the people who are actually listening.
18: Ideas That Spread, Win
Winning isn’t about having the best product; it’s about having the most ‘spreadable’ idea. Look at the spread of digital cameras. They didn’t win because the photos were better (at first, they were worse). They won because the idea of ‘free photos you can see instantly’ was an ideavirus. It spread faster than film could keep up. If your idea doesn’t have legs, it doesn’t matter how ‘good’ it is.
19: The Big Misunderstanding
People think being remarkable is the same as being ‘outrageous.’ It’s not. Being outrageous is just being annoying for the sake of attention. Being remarkable is being worth talking about because you solve a problem in a way that is unique or extreme. You can be remarkable by being the cheapest, the most expensive, the fastest, or the most ethical. You don’t have to wear a clown suit.
20: Who’s Listening
Who is actually paying attention to your ads? Almost nobody. People only listen when they have a problem they need to solve. If I don’t need a new roof, I’m not going to see your roofing ad, no matter how big it is. Marketers spend too much time trying to yell at people who don’t have a problem. Instead, find the people who are actively looking for a solution and be the remarkable answer to their prayer.
21: Cheating
Is it ‘cheating’ to have an unfair advantage? Godin says yes, and you should do it more. Companies like JetBlue ‘cheat’ because they don’t have the baggage of the old airlines. They have lower costs, better planes, and a better culture. They aren’t just competing; they’re playing a different game. If you can find a way to play by different rules, you’re not just a competitor; you’re a leader.
22: Who Cares?
If you stopped making your product tomorrow, who would miss it? If the answer is ‘nobody,’ then you aren’t a Purple Cow. You’re just a placeholder. The goal of a remarkable product is to create a group of people who would be genuinely upset if you went away. If you don’t have fans, you only have customers, and customers are fickle. Fans are loyal.
23: Not All Customers Are the Same
Why do we treat our customers like a monolithic block? Some customers are worth way more than others. Some are ‘sneezers’ who bring you ten more customers. Others are ‘deadbeats’ who take up all your customer service time and never pay full price. Godin argues you should ignore the average and focus all your energy on the sneezers. Fire the bad customers so you have more time for the great ones.
24: The Law of Large Numbers
Mass marketing used to rely on the law of large numbers—if you show an ad to 100 million people, a few will buy. But the cost of reaching those 100 million has skyrocketed while the conversion rate has plummeted. Now, the math favors the ‘law of small numbers.’ If you delight 1,000 obsessed fans, they will reach the rest for you. Small is the new big.
25: Case Study: Chip Conley
Chip Conley created a remarkable hotel chain (Joie de Vivre) by making each hotel a unique ‘magazine’ experience. One hotel felt like *Rolling Stone*, another like *New Yorker*. He didn’t try to be a generic Marriott. He created a Purple Cow in the hospitality industry by targeting very specific psychographics. When you try to please everyone, you end up with a beige room that no one remembers.
26: The Problem with the Cow
Being a Purple Cow is scary. That’s the problem. If you stand out, people might criticize you. They might laugh at you. They might tell you you’re doing it wrong. Our instinct is to hide in the middle of the herd where it’s safe. But in the modern economy, the middle of the herd is where you get slaughtered. The real risk isn’t being criticized; it’s being unnoticed.
27: Follow the Leader
Most companies follow the leader because it feels like a proven path. But the leader is only the leader because they did something remarkable first. By the time you copy them, the remarkability has worn off. You can’t lead by following. You have to find your own ‘edge’—your own direction—even if it feels like you’re going the wrong way.
28: Case Study: The Aeron Chair
Herman Miller’s Aeron chair was hideous when it first came out. It looked like an exoskeleton, not a piece of furniture. But it was so different and so comfortable that it became a status symbol for the dot-com era. They didn’t try to make it ‘prettier’ to fit in; they doubled down on the weirdness. It became a Purple Cow because it looked like nothing else in the office.
29: Projections, Profits, and the Purple Cow
How do you project the ROI of a Purple Cow? You can’t. That’s why big companies hate them. You can project the ROI of a 2% increase in ad spend, but you can’t project the ROI of a product that might change the world. Godin argues that we need to stop relying on spreadsheets to tell us what to build. If it’s predictable, it’s probably not remarkable.
30: Case Study: The Best Baker in the World
Lionel Poilâne became the most famous baker in the world by selling only one kind of bread. He didn’t offer croissants, cakes, or pastries. Just huge, sourdough loaves. He went to the edge of ‘focus.’ By doing one thing remarkably well, he became a global brand. Most bakers are too afraid to stop selling everything else. Poilâne was the Purple Cow of bread.
