"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.