Purple cow
This is another article in a series of articles on the list from milfgard . This time, an article on modern marketing: how the new works and how the old does not work. It's about the book “The Purple Cow” by Seth Godin .
The author says that there are several standard “P” marketing and offers to add a new item to this list:
Godin argues that in order for your business to grow, you need something outstanding as much as an outstanding purple cow would be among ordinary cows. If the word “outstanding” began with “P”, a cow would not be needed =)
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The time of the television and industrial complex has passed. This time was characterized by the fact that the company first produced a product, and then marketers thought how to tell consumers about how they need this new product. We see a lot of TV commercials just ordinary products, but it stops working. We notice less and less these intrusive videos and more and more switch channels in search of deliverance or even go online, trying not to watch anything extra.
Before the creation of advertising there was rumor. People shared with each other if a product helped solve a problem. It provided sales. After the creation of advertising, everything was different. Now the actors from television screens broadcast to us about the benefits of "Tide" and the dangers of boiling.
In Crossing the Chasm, Jeffrey Moore described the basic law by which any product moves.
Consider this process on the example of a smartphone. In the distant 2000s, most had telephones with a bunch of buttons and small screens. Then, in 2007, Apple releases an iPhone, and behind it, in 2008, an android came out. Geeks i those who follow the novelties and buy all the most modern ones immediately bought new gadgets and started praising them among their acquaintances. Then their friends, who are not so much, but also like new items, also followed their example and purchased smartphones. These two groups of people are called the author "sneezing": they sneeze and spread the infection. At this time, the majority of people still use push-button phones, but they begin to pick up a new trend and smartphones are slowly penetrating this audience.
Thus, a good product is constantly shifting to the right along the curve of the gur and we see the result of the smartphone market: now innovators buy ultramodern devices, the majority use smartphones, and hopelessly backward ones use button phones with a b / w screen.
Your product must be so outstanding that the sneezers like it and they have advanced it to the right along the curve.
For the television and industrial complex is characterized by the sight in the center of the curve: where most consumers sit. However, in order to promote a really good product, you need to aim at the people on the left. As you understand, it is quite difficult to create a really good product that the foremost workers like, but this is the only way in the new time.
Why can sneezers spread your ideas? Because these guys are trusted. If you have a friend who knows cars very well, most likely, before buying a new product from AvtoVAZ, you will ask him: “Is it ok if I buy Kalina-II fret?”. If he answers positively, you are more likely to purchase this amazing car. The same is true of other areas: computer equipment, kitchen equipment, building materials, etc.
The author claims that being boring is the most risky strategy. Yes, if you already have a successful product that hits the middle of the Moore curve, then to some extent, everything is in order. However, if you want to bring another boring product to the market, then you risk a lot.
The sadness is that the result of your "purple" thinking is unpredictable and it is never clear in advance whether your Cow will work. And it is the unpredictability of the result that ensures its success.
Boring products are developed for the mass market accordingly. Developers smooth all sharp corners, trying to make their products most suitable for general consumption. They make the sauce less spicy, the car is ordinary, and the extraordinary service less ordinary and cheaper. They listen to the opinions of sales representatives and retail chains.
For the production of mass products need a lot of money. If you are doing something on a national or global market, you need a lot of money. Hollywood, releasing movies spends $ 20 million for each film.
Thus, you have very few chances to launch your mass product to the market, because you most likely have no money for it.
If you have allocated money for mass marketing, spend it better to hire a world-famous designer or architect and make an outstanding product.
For self control
Purple cow cycle
When applying for a job, be a Cow
Your recommendations and characteristics - this is your best resume. Good experts do not sit without work. Before you start looking for a job, think about what you can do today, so that you can never look for work again, and so that she will look for you herself.
You can stop being a regular wide-profile PR-specialist and become a narrow-profile PR specialist, for example, in the field of medicine.
Be competent enough so that everyone who knows you is sure that you are the best electrician in your city.
Something outstanding is not necessarily a change in the entire production process. Start the changes with the manner of answering phone calls, branding process, get new software.
Find out what nobody does in your industry, simply because it is not accepted and try to do it. For example, you can enter a uniform for your customers or give gift vouchers for funeral services. Think about it carefully and perhaps you will have a purple calf.
PS: after reading the book, I realized that we are still far from ideal. We will work on it; first of all on issues for self-control.
The author says that there are several standard “P” marketing and offers to add a new item to this list:
- Product
- Pricing
- Promotion (measures to stimulate demand)
- Positioning (positioning)
- Publicity (PR, PR, publicity)
- Packaging
- Pass-along (bringing to the consumer)
- Permission (permission, trust)
- Purple cow
Godin argues that in order for your business to grow, you need something outstanding as much as an outstanding purple cow would be among ordinary cows. If the word “outstanding” began with “P”, a cow would not be needed =)
')
The time of the television and industrial complex has passed. This time was characterized by the fact that the company first produced a product, and then marketers thought how to tell consumers about how they need this new product. We see a lot of TV commercials just ordinary products, but it stops working. We notice less and less these intrusive videos and more and more switch channels in search of deliverance or even go online, trying not to watch anything extra.
