Gaurav Bhuttani

Purple Cow : This is a concept devised and conceptualized by Marketing Guru Seth Godin, through one of his books "Purple Cow : Transform your business by being remarkable" . This book was launched in 2003 and has been extremely famous for the concepts and notions being projected. Infact, latest revision/s of this book are still being sold in high numbers. Purple Cow : The Concept Seth Godin has advocated an interesting amalgamation of some old & new marketing concepts, which are : If there was a purple cow standing in a herd of (normal) cows one would notice the purple cow immediately and will be intrigued to know more about the same. Hence the same "purple cow". (That Purple cow should not be able to attract attention but to also sustain attention which one can do through Business Excellence). The compelling notion/s here is to think out of the box, be transformational , be excellent, focus on innovation, go beyond the edge, rediscover a new edge, research about market dynamics : customer, market size, target segment etc. then go into product development phase. In today's time of average & above average products being available for almost every kind of demand, one cannot just focus on aggressive advertisement (blitzkrieg of ads/campaigns on various platforms) , reactive marketing (selling & attracting attention for whatever is available) & traditional methods of focusing on economies of scale .There has to be a pro-active contribution of "Marketing" in product development & design as well. Product should sell by itself by encouraging almost forcing desired customer behavior on its own (i.e. to buy the product again and again). Marketing is all about encouraging a desired customer behavior. One has to target correct idea curve, by focusing more on Sneezers or early adopters. One should create a niche for the product it is trying to sell so that it separates itself from the "GAS" (average and above average products available) and attracts marketable attention on its own through Word of Mouth (in today's time of social media, word of mouth is a very effective marketing technique that has both pros and cons) Bottom Line is that one product or service should stand out, be remarkable, think out of the box and excel at the same by doing thorough research followed by design. Purple Cow and Business Excellence : In order to be innovative, you have to be pro-active enough to come up with a product that creates its own niche. There are numerous examples of such products which have beaten the curve to create a niche for themselves by selecting the right target audience and being able to address a key customer requirement or issue in an innovative/remarkable way. Infact some of them have also created a new type of customer requirement by generating new needs and desires. This allows to enjoy some kind of monopoly at least till the time competition catches up & then you need to rely again on Innovation/CSI/Kaizen to continue to lead the market. Old View : Was to create and follow tried and tested methods of production to create same boring old products. New View (Purple Cow) : Create something which is unique and never heard or seen, which generates curiosity for early adopters & maintains its worth by providing excellent customer experience (WOW moment) at every touch point consistently. If one has to follow the "New View", he or she should focus on Business Excellence : Question and innovate how things are done currently. Challenge every "X" , test every Hypothesis, do VA/NVA at every steps to understand what is really important. Use FMEA to understand the risks involved, Design new experiments to generate info for which historical sample space in not available (which one will have to do as you are innovating, dwelling into uncharted territory), use DOE to screen and optimize arrive at that correct Equation to predict the right balance at which the new product will succeed. There is a process that one has to follow even for Innovation, there is a process one has to follow even for being a Purple Cow and Business Excellence is all about following that process to be different, to be a notch above the rest.