31: Mass Marketers Hate to Measure
Why do big brands love TV? Because it’s hard to measure exactly how much it’s failing. If you measure, you have to face the truth. Purple Cow marketers love measurement because it tells them which experiments are working. They don’t want ‘awareness’; they want action. If you can’t measure the spread of your ideavirus, you’re just guessing.
32: Case Study: Logitech
Logitech succeeded by making the ‘boring’ parts of the computer—the mouse and the keyboard—remarkable. They focused on design, feel, and specific use cases (like gaming). They realized that even a peripheral could be a Purple Cow if you cared enough about the details. They didn’t just sell hardware; they sold an experience for the hands.
33: Who Wins in the World of the Cow
The winners are the small, nimble companies that have nothing to lose. Big companies are too busy protecting their ‘brown cow’ assets to take real risks. The small guy can go to the edge because they don’t have a legacy to protect. In the world of the Cow, speed and guts beat size and budget every single time.
34: The Benefits of Being the Cow
When you’re the Cow, everything gets easier. You don’t have to beg for press—the press calls you. You don’t have to spend a fortune on ads—your customers do the marketing for you. You can charge a premium because there’s no direct competition. The benefits of remarkability are a virtuous cycle that builds its own momentum.
35: Case Study: The Italian Butcher
Dario Cecchini is a butcher in a tiny Italian village who became a world celebrity. Why? Because he treats butchery as a performance art. He recites Dante while carving meat. He turned a commodity service into a remarkable experience. People travel from all over the world to visit his shop. He’s not just a butcher; he’s a Purple Cow with a knife.
36: Wall Street and the Cow
Wall Street hates the Cow because it’s unpredictable. They want steady, 5% growth year over year. But Purple Cows often have massive, exponential growth followed by a plateau. Godin argues that we need to stop managing for the stock price and start managing for remarkability. If you build something that matters, the value will eventually show up on the balance sheet.
37: The Opposite of “Remarkable”
What is the opposite of remarkable? Most people think it’s ‘bad’ or ‘mediocre.’ It’s not. The opposite of remarkable is ‘very good.’ If something is very good, it’s just expected. You don’t tell your friends about a ‘very good’ flight or a ‘very good’ toaster. You only talk about things that are either amazingly great or spectacularly bad. ‘Very good’ is the death knell of a brand.
38: The Pearl in the Bottle
Have you ever seen those ships in a bottle? They’re remarkable because of the ‘how did they do that?’ factor. Godin uses this to illustrate that sometimes, the process itself is the Purple Cow. If you do something in a way that seems impossible or incredibly difficult, people will talk about it just to solve the mystery. The ‘how’ can be just as important as the ‘what’.
39: The Parody Paradox
If your product can’t be parodied, it’s probably not remarkable. Think about it: only things with strong, distinct personalities get mocked. If you’re so bland that no one can even make fun of you, you’ve failed. A Purple Cow has edges, and edges are where parody lives. Embrace the critics and the jokers; they’re a sign that you’ve actually made an impact.
40: Seventy-Two Pearl Jam Albums
Pearl Jam released 72 live albums in two years. Why? Not to reach the mass market, but to delight their super-fans. They realized that the ‘sneezers’ wanted every single note, and by providing it, they made their fans even more obsessed. They didn’t care about the casual listener; they cared about the Otaku. That’s how you build a fortress around your brand.
41: Case Study: Curad
Band-Aid owned the market, so Curad decided to be remarkable. They created bandages with characters and bright colors. They didn’t try to be ‘stickier’ or ‘more sterile.’ They made a bandage that kids *wanted* to wear. They took a boring medical supply and turned it into a fashion statement for toddlers. That’s a classic move to the edge of the market.
42: Sit There, Don’t Just Do Something
Sometimes the most remarkable thing you can do is… nothing. If you can’t be remarkable, don’t just throw money at advertising to stay busy. Godin suggests that if you don’t have a Purple Cow, you should save your money. Wait. Invest in research. Don’t waste your energy trying to make a brown cow move faster. It’s better to be silent than to be boring.
43: Case Study: United States Postal Service
The USPS is the ultimate brown cow. They have a monopoly and a massive budget, yet they struggle to be remarkable. Godin points out that they could be a Purple Cow if they focused on the ‘ends’—the people receiving the mail. Imagine if receiving a letter was a remarkable experience every time. Instead, they focus on the ‘middle’—the logistics. When you focus on the process instead of the punchline, you become invisible.
