Oops, one more business book review...

Purple Cow, by Seth Godin, is a short, easy read about the failure of traditional marketing in today's business world. Successful marketing is no longer "advertising" -- it's simply too hard to get people to care, because people in the U.S. already have everything they need, most of the things they want, and don't expect significant differences between brands.

Successful marketing must now be about "remarkable" products, products so new and exciting that "early adopters" will buy them and tell their friends. Designing and shipping such products requires creativity and boldness, but hopefully not as much money as a traditional product that has to compete with established competitors. Remarkable products are targeted directly at the people most likely to buy them, and don't attempt to appeal to everyone, so mass media advertising campaigns are unnecessary. In fact, criticism is a good sign that you've got a remarkable product -- as long as the criticism isn't coming from your target market! The book suggests that releasing potentially remarkable products in which few or none may succeed is less risk than releasing unremarkable products that seem safe but are bound to fail.

These remarkable products, or "purple cows", sound much like the "disruptive innovations" that target "non-consumers" as described in The Innovator's Solution, which makes that book a good follow-up to the basic ideas of this book. The Innovator's Solution certainly makes more compelling arguments for these concepts, and provides better strategies for getting them to work for your company. Of course, no book is going to tell you what the next remarkable product will be in your category, so start thinking!