In the previous post in this DailyFix series I share Seth Godin’s idea of creating a Purple Cow, he provides more detail about how to create a purple cow in his book “Free Prize Inside” and an expanded explanation of remarkability…
Who:
Seth Godin
What:
“Being Remarkable”
It’s not enough simply to offer a product that is different… it needs to be WOW different, REMARKABLY different, RADICALLY different.
How is it done?:
Differentiation is the act of making your products different from the competition (and each other) so that people pick you. But differentiation is selfish. It assumes that people are interested enough in your field to seek you out, to compare options and make a smart choice…
Differentiation is a zero-sum, advertising based game. The only thing that leads to real growth is person-to-person conversation – word of mouth… And these only come about when you do something truly remarkable… You must be more than different. You must be extreme. You must live on the edge.
First, Seth made sure we herd of the “Purple Cow” and the notion of remarkability… Then in his next book, “Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea,” he dives deeper into remarkability by explaining how to create innovative products, remarkable products, and how to champion such projects…
The ‘free prize’ Seth speaks of is the element that transcends the utility of the original idea and adds a special, unique element worth paying extra for, worth commenting on. He states that if you build products with a free prize inside, you’ll have remarkability built in.
DEFINITION: Remarkable – simply means that a customer is willing to make a remark about it. If you can create remarkable products, people will talk about them. If that happens, the word will spread and your sales will grow.
Now that we get what being remarkable (or a Purple Cow) means… how do we do it?
Seth starts by stating…You don’t need to have ideas that are startling in their originality… What you need is the guts to do the things you need to do.
Seth suggests a method called ‘edgecrafting’ to come up with remarkable ideas.
- Find a product or service that’s completely unrelated to your industry.
- Figure out who’s winning by being remarkable.
- Discover which edge they went to.
- Do that in your own industry. (Go all the way to that edge – as far from the center as consumers you are trying to reach dare you to go).
Seth acknowledges that this isn’t necessarily a simple process… You must accept the fact that the edges of a problem aren’t always obvious. Because the edge you’re seeking is not the primary reason for being, you’ve got to see it out of the corner of your eye.
Here’s the flow:
Edgecrafting creates the edge…
that gives your product its Free Prize…
and makes it remarkable.
Selected remarkability tips from “Free Prize Inside”
- You must go all the way to the edge. Accepting second best doesn’t make sense.
- Embrace the fact that the problem you’re trying to solve isn’t the problem you think you have!
- You don’t build a better car by building a faster car. You do it by building the fastest car, or the least polluting car, or the biggest car.
- If you go all the way to the edge and build communication into the use of your product, it instantly becomes remarkable. (See the book “Creating Customer Evangelists” for a guide to building communication into the use of your products….)
- Make it fun. “What would Bozo do?”
- If any unrelated expert (different field than you) could change your product or service, what would it be? What would they do?
Also Check Out…
Books
- Get “Free Prize Inside” on Amazon.
Online
- Seth’s “Free Prize Inside” website.
- “The Best Things in Life Are Free” article by Seth on Fast Company website. (June ‘04)
- John Moore and Paul Williams review and discuss “Free Prize Inside” with Seth on the Brand Autopsy Blog.
- The “Dog Ear Score” for the book “Free Prize Inside” (on the Brand Autopsy site).
See also my previous DailyFix “How to Be Different” posts:
- Seth Godin and How to Be Different: Create a Purple Cow
- Marty Neumeier and How to Be Different: Zag!
- Bill Schley and How to Be Different: ‘Dominant Selling Idea’
- Tom Peters and Create ‘Wow!’
Related posts:
- How to Be Different: ‘Create a Purple Cow’
- Be THE, not A
- To Be Remarkable Is to ZUG
- How to Be Different: ‘Create a Contagion’
- How to Be Different: ‘Zag!’
Tags: being+remarkable, free+prize+inside, how+to+be+different, remarkability, seth+godin
Since I just recently read Purple Cow, this blog post comes at a good time. Thanks!
The last product I recommended to someone was the Weed Hound. It’s a garden tool that lets you pull weeds without having to get on your hands and knees. This, in itself, is fantastic. After reading your post, I realize that the “free prize” is that after you’ve pulled the weed, you extract it from the tool using an action that’s similar to removing the shell from a shotgun. Take that, Mr. Weed!
This sounds great, especially for product sales. What about for service companies, professionals and consultants?
Example:
If your friendly dentist fills your cavity and he’s pleasant and the job gets done within the scheduled appointment, do you think it can be deemed remarkable and something worth talking about? Even if s/he is terrific, many of us wouldn’t give it a second thought after leaving the office until someone asks for a dentist referral.
Paul, an excellent overview and recap of Seth’s comments, and while Seth makes it sound easy, it really isn’t all that difficult to stand out, and be something that your customer talks about once you embrace the idea, and focus on Enhancing the Customer Experience