44: In Search of Otaku
You can’t create Otaku; you have to find it. You need to identify a group that already cares deeply about your category and then give them something to talk about. If you’re selling a new kind of camera to people who don’t care about photography, you’re dead. But if you sell it to the guys who spend their weekends in darkrooms or on photo forums, you’ve found your sneezers.
45: Case Study: How Dutch Boys Stirred Up the Paint Business
Paint cans hadn’t changed in a hundred years—they were heavy, messy, and hard to open. Dutch Boy introduced a plastic jug with a pour spout and a handle. It was so much better that it became a Purple Cow in a hardware store. They didn’t change the paint; they changed the *container*. Often, the remarkability is just an inch away from the product itself.
46: Case Study: Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme didn’t win because their doughnuts were ‘better’ (though many would argue they are). They won because of the ‘Hot Light.’ When that light went on, it was an event. It was a remarkable experience that people felt compelled to share. They gave their fans a signal—a reason to ‘sneeze’ the news to their friends. Without the light, it’s just a doughnut shop.
47: The Process and the Plan
Is there a checklist for being remarkable? Not exactly, but there is a process: 1. Find the edges. 2. Identify the sneezers. 3. Build the Cow. 4. Let it spread. 5. When it becomes a brown cow, start over. The mistake most companies make is trying to ride the first Cow forever. Remarkability has a half-life. You have to be ready to disrupt yourself before someone else does.
48: The Power of a Slogan
A great slogan isn’t just a catchy phrase; it’s a script for your sneezers. It gives them the exact words to use when they tell their friends about you. ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ or ‘Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.’ If you can’t describe your remarkability in five words or less, it’s probably too complicated to spread.
49: Case Study: The Häagen-Dazs in Bronxville
Godin shares a story about a local ice cream shop that was remarkably… nice. They gave away free samples and remembered people’s names. They were a Purple Cow because of their humanity. In a world of automated, cold service, being genuinely kind is a radical act of remarkability. It doesn’t always take a million-dollar invention; sometimes it just takes a smile.
50: Sell What People Are Buying (And Talking About!)
It’s much easier to be a Purple Cow in a category that people already care about. If you’re trying to make a remarkable ‘insurance policy,’ you’re fighting an uphill battle because nobody wants to talk about insurance at a cocktail party. But if you make a remarkable ‘sneaker,’ you’re tapping into a pre-existing conversation. Choose your battlefield wisely.
51: The Problem with Compromise
Compromise is the enemy of the Cow. Most ideas start out remarkable and then get ’rounded off’ by legal, accounting, and management. By the time the product launches, all the edges are gone and it’s just another brown cow. If you want to be remarkable, you have to be willing to be ‘too much’ for some people so that you can be ‘exactly right’ for others.
52: Case Study: Motorola and Nokia
Back in the day, Nokia won by making phones that were fashion statements. They realized a phone wasn’t just a tool; it was an accessory. Motorola focused on the technology, but Nokia focused on the ‘otaku’ of design. They went to the edge of aesthetics and owned the market for a decade. Then, they stopped being remarkable and we all know what happened next.
53: The Magic Cycle of the Cow
There’s a rhythm to this: Invest in the Cow, milk the Cow for as long as it stays remarkable, and use those profits to find the next Cow. Most companies fail because they spend all their profits trying to keep the old Cow alive with advertising. You have to be willing to let the old Cow go so you can find the new one.
54: What It Means to Be a Marketer Today
If you’re a marketer who doesn’t know how to influence product design, you’re just a delivery person. Real marketing is the act of inventing the product. It’s the act of designing the experience. If you’re just ‘promoting’ what the factory gives you, you’re playing a losing game. The modern marketer is an architect, not an announcer.
55: Marketers No Longer: Now We’re Designers
Design is the new marketing. Every touchpoint—from the packaging to the user interface—is a marketing opportunity. If the design isn’t remarkable, no amount of copy will save it. We need to stop thinking of design as ‘how it looks’ and start thinking of it as ‘how it works and what it says.’ Design is the language of the Cow.
56: What Does Howard Know?
Howard Schultz didn’t invent coffee; he invented a remarkable way to buy it. He took a 50-cent commodity and turned it into a $4 ‘third place’ experience. He understood that the coffee was just the excuse for the remarkability of the environment. If you focus on the commodity, you’re a brown cow. If you focus on the experience, you’re Starbucks.
