What the hell is a purple goldfish?
Let’s break down a purple goldfish in two parts. We’ve covered the first part – the goldfish. Now this post will cover the PURPLE.
Why Purple?
Purple = Differentiation
Seth Godin established purple as the color of differentiation in his seminal book, Purple Cow back in 2003. Seth outlines the why, what and how of becoming ‘remarkable’. If you haven’t read this already, run don’t walk to your local bookstore or b-line it to Amazon.
Seth sets up the premise of the book with a story:
“When my family and I were driving through France a few years ago, we were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway. For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out the window, marveling about how beautiful everything was. Then, within twenty minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common. It was boring.”
He further defined where marketing is heading:
The old rule: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing.
The new rule: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out.
The Difference Between a Purple Bovine and a Purple Goldfish
The difference between a cow and a goldfish is huge. A purple goldfish is small and a cow is massive. Think of the Purple Cow as your product. Your product needs to stand out and be remarkable. Your Purple Goldfish is the distinctive way that you deliver that Cow and the extra value you provide.
I had the opportunity to comment on Marketing Pilgrim today to emphasize this exact point. Joe Hall of whostalking.com wrote a great post about the importance of being memorable. He talked about how cell phones are all similar and his hesitation to upgrade and make a switch.
Joe made the following assertion:
Why can’t I get one shaped like a banana with pink and purple stripes? I want one that can also open a bottle of beer, or something else equally ridiculous. Seth Godin will tell you that your brand has to be remarkable. However, before your brand can be remarkable it has to be memorable. It has to stand out from the crowd. It has to make me want to know more.
Here were the thoughts I shared:
Stan Phelps Says:
Great points Joe. You absolutely need to be memorable. Stand out or perish. The difficulty in Seth Godin’s PURPLE Cow principle is that you need to bake that remarkability into the product. That is extremely difficult. A phone is a phone. It would have to be really remarkable for you to overcome the friction (pita factor) associated with making a switch.
However – let me offer another take on how to color that phone PURPLE. That is by creating a few PURPLE Goldfish. A purple goldfish is something a whole lot smaller than a cow and much easier to create. It’s based on the concept of ‘marketing lagniappe’. Lan-what? Pronounced ‘Lan-yap’ is a creole word that represents the ‘little unexpected something extra’ thrown in by the merchant at the time of purchase. In Louisiana ‘lagniappe’ is part of the vernacular and represents anytime someone goes ‘above and beyond’.
Do small ‘PURPLE’ things make a big difference? Absolutely. Imagine if you asked that same friend for a recommendation and he started gushing about Product X because they did these little things that were unexpected and extra. It could be the customer service they received (think Zappos), a feature that they decided not to charge for (think Southwest and bags flying free), or a ‘thank you’ with free minutes if you spend X per month (think Stew Leonard’s).
Tired of swimming in the ’sea of sameness’, head over to the #PurpleGoldfishProject for inspiration. This charitable initiative has crowdsourced over 175 examples from north of 100 brands. Who made the cut so far? Check it out @ http://marketinglagniappe.com/blog/1001-examples-of-lagniappe
HELP me catch another 847 purple goldfishes for a great cause. Click here to send me your example.
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