Guru Gilbert

I read Purple Cow on Monday and it’s a very thought provoking book, written by the marketing genius, Seth Godin. This is a must read for anyone looking to create a very visible and remarkable product.

Godin makes the argument that being safe, boring and ordinary is risky. Why? Because you will just be invisible! Entrepreneurs spend tons of money investing in their business, and when it comes time to open their doors, the last thing most entrepreneurs want to do is take another risk by sticking out like a sore thumb. But the only way to make it is to stand out from your competition. Do exactly the opposite of what your competition is doing.

Godin also discusses how we are in a new era of marketing and advertising. No longer does mass media work. Not so long ago, companies would be able to advertise on television and in magazines, that catered to a large general audience and build incredible brand recognition and retention, in what he calls the TV-industrial complex. That is no longer possible. The companies targeted consumers. Today, of course, the opposite is true. The consumers are the ones who choose.

The available choices for any given product has exponentially increased while our free time has been significantly reduced. We are bombarded with over 3000 marketing messages on a daily basis.

People are constantly distracted so companies should no longer just spend millions on advertising in mass media and hope we’ll recall their brand. Or they can, and they are, but they aren’t nearly as successful as they used to be.

To add fuel to the fire, just look at the amount of choices available in today’s market. It’s overwhelming. We are also in the post-consumption era. Meaning that the consumer is out of things to buy. We have what we need, we want very little and we’re too busy to spend a lot of time researching what you’ve worked hard to create for us.

Marketing has become interruption marketing.

How can Company X interrupt you from what you are doing so you pay attention to their message. And that rarely works because who likes to be interrupted?

The key is to be there when your prospects are seeking you out. That is huge. Hence, the reason why Google Adwords is a mega success.

The checklist of Ps marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed, aren’t working anymore. Some of them include:

• Product
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Positioning
• Publicity
• Packaging
• Pass-along
• Permission

There’s an exceptionally important P that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow.

Cows, after you’ve seen one or two or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.

Every day, consumers come face-to-face with a lot of boring stuff – a lot of brown cows – but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap onto your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It must be built in or it’s not there. Period.

In Purple Cow, Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

I send out a monthly newsletter to all of my Ultimate Discount Card clients. I do it for many reasons but reason #1 is because I truly care about the success of my clients. I love helping them grow their business. If I can educate, inspire and offer some great practical ideas and knowledge then I have served my purpose. I really strive to add a lot of value to my newsletter or else they won’t read it.

I want to share an email that one of my older mentors/friends sent me. I thought it was so important that I wound up replying to the email in the next months newsletter so all of my clients would see it. Here it is:

After last month’s newsletter, (and an overwhelming positive response) a well respected real estate entrepreneur I am friends with emailed me back with an interesting response. ‘John’ to keep anonymity, said I was educating incorrectly about marketing. John said ‘promotion’ and marketing is not the same thing. ‘Promotion’ is only 1 aspect of the marketing mix. Product is extremely important if not more important, John added. He also said that I am being totally naive.

Let me respond. First off, I am so happy that I am getting people to think. If you ever have any questions, comments or anything to say for that matter please feel free to email/call me. Marketing out of all the skills needed in business is the most intriguing to me. If you know how to market you truly hold the key to wealth. There is a saying that goes, “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a clever man to sell it”. Now, let’s talk about the marketing mix.

The “old” marketing mix consists of the 4 P’s: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. I absolutely agree with John that promotion is not the only aspect of marketing. Maybe I am being naïve in believing that all of you have done everything in your power to ensure that your product is as good as it possibly can be. Let me make something clear. If your product is not as good as it can be than all of the ‘promotion’ in the world isn’t going to help your business. I personally could never sell anything unless I believed in it 1000%.

Where I come into play is to help you with the ‘promotion’ aspect of your business. My goal is to create for you the very best marketing solution and medium to help increase your business from new and existing customers. Every business on this planet needs to focus heavily on their ‘promotion’ aspect of their business.

You need to get the word out somehow whether it is through newspaper ads, posters, contests, seminars, television ads, signs, door-to-door, radio ads, banners, trade shows, yellow pages, articles, classified ads, charity events, infomercials, online ads, billboards, take-one-box, sales letters, flyers, email, ezine ads, postcards, door hangers, media releases, special events, word-of-mouth, gift certificates, website or business cards to name a few. You get the point. However, promoting your business can only do so much if your product is not as good as it can be.

If that’s the case, then it might be wise to focus your efforts and resources on producing a better product. There’s no point in spending money trying to attract new customers through your marketing efforts if you aren’t providing a good enough product, service or experience for your customers to want to come back. Hopefully, you have done everything you possibly can to make your product as good as it can be. Word to the wise.

As a small business owner myself, there are places you can skimp and save money and there are places to put your money into. Your product is definitely not something you want to cheap out on. You can take the cheese off pizza but how many pizzas are you going to sell?