57: Do You Have to Be Outrageous to Be Remarkable?
No, and often being outrageous is a mistake. Outrageousness is a short-term play for attention. Remarkability is a long-term play for meaning. You can be remarkable by being incredibly quiet, incredibly consistent, or incredibly helpful. Don’t confuse being ‘loud’ with being ‘worth talking about.’ One gets you looked at; the other gets you recommended.
58: Case Study: McDonald’s France
McDonald’s in France actually ran ads saying you shouldn’t eat there too often. It was a remarkable admission of their place in a healthy diet. By being honest and a bit self-deprecating, they stood out from the corporate ‘everything is perfect’ noise. It was a Purple Cow moment for a brand that is usually the definition of a brown cow.
59: But What About the Factory?
The factory wants consistency, but the market wants remarkability. This is the tension at the heart of every big business. The factory is designed to make the same thing over and over again for the lowest cost. The Cow is designed to be different. If you let the factory run the company, you’ll never be remarkable. You have to be willing to break the factory to build the brand.
60: The Problem with Cheap
Being the cheapest is a valid way to be remarkable, but it’s a dangerous game. There’s always someone willing to go one penny lower and go bankrupt faster than you. Unless you have a fundamental structural advantage (like Walmart), ‘cheap’ is a race to the bottom. It’s usually better to be the most expensive and explain why, than to be the cheapest and explain nothing.
61: Case Study: What Should Hallmark.com Do?
Hallmark.com shouldn’t try to be a ‘better’ greeting card site; they should be a remarkable way to maintain relationships. They have the data on everyone’s birthdays and anniversaries. If they went to the edge of ‘helpfulness,’ they could be a Purple Cow. Instead, they often just try to sell paper cards online. They’re stuck in the old ‘P’ of product instead of the new ‘P’ of remarkability.
62: When the Cow Looks for a Job
Are you a Purple Cow in your career? Most people have a resume that looks like everyone else’s. They try to fit in so they don’t get rejected. But if you fit in, you’re just a commodity. To get the best jobs, you have to be remarkable. You have to have a ‘track record of being worth talking about.’ Don’t be a safe hire; be the only hire that makes sense.
63: Case Study: Tracey the Publicist
Tracey became a remarkable publicist by only taking on clients she actually believed in. She became a ‘sneezer’ herself. Because she was so selective, the press knew that if Tracey was calling, it was actually worth listening to. She didn’t use a bigger list; she used a smaller, more remarkable one. Integrity can be a Purple Cow.
64: Case Study: Robyn Waters Gets It
Robyn Waters at Target understood that ‘cheap’ wasn’t enough. She brought in high-end designers to make ‘cheap’ look ‘chic.’ She turned Target into a Purple Cow by going to the edge of design in a category (big box retail) that usually ignored it. She proved that you can be a Cow even in a massive corporation if you have a clear vision.
65: Case Study: So Popular, No One Goes There Anymore
This is the paradox of remarkability: once everyone knows about it, it’s no longer remarkable. It becomes the new standard. This is why you can’t stop. You have to keep pushing the edges because the middle is always catching up. Success is the beginning of the end for a Purple Cow unless you are already working on the next one.
66: Is It About Passion?
Passion is great, but it’s not enough. You can be passionate about a brown cow and it’s still a brown cow. Remarkability is a strategy, not just a feeling. You need the passion to push through the fear of criticism, but you need the strategy to ensure you’re pushing in a direction that actually matters to the market.
67: True Facts
Godin ends with some ‘true facts’ about the current state of marketing. Fact: Most people won’t buy your product. Fact: Most people won’t even see your ad. Fact: The only people who care are the ones who are already looking. Accept these truths and you’ll stop wasting time on the ‘average’ and start focusing on the ‘exceptional’.
68: Brainstorms
He provides a list of things to try: What if you were 10x more expensive? What if you were only available via invite? What if you had no customer service at all? The goal of these questions isn’t to find the answer, but to stretch your thinking. If you don’t explore the extremes, you’ll never find the Cow.
69: Salt Is Not Boring — Eight More Ways to Bring the Cow to Work
Even salt can be remarkable (look at Maldon Sea Salt). Godin gives us eight final tips, like ‘finding the people who are bored’ or ‘doing the opposite of the leader.’ The point is that there are no boring products, only boring marketers. If you can make salt remarkable, you can make anything remarkable.
