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.

1. Find a product or service that’s completely unrelated to your industry.

2. Figure out who’s winning by being remarkable.
3. Discover which edge they went to.
4. 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:

• 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).

• 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!’

Who:

Tom Peters

What:

“WOW!”

What is it?

Wow is “stepping out (individuals at all levels in a firm and independent contractors) and standing out (corporations and organizations) from the growing crowd of look-alikes. Being average has never had much appeal. Better to fail with flair in pursuit of something neat…”

How is it done?

Tom offers 210 stories… well… chunks of inspiring information, actually… some short, some long. They are all examples of people and companies doing WOW things… While Tom doesn’t offer step-by-step instructions on creating a WOW idea, you will be inspired by his examples. Examples are arranged into these chapters:

• Starters

• Getting Things Done
• Milk, Cookies and Managing People
• Pens, Toilets, and Businesses That Do It Differently
• Just Say No to Commodities (And Yes to Free Spirits)
• Breaking the Mold
• The Wacky World (or [mostly] what have you done about Asia today?)
• Searching for the Diversity Advantage
• Tomorrow’s Strange Enterprises
• Entrepreneurs’ Dreams
• Lists!
• Attaining Perpetual Adolescence
• Parting Shots

Tom published this book fourteen years ago, and the full title of this book still holds true… “The Pursuit of Wow! Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times.”

Check Out

Books

• “The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times”

• “The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters!”

Online

• “Wow Projects” from the Tom Peter’s company website

Articles by Tom Peters in Fast Company Magazine
(Don’t let the dates of 1999 dissuade you – this writing is just as relevant today as it was then)

• “How to Wow!” (April ‘99)

• “The Wow Project” (April ‘99)

• 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’

Who:

Bill Schley and Carl Nichols Jr.

What:

“DSI” (dominant selling idea)

What is it?

It’s your “motivating difference” – the one difference that tips the scale in your direction versus all others at the moment of purchase. It’s what defines you as the #1 in a desired specialty… They say you have to satisfy these “Five Selling Ingredients” to make this happen…
Questions to Qualify Your DSIYou need to ask if your company or product…

• Superlative – is best in class – better than the competition. Promise me something nobody else does.

• Important – offers something that really matters. Something I really want or would be in the market for if I knew about it.
• Believable – offers a logical reason, has credibility.
• Memorable – has an emotional hook that sticks until purchase time. Do you have something not only that I need – but what I want. (This is the Free Prize)
• Tangible – offers something real. Customers trust it because they’ve experienced it and it performed as promised. Must perform in a way that’s totally aligned and consistent with all of your claims.

How is it done?

There are several key steps that Bill and Carl suggest… I’ll outline them broadly below…

1. Identify and choose your unique ownable specialty.

2. Create a specialty statement… articulate your specialty.
3. Create the five building blocks your DSI star.

1. Base + Extenders…

• Identify your specialty by identifying or creating your ‘unique reason’ for being #1.

• Add “extenders” to your “base specialty” until you separate yourself from the pack.
• Base Specialty + (Extender + Extender + Extender) = Unique Ownable Specialty

Example:
Base Specialty = Lager Beer
Extender 1 = German (Lager Beer)
Extender 2 = Lite (German, Lager Beer)
Extender 3 = Non-Alchoholic (Lite, German, Lager Beer)
Non-Alchoholic, Lite, German, Lager Beer = Unique Ownable Specialty

2. Specialty Statement

Create for yourself a specialty statement which outlines what makes you #1.

“__________ (product/company) is the #1 choice for __________ (specialty). That’s because only __________ (product/company) has __________. (a unique reason why: a superlative ingredient, process, or service that other’s don’t).”

3. DSI Star

1. Your name. Is it meaningful? Does it convey what the company/product is about? Is it catchy and memorable?

2. What is our unique ownable specialty – what do we do that no one else does?
3. What tagline (or mantra*) encapsulates what you do? *More on mantra in the next post in this series about Guy Kawasaki. This is your “DSI wrapped in a magic word package.”
4. What is our key image (worth 1000 words)? Not your logo… it’s an “indelible snapshot that demonstrates both performance and proof – you DSI – in a single flash.” This is your…
   Drinking Straw in the Tropicana Orange.
   

   Marlboro cowboy.
   

