"Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable" By: Seth Godin- Post #5

What is Marketing?

Of course, we all have a simple, overarching definition of what we deem to be "marketing". Godin thinks that marketing is "the act of inventing a product" (100). The entails all of the important processes needed for selling a product or service. This includes: pricing, producing, selling, and all the other things in-between. In order for a company to be a "purple cow" company, Godin suggests that the CEO or head of the company HAS to be a marketer. Jet Blue didn't just become the purple cow company that it is today. From day one, a marketer invented a brand that stood out to people. The clean and re-envisioned brand made people stop and think before purchasing airline tickets. It had a purple cow factor that made it stand put among its brown cow competitors.

This doesn't just apply to large companies like Jet Blue, and Starbucks. It applies to small, local businesses looking to create a brand that stands out to the consumer. This applies to any entrepreneur looking to invent a new product or service. Godin suggests that if a company is failing, it is most likely because the senior management is running a company, not marketing the product that they are intending to sell. Marketing is a pivotal part of making or breaking a company.

I hope to use the information in this chapter to help with "inventing" my pom pom hats. I have assessed that there is a demand for my hats in the market. I now have to focus on being the marketer that I need to be in order to sell my hats. If I run my business without a strong marketing vision in mind, I won't be nearly as successful as if I do try to incorporate as much marketing as possible.

"Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable" By: Seth Godin- Post #4

Slogans

When I hear the word "Slogan", I think of a single sentence that a company uses to advertise their product or service. To me, a slogan doesn't mean much and most times I don't even acknowledge what a companies slogan really is. Godin suggests that a slogan can have a huge impact on consumers in conscious and unconscious ways. For example, the jewelry store, Tiffany's, uses the famous blue box as their slogan. The blue box is a constant reminder to the consumer the Tiffany's jewelry is of higher quality and has a stronger element of glam that competing jewelry companies don't have. Most times consumers don't acknowledge that this is true, and yet the iconic blue box of Tiffany's has been present for many decades. 

Godin states that a slogan is simply a script that, “Guarantees that the word of mouth is passed on properly—that the prospect is coming to you for the right reason" (91).  A slogan is for the "sneezers" of the market who will pass on through word-of-mouth knowledge of a new company or service. Godin thinks that marketing is not something that is done to a product, but rather part of the product itself. The product is the marketing, and the marketing is the product. This makes sense when he compares it to simple examples such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The slogan of the tower is simple: A leaning tower. It is single handily marketing itself, and it works. The Leaning Tower of Pisa receives millions of tourists every year. Other tourists sights in Rome don't receive nearly the same amount of attention. The fact that the tower advertises itself helps extend its slogan to tourists across the world. 

"Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable" By: Seth Godin- Post #3

 Ideaviruses

This is Godin's word for "ideas that spread" (42). Like the previous book I read, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger, Godin believes that the best way to get word out about a product is by word of mouth. People who spread knowledge about a product or service are the ones who are naturally marketing it. Godin likes to refer to these people as the "sneezers." They may be the early trend-setters who see potential in a product or service. It is critical for a company to recognize who their "sneezers" are early on so that it has success in the long run.

How does a company create a product that the "sneezers" will want to glom on to? That question has in part already been answered through the 5 P's of marketing. In order for a product or service to be successful, it needs to target a certain market (The target market). Creating too large a niche will result in the product not having as strong an impact. Companies want to create products or services catered towards a small market that will blow the market up. This will hopefully lead to people within the market spread knowledge of that product or service to others within the same market. This will hopefully lead to the knowledge of the product or service bleeding out into other markets and niches.

After reading this section of the book, I think that I can apply this knowledge to my senior project. Ms. Stevens had mentioned in our marketing seminar that it is vital for marketers to understand their target market in order to make their product or service succeed. I have kept that in mind while trying to market my pom-pom hats across the school. Heading into the future, I now realize that maybe targeting a small group of students who I think will be able to kickstart my idea will help me sell the hats overall.

"Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable" By: Seth Godin- Post #2

Why is the "Purple Cow" so important?

If you follow all of the other P's of marketing, create a strong budget, and create a strong start to a company, you should be able to succeed right? Wrong. Companies NEED to differentiate themselves in order to make a business or company successful. There are so many products now-a-days that are offered by countless brands. Take aspirin or even sliced bread for examples. Sure, when they first start off it is a lot easier to market. There is no competition. But as more and more brands join the bandwagon of aspirin or white bread, differentiating becomes increasingly difficult. How do you market your aspirin as being better than the other hundred types of aspirin?

People have less and less time to figure out what they want. Most people will opt for the aspirin they grew up with and trust. Why spend the time trying to figure out which new aspirin to try when Advil has worked for years? This means that a new aspirin company isn't marketing itself to people who already have favorites. They are going for the people with fresh eyes who are willing to spread knowledge of a brand through word-of-mouth. This narrows down the playing field to a much smaller crowd of potential customers.

Not only do people no longer have time, they are also becoming harder and harder to reach. With the huge influx of advertising that has shaken the world in the past decade, and the increase in usage of media, people are learning how to tune out all the unwanted adds. This makes reaching out to consumers extremely hard. What more could people need?