70: Additional Material & Brand Index
The book wraps up with a list of all the brands mentioned. It’s a hall of fame for the remarkable. Looking at them all together, you realize they have nothing in common except one thing: they all had the guts to stand out. They all dared to be Purple Cows in a world full of brown ones.
71: What Would Orwell Say?
Orwell might say that in a time of universal boredom, being remarkable is a revolutionary act. Godin ponders the ethics of marketing. Being a Purple Cow isn’t about tricking people; it’s about being so good they can’t ignore you. It’s about being honest enough to stand for something, even if it means standing alone.
72: More Information & Drink a Purple Cow
The final pages are a call to action. Don’t just read the book—be the Cow. Godin even offers a recipe for a ‘Purple Cow’ drink. It’s a reminder that this is supposed to be fun. Marketing isn’t a chore; it’s the creative act of making something that the world will actually care about. Go make something worth talking about.
⚖️ A Critical Perspective
Godin’s advice is incredibly liberating, but it’s missing a blueprint for the mundane reality of commodity businesses. He often ignores the fact that being remarkable is expensive and usually results in niche products that struggle to scale to a mass audience. The book also suffers from heavy survivorship bias, highlighting the one quirky success while ignoring the thousands of ‘purple’ failures that went bankrupt. Today, being different isn’t enough; you also have to navigate an algorithmic landscape that Godin couldn’t have fully predicted in 2003.
🔄 How It Compares
Compare this to Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. While Positioning is about how you fit into the customer’s mind relative to competitors, Purple Cow is about how you stand out from the entire category. Ries and Trout focus on the ‘battle for your mind’ through messaging, whereas Godin argues that the product itself must do the heavy lifting. Godin is more focused on the design and ‘spirit’ of the product than the tactical placement of the brand.
🔑 Key Takeaways
These are the core lessons for anyone trying to build a brand that lasts in the 21st century.
- The goal of marketing is to find a niche of ‘sneezers’ (influencers) who are obsessed with your category and give them a remarkable product they feel compelled to share.
- In a crowded market, ‘safe’ is actually the riskiest path you can take; criticism is a sign that you are standing out, while silence is a sign that you are failing.
- The most effective marketing isn’t a separate department; it’s the design process itself, focusing on ‘edges’ (the fastest, cheapest, most expensive, or most unique).
- Remarkability has a half-life, so you must use the profits from one Purple Cow to immediately start hunting for the next one rather than trying to sustain a boring brand with ads.
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main argument of Purple Cow?
Seth Godin argues that traditional advertising is no longer effective because consumers are too busy to pay attention. To succeed, businesses must create ‘remarkable’ products that stand out like a purple cow in a field of brown ones, making the product itself the primary marketing tool.
What does Godin mean by ‘Remarkable’?
Remarkable literally means ‘worth making a remark about.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean the product is better in a traditional sense, but rather that it is so different, extreme, or unique that people feel a psychological need to tell their friends or colleagues about it.
Is the advice in Purple Cow still relevant in 2025?
Yes, perhaps more than ever. While the specific examples (like TiVo) are dated, the core principle—that noise is increasing and attention is scarce—has only intensified. In the age of social media algorithms, being ‘shareable’ or ‘remarkable’ is the only way to gain organic reach.
What are ‘Sneezers’ and ‘Otaku’?
‘Otaku’ is a Japanese term for an obsessive interest in a specific niche. ‘Sneezers’ are the people within those niche groups who have the social influence to spread an ‘ideavirus’ (a remarkable idea) to the rest of the market through word-of-mouth advocacy.
Does being a Purple Cow mean being outrageous?
Not necessarily. While being outrageous can get attention, true remarkability comes from being ‘at the edges’ of a category—such as being the most sustainable, the most expensive, or the most user-friendly. Outrageousness is a stunt; remarkability is a baked-in product feature that provides value.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Seth Godin is giving us a choice: we can either spend our careers trying to make ‘safe’ products and hoping the world notices, or we can take the leap and build something that people actually care about. The world doesn’t need another ‘very good’ accounting firm, software app, or coffee shop. It needs something that breaks the mold. It needs a Purple Cow.
If there’s one thing you take away from this, let it be that the risk of being criticized is far lower than the risk of being ignored. So go to the edges. Find your sneezers. And for heaven’s sake, stop being so boring. You’ll find that once you stop trying to please everyone, you’ll finally start to matter to the people who were waiting for someone like you to show up. That’s the real lesson of Purple Cow.
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