   Krazy Glue guy stuck to the girder.
   

   The fried egg (your brain on drugs) from the
   Partnership for a Drug Free America.
   
   

5. Define our DSI-Level Performance – this is walking the talk. Creating total consistent alignment within our business. Our ’service-level agreement’ with ourselves to maintain our DSI.

Of course, these highlights only scrape the surface of what is covered in the book. With my clients, I use this DSI work in combination with Seth’s “remarkability” and with “creating a Zag“.

Check Out

Books

• Get “Why Johnny Can’t Brand” from Amazon.
  (Amazon UK)

Online

• Free downloads from “Why Johnny Can’t Brand.” The Introduction (PDF) and the First Chapter (PFD). (from the Carl and Bill’s company site David ID)

• “Dominant is Sexy” (PDF) article from The Hub on-line magazine. (Jan 2006)
• “Why Johnny Can’t Brand” listed as one of Strategy+Business Magazine’s Best Marketing Books of 2006. (may require registration to see full list)
• David ID, Carl and Bill’s brand consulting company.

• Seth Godin and How to Be Different: Create a Purple Cow

• Marty Neumeier and How to Be Different: Zag!

Who:

Marty Neumeier

What:

Zag! Be Different. No, REALLY Different.

What is it?:

As the pace of business quickens and the number of brands multiplies, it’s customers, not companies, who decide which brands live and which ones die.
An over-abundance of look-alike products and me-too services is forcing customers to search for something, anything, to help them separate the winners from the clutter.
The solution? When everybody zigs, zag.

How is it done?

Qualities of Good and Different
To find your zag, look for ideas that combine the qualities of good and different.
Good are the attributes that customers value: quality, workmanship, good aesthetics, low price, high functionality, ease of use, speed, power, style…
Different are the attributes that make you different: surprising, weird, ugly, fresh, crazy, offbeat, novel…
Your Onliness Statement
With those qualities in mind, you need to create an onliness (only-ness) statement.
This statement identifies what makes you the ONLY one doing what you’re doing. A zag isn’t merely differentiation, but RADICAL differentiation.
Fill in the blanks for your organization…

Check Out

Books

• Check out “Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands” on Amazon. (Amazon UK)

• Also on Amazon, “The Brand Gap.” (Amazon UK)

Online

• The “Zag” book site… Includes FREE previews of the book content!

• Marty’s company Neutron.
• johnmoore talks about Zag at Brand Autopsy and posts slides with ‘money quotes’.

• Seth Godin and How to Be Different: Create a Purple Cow

Who:

Seth Godin – Author, speaker and marketing guru.

What:

“Purple Cow”

What is it?:

Something that stands out – something remarkable.
Seth defines remarkability as something worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. It’s a Purple Cow. It’s an idea that spreads.

How is it done?

• Go for the edges. Challenge yourself and your team to describe what those edges are (not that you’d actually go there), and then test which edge is most likely to deliver the marketing and financial results you seek.

• Explore the limits. What if you’re the cheapest, the fastest, the slowest, the hottest, the coldest, the easiest, the most efficient, the loudest, the most hated, the copycat, the outsider, the hardest, the oldest, the newest, the… most! If there’s a limit, you should (must) test it.

Selected tips from “Purple Cow”

• Come up with a list of ten ways to change your product (not the hype) to make it appeal to a sliver of your audience.

• Think small. Think of the smallest conceivable market, and describe a product that overwhelms it with its remarkability. Go from there.
• Copy. Not from your industry, but from any other industry. Find an industry more dull than yours, discover who’s remarkable (it won’t take long), and do what they did.
• Find things that are “just not done” in your industry, and do them.
• Ask, “Why not?” Almost everything you don’t do has not good reason for it.

Additional words of advice…

• Differentiate your customers – Find the group that’s most profitable… Cater to the customers you’d choose if you could choose your customers.

• Criticism comes to those who stand out – If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise – ever.

Check These Out:

Books

• “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”

• “The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable” – Seth herds 33 different authors to share stories of remarkability.

Online

• Seth’s Purple Cow website.

• A teaser article about Purple Cow in/on Fast Company. If you read this article – you’ll get a great sense of what the book is about… (Jan. 2003)
• Seth’s Marketing Plan for Purple Cow on Fast Company. Interesting. (Jan. 2003)