The last point that Godin brings up in this section is that people don't share knowledge of a product if they were satisfied with it. The huge increase in marketing has left people with too much information to handle. They are less likely to reach out to a friend and tell them about a great new product they discovered. It needs to have some glam or wow factor (Purple Cow factor) to make sharing it worthwhile.

"Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable" By: Seth Godin- Post #1

The New Addition to the 5 P's: The Purple Cow

I've been taking business classes throughout the entirety of my high school career. A lot of the information I learned in these has blurred into the abyss of knowledge I acquired thought my our years at BHS. With that in mind, the 5 P's of marking still remain clear in my head: Product, Place, Price, Promotion, and People. What does this all mean? These 5 p's are the core of a marketing plan. A successful business HAS to make sure that all 5 p's are covered and running smoothly. Gordin suggests that there is a 6th p. How can you add a 6th p to the 5 p's of marketing? My lingering question was quickly answered: The Purple Cow.

You're probably wondering what the heck "The purple cow" means. Gordin coined the term after going on a road trip with his family. While driving in some rural part of France, they came upon a long strip of pastures filled with cows. The first few minutes, the family was enthralled by the sheer number of brown cows scattered across the fields. After a few minutes, the cows became boring and part of the background. They had lost their lustrous awe-factor and became just brown cows. Gordin states that this 6th p would be a purple cow: A cow that would standout among its fellow cows and never lose its awe-factor.

Now, relating this back to marketing, the purple cow is used as a metaphor for companies in the twenty-first century. Now a-days, companies need to put innovative thinking into the marketing of their products to make themselves "remarkable." Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable plots out the steps needed to achieve this 6th p: The Purple Cow.

Gordin mentions the invention of sliced bread. Nowadays, this seems like a pretty basic necessity in life. When sliced bread was first created, it was hardly noticed. It took the creative marketing of Wonder Bread to give sliced bread the awe-factor it needed to survive. It stood out among its fellow competitors, and to this day is a huge company in the market. This would have never happened if Wonder Bread never cultivated the 6th p and marketed the "wonder " of Wonder Bread.

"Contagious: Why Things Catch On" By: Jonah Berger - Week 5

"Social proof." This idea is pretty self-explanatory. People look to other people when making decisions. These decisions can be as small as which cup of coffee to buy. They can also be big life-changing decisions like giving up smoking. The point isn't what the decision is, it is the fact that there is a general trend of people relying on others. This is why stores may fill tip jars with a couple extra ones at the start of the day. Customers coming by may see this and decide to contribute a tip themselves. When looking for a restaurant in a foreign city, people tend to look for restaurants full of people. Marketing can benefit from this idea of "Social proof." In order for a company to create a  product that will "catch on," the product marketing needs to have some element of social proof. In order to do this, a marketer needs to understand when social proof is at its strongest.

Humans can only observe what people are doing, not what they are thinking. This means that in order for a product or service to become popular, it needs to be used in public. Berger states that, “Most products, ideas, and behaviors are consumed privately”(178). This means that spreading awareness of a product through social proof can be quite tricky. It involves making the product that was once used in private to be used in public. Advertising is centered on this idea of making private, public.

Hotmail was the first email company that allowed people to access the website from any computer. This meant that the product was advertising itself. People no longer had to check their email in private at work or at home. Email could be checked at the local library, or coffee shop. This meant that the brand spread through word of mouth very quickly. Hotmail also did this thing where at the bottom of every sent email, it said, "'Get Your Private, Free E-mail from Hotmail at www.hotmail.com"(179). Social proof came right into action as every recipient of a hotmail email saw this little piece of advertising. The recipient realized that others were relying on hotmail as an email service, and might have decided to do the same. This is social proof at its finest.

Week in Review (1/11/15-1/18/15)

We had a strong week wrapping up both projects. Early in the week, we were lucky enough to get valuable feedback on our presentation for the storefront project. We also continued to diligently sell stickers through the deadline. In the end, we made around $250 profit! We are really excited with the outcome of our $200 project. It taught us valuable lessons about time management, and starting up a business.

The sticker project has proven to be very successful. Almost everyday, I had students coming up to me asking to buy a sticker. In the beginning, I was very nervous about how successful the stickers were going to be. We were unable to sell the stickers at the Powderpuff game, and we weren't sure if this was going to break us. It didn't. We found many other alternatives for selling stickers to students, faculty, and parents. We were even lucky enough to sell some to Ms. Holman! All of us really benefited from the hands on experience of starting up a business and all of the hard work that comes with it.

For the storefront, we started off the week creating a presentation to share all of the hard work we have been doing on the storefront project. It encompassed every meaning of a "rough draft," but we spent the rest of the week working hard to finalize it. We were fortunate enough to spend one class period scoping out 4A Coffee and the surrounding competitors of the new retail space. Alua's parents were extremely kind and welcoming. They encouraged us to take pictures of the Coolidge Corner location. They explained a little bit of how the coffee shop is run, and showed us all of the coffee beans before they were roasted. It was extremely fun and exciting to see the coffee shop in action! Here is a picture of the four of us laughing at a joke Alua's mom told us.