Before the creation of advertising there was rumor. People shared with each other if a product helped solve a problem. It provided sales. After the creation of advertising, everything was different. Now the actors from television screens broadcast to us about the benefits of "Tide" and the dangers of boiling.
Curve moore
In Crossing the Chasm, Jeffrey Moore described the basic law by which any product moves.
Consider this process on the example of a smartphone. In the distant 2000s, most had telephones with a bunch of buttons and small screens. Then, in 2007, Apple releases an iPhone, and behind it, in 2008, an android came out. Geeks i those who follow the novelties and buy all the most modern ones immediately bought new gadgets and started praising them among their acquaintances. Then their friends, who are not so much, but also like new items, also followed their example and purchased smartphones. These two groups of people are called the author "sneezing": they sneeze and spread the infection. At this time, the majority of people still use push-button phones, but they begin to pick up a new trend and smartphones are slowly penetrating this audience.
Thus, a good product is constantly shifting to the right along the curve of the gur and we see the result of the smartphone market: now innovators buy ultramodern devices, the majority use smartphones, and hopelessly backward ones use button phones with a b / w screen.
Your product must be so outstanding that the sneezers like it and they have advanced it to the right along the curve.
For the television and industrial complex is characterized by the sight in the center of the curve: where most consumers sit. However, in order to promote a really good product, you need to aim at the people on the left. As you understand, it is quite difficult to create a really good product that the foremost workers like, but this is the only way in the new time.
Why can sneezers spread your ideas? Because these guys are trusted. If you have a friend who knows cars very well, most likely, before buying a new product from AvtoVAZ, you will ask him: “Is it ok if I buy Kalina-II fret?”. If he answers positively, you are more likely to purchase this amazing car. The same is true of other areas: computer equipment, kitchen equipment, building materials, etc.
Risks
The author claims that being boring is the most risky strategy. Yes, if you already have a successful product that hits the middle of the Moore curve, then to some extent, everything is in order. However, if you want to bring another boring product to the market, then you risk a lot.
The sadness is that the result of your "purple" thinking is unpredictable and it is never clear in advance whether your Cow will work. And it is the unpredictability of the result that ensures its success.
Boring products are developed for the mass market accordingly. Developers smooth all sharp corners, trying to make their products most suitable for general consumption. They make the sauce less spicy, the car is ordinary, and the extraordinary service less ordinary and cheaper. They listen to the opinions of sales representatives and retail chains.
For the production of mass products need a lot of money. If you are doing something on a national or global market, you need a lot of money. Hollywood, releasing movies spends $ 20 million for each film.
Thus, you have very few chances to launch your mass product to the market, because you most likely have no money for it.
If you have allocated money for mass marketing, spend it better to hire a world-famous designer or architect and make an outstanding product.
For self control
- How can you design your product so that it will be in the next release of CNews?
- Do you have email addresses for 20% of customers who like your product? Think about what such a "super special" you can offer them.
- Can you release a collectible version of your product?
- What will happen if you, along with your designers (designers) will not be engaged in new products? What could you create after such a holiday?
- To find out who the sneezers are, attend special events. Start with a collection of science fiction writers: very strange people are gathering there.
- Do you have a slogan? Can your product be praised for anything? Can the rumor pick up your slogan and smash the world ?
- If there is a person in your company who creates the Purple Cow, then leave him alone: ​​let him create.
- If you are a marketer, go to design courses and send designers to marketing courses. All of you would be nice to work a week in the production workshop.
- Make a list of all the outstanding products in your line of business. Who and how made them?
- Is there anyone in your line of business who has repeatedly successfully launched outstanding products? Invite him to work to learn how to work.
- What happens if you tell the truth about your product?
- If you could make a product that would compete with your own product, but cost 30% less, would you do it?
- Reach the edge and see what's there. What happens if your product is the most expensive or the cheapest or the fastest or the slowest? If there is a limit, you must reach it.
Purple cow cycle
- Get permission from people who have made a good impression on your product to send them a letter when your new Cow comes out.
- Work with "sneeze". Help them convey your ideas and overcome obstacles.
- Give a thousand varieties of your product to bloom. Make the product a service and the service a product.
- Invest again and again. Launch a new Cow for the same audience.
When applying for a job, be a Cow
Your recommendations and characteristics - this is your best resume. Good experts do not sit without work. Before you start looking for a job, think about what you can do today, so that you can never look for work again, and so that she will look for you herself.
You can stop being a regular wide-profile PR-specialist and become a narrow-profile PR specialist, for example, in the field of medicine.
Be competent enough so that everyone who knows you is sure that you are the best electrician in your city.
Something outstanding is not necessarily a change in the entire production process. Start the changes with the manner of answering phone calls, branding process, get new software.
Find out what nobody does in your industry, simply because it is not accepted and try to do it. For example, you can enter a uniform for your customers or give gift vouchers for funeral services. Think about it carefully and perhaps you will have a purple calf.
PS: after reading the book, I realized that we are still far from ideal. We will work on it; first of all on issues for self-control.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/293446/
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