How A Purple Cow Can Triple Your Sales

Seth Godin is an inspiration to any great marketer. Willing to be unique and different, yet still grounded enough to stand by principles of paying attention to what works. Marketing and Advertising in the media driven world we surround ourselves in each day builds a tolerance among the masses. People don’t want to be advertised to anymore than they would want someone or something to tell them what to do.

The masses have spoken! Godin says “In a world where we have too many choices and too little time the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff.”

Is Your Product or Service Remarkable?

What makes your brand, your product, or your service unique? What is the driving force behind why people making a buying decision? As Seth Godin explains in the Ted Talk “How To Get Your Ideas To Spread” People don’t make a buying decision in the grocery store when they need to make a purchase for pain medicine based on a commercial on TV or and Ad they saw in a magazine. The TV/Industrial Complex is a broken model that no longer works to the level of effectiveness that it once did.

What works now is finding the people that believe what you believe. Finding the early adopters and the innovators that can get behind your dream, your product or your vision for the world. So they can be a part of what you have, and see how that thing helps to reshape their world in a positive way. Make positive change in your consumers lives and build a relationship with them. They will become grateful, they will become loyal and they will tell someone about it. If the brand has done it correctly the customer experience is remarkable, it’s not an interruption it is welcomed.

What is your Purple Cow?

Perhaps it is exceptional customer service? I personally know a woman that was a stay at home wife. She had a career and a college degree but after having children her focus shifted to family and being an exceptional mother. Her husband made a great living and the family life was something that she enjoyed. As her children began to grow up she began a business selling products on Amazon. In months she grew her product sales to well over 40,000 per month and she had to make a decision that was very tough.

Amazon had approached this woman and asked to buy her business, in a way where they would take over her product listing and the brand, keep her in as the manufacturing party and continue doing business as her brand. The brand that she had just 6 months earlier built up from nothing to over $40,000 in monthly sales revenue. She considered the offer for several weeks and finally she turned them down. What this woman knows and what she knew when making her decision is that her purple cow was providing her consumers with exceptional customer service. She personally contacts every person that has ever bought her product on Amazon. She knew that would all end had she passed off the company reins to the largest online retailer and corporate fulfillment giant.

Maybe it is an idea worth spreading?

This video was filmed by Ted. Ted Talks are phenomenal resources to see intellectual giants speak about any number of topics. They are great ideas that push the envelope. As it suggests in their slogan, Ted Talks are “ideas worth spreading.” Their entire platform, including: why it exists, why colleges and universities across the world use the videos in their curriculum and why it is seen as a huge value to the people that watch Ted, is the purple cow. For each person that has ever been inspired by a Ted Talk, they have “otaku.” They know it was unique in its early stage, it was certainly remarkable and people told their friends, their colleagues and their classmates. Ted used their purple cow to build the greatest platform of educational and theoretical videos on the planet.

Innovation Adoption Curve

How Can Your Business Reach More of the Early Adopters That Can Help Spread Your Message?

First and foremost, you really need to know who you are marketing to. Give them a name and a face. Make sure that they are someone you can describe in detail. Who are those personas (target demographic description of people you want your brand to reach)? What do they love? If you are familiar with Oculus Rift then you have seen them grow from a concept, to achieve a successful Kickstarter campaign bringing in 2.4 million in pledged funding and now they are in the marketplace. The Purple Cow that Oculus Rift had created was the physical product, but the company did not try to sell everyone on the planet as to why their virtual gaming goggles were the best. They only marketed it to dedicated video game players that kept abreast with the current trends. The ones that wanted the best and they wanted to be the first to have it. Those 9,522 people raised their hand and said ‘I want to be apart of this great vision before the first one is available for sale, I’m in.’ Those “Innovators” saw a purple cow on the side of the road and they stopped and bought a piece of the dream.

The Century of “Idea Diffusion” is upon us. No longer can people be blasted with 5,000+ ads daily and gain anything great from it. Instead they will continue to ignore and wait for someone that they trust to tell them about the next new thing, better thing or unique thing. Something the person knows their peer will love as much as they do.

How can you reach more early adopters with your business? Let us know in the comments below.

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This article is published by Will Sherwood | The Sherwood Group |Website Design | Graphic Design | Marketing Communications: The Sherwood Group has over 30 years of experience working with all sorts of companies, small and large. Our clients range from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 firms, in nearly every business sector, from across the street to around the world (and yes, even Europe, China, and South America). Our goal is to create advertising,  graphic design, website design, and marketing communication that still looks fresh and relevant 10-15 years later. Our mission is to stir your imagination and leave your competition shaken and wondering,  Now what do we do?”  We are located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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