The New Marketing P. The Purple Cow by Seth Godwin Book Review

The Purple Cow

by Seth Godin

I recently got handed a interesting marketing book from a fellow student which nearly diminishes everything I was taught academically in marketing. Marketing (academically), for many years has abided by the generic rules of the ‘four P’s’.

Seth Godin in his concise book abruptly averts from the universal 4 P rule. Godin’s main point of the book is that you shouldn’t try to be a small player in a large market selling the same products or offering the same services, you should be a Purple Cow.

What is a Purple Cow?

Seth Godin describes a Purple Cow to be someone who doesn’t abide by the rules, someone who stands out from the crowd, someone who creates themselves a niche, to be successful you should be distinct.

Stand out from the crowd, be yourself and implement yourself as a niche.

One of the main messages that Godin offers is that you should not be trying to seek out customers, customers should be trying to seek out you. Do not appeal to the majority, appeal to the minority, then you have something special.

I found this book a really interesting read and I really agree with some of Godin’s points of creating a niche.

However, I must note, I do not believe I should forget everything I learnt to do with the 4 P’s of Marketing throughout University. A quiet mix of both concepts could really be beneficial to being successful.

You can read a really helpful 20 minute summary of the Purple Cow by Seth Godin through Joosr’s app here. Happy reading!