Ever heard about the Purple Cow? If you haven’t, you’re probably missing out on one of the best concepts ever to come out of internet marketing. No, it’s not the kind of thing you see on an LSD trip – it truly is a workable, feasible internet marketing concept that will make your business stand out like… well, a purple cow.

The color purple

The Purple Cow is also the title of the book written by Seth Godin (title: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable). Godin is an author, speaker and one of the world’s most renowned internet marketing gurus who has helped many internet entrepreneurs improve their businesses by leaps and bounds.

The Purple Cow concept, Godin argues, is about building an internet business or idea that will be more noticeable than the rest. The markets of today according to Godin, are too saturated with products that look like each other’s cousins or worse, clones. This is like walking past a group of cows standing placidly in a pasture. As you walk by, sure, you know they are cows but will you notice one bovine beauty in particular? Probably not.

Now imagine a cow with a difference. A cow with a star-shaped dark spot, for example or a cow with a green head. Better yet, a purple cow! Now wouldn’t that make an impression?

According to Godin, internet marketers must make their businesses like purple cows – unique and difficult to ignore. A purple cow internet business is better at generating more buzz with potential customers than a business that relies on just being familiar.

So how purple is your cow?

Being one of the cows is not a good choice for an internet marketing business. Being a clone, even if you’re a good clone, means you’re only good enough. In an internet market where a certain sector gets pummeled by dozens of new entries each day, it’s only a matter of time until you find yourself having to compete with younger, fresher businesses that look surprisingly like your own. Generic is simply not excellent enough.

There is comfort in the familiar but in internet marketing, it can spell the deterioration of a well-designed plan of business. The truth of the matter is that internet marketing businesses must remain competitive and it would be a mistake to be complacent at any time. With the way the market is these days, it’s quite easy to get lost in the thick of the competition.

To become a purple cow, you have to be a one-of-a-kind internet marketing business that offers the kind of reliable, quality product that people are more likely to buy over a prolonged period of time. A purple cow internet marketing business is a business that survives the arrival of new entries and still manages to look fresh, interesting and highly relevant.

But what about getting better? Godin, during his talk in Canada during the conference on Search Engine Strategies, remarked that being a purple cow is not about being a better or improved cow – it is about being worth noticing. And according to him, it all begins with being able to sell to people who are willing to lend an ear. Those who do will be more than glad to promote your business.

Is fear getting in the way?

In a virtual market where competition gets stiffer and stiffer, a strong idea can get challenged and sometimes, the challenge becomes too tempting to believe. If an internet marketer is not willing to swim upstream and fight off the temptation to go where others go, it shouldn’t be long until his business disappears into the background.

Yes, you will have to innovate, even change and that is always a scary thing. However, these steps can make your brand that much more remarkable, something people will stop to inspect, consider and buy. If there were purple cows in the real world, you can bet that they will fetch a higher price, never mind that their milk tastes the same.

Turning pink?

Godin also emphasizes the need to remain competitive. In an interview with Andrew Goodman of Traffick, Godin says that every internet marketing business considered as a purple cow is in danger of fading unless it finds a way to become extraordinary once again. It’s the struggle to develop aggressively that will make a difference between remaining a purple cow and becoming a pink calf.

To Your Miking In Profits,
Duncan Chua

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