Today Seth wrote a post that seems to partially contridict the entire thesis of one of his most popular books, Purple Cow. (main takeaway from the book — Be remarkable. Stand out. Etc)
From those who have read the book, what do you think?
Chris Houchens is a marketing speaker and the author of Brand Zeitgeist. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
I think that the finer point that you may be missing is that some aspects of a product just shouldn't be made remarkable. He gave some examples, I'll try to give another. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is remarkable in the names of the flavors and for it's ingredients. But, those ingredients are constrained within certain norms. For example, Cherry Garcia has cherries, cream, sugar, all ingredients you'd expect to see in ice cream. However, Ben & Jerry's doesn't use cream from human milk like Peta has suggested they use. Even though that would certainly be remarkable if they did so, nobody would buy the product anymore.
@peter – good point. But to use your example — Seth's post argues that Ben&Jerry's should make vanilla, chococlate, and strawberry becasue people expect it/are used to it.
But he's listing things that could be made better by being remarkable.
All airports should be designed the same with no interesting differences?
Some of the most interesting people that I meet at conferences are the ones who don't "look right"
I get his finer point that there needs to be a basic framework that people can be comfortable with — but the entire premise of Purple Cow is to be different
I have to agree with the author that this does, to some extent, contradict the premise of Purple Cow. Of course, this also depends on how you define remarkable. Is the appearance remarkable, is the content itself remarkable or are they inseparable?
Well, take it from the cow's mouth: that's not what I was saying.
Ben & Jerry's should use cones, not serve the ice cream in cryogenically frozen jello. They should sell the ice cream at the supermarket, not a funeral home.
The point is, you don't change EVERYTHING when you want to be remarkable. And the stuff you don't change should tell a story.
@ bryan — I agree. I thought so too.
@seth — Moo. I understand the point you were trying to make — but it just seemed to contradict well established Godin canon.
I watch too many reality shows and one I watch with some interest is Top Design. Its interesting to see how classic re-mixed or classic meets contemporary consistently screams good design.
I think the same can be said here. Re-mixing a standard and making it your own is where the sweet spot of product innovation, user experience, and ultimately marketing are.
Newness for newness sake can end up looking like trash or simply incomprehensible or a major pain to use and understand.