Purple Cow in everyday life

I'm reading a fantastic book on marketing called "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin. It was recommended to me by Jason Leon, our new head of Digital Publishing and it has one simple message that is targeted towards marketing, but I think it applies across the board: "Be Remarkable!" Godin has become a guru in marketing circles and he has put out a number of books but he is also a prolific blogger. His site is http://www.sethgodin.com and his books are short, sweet, poignant and right on the mark. I thought I was going to learn something about marketing but, again, I feel that his message can be applied to every area of our company. If we had cubicles, I can see "Be Remarkable!" pinned up on everyone's walls - it should be a mantra for all businesses and for everyone individually as well.

In Purple Cow, the anecdote that he leads with is about his family traveling the countryside of France when they spot an absolutely gorgeous cow in a pasture near the road. Shortly, they come upon another truly beautiful cow and then another and another, until they find that the large number of cows by the side of the road begin to blend in with the countryside and don't seem as incredible as the first one they viewed. To stand out in this now vast sea of cows, one would have to be purple to catch the attention of the family. The analogy is that in this mass media world we live in, the only way to have your marketing message heard above the cacophony is to be a Purple Cow.

I tend to hold onto pieces of gold when I come across them in books or articles I read, especially when they can apply to a variety of disciplines - I tend to make them my own wallboard pin-ups and I use them in staff meetings and in conversations about our business. This has become my mantra of the week: Be remarkable! I challenge you to embrace that mantra for one week - implement that in your powerpoint presentations and your emails and your blog entries and your phone conversations. If we all entered a conversation with the intention of being remarkable, amazing results will be produced! Imagine our world if every service provider, small business owner, corporation and government worked with that mandate. Holy Cow! er, Holy Purple Cow!

-Brian