The Purple Cow: Why Being “Very Good” is the New Invisible
Imagine you’re driving through the countryside. You see a field of cows. They’re brown, they’re black, they’re white. For the first few minutes, it’s picturesque. After twenty minutes, you stop looking. After an hour, they’ve completely faded into the background.
But then, you see a Purple Cow.
You’d stop the car. You’d take a photo. You’d tell your friends. This is the core of Seth Godin’s revolutionary branding concept: in a world of endless choices and limited time, being remarkable is the only way to survive.
What is a Purple Cow?
In marketing, a “Purple Cow” is a product or service that is inherently remarkable. It’s not just a clever ad campaign for a boring product; the product itself is the marketing.
For decades, brand positioning followed the “TV-Industrial Complex”:
- Create an average product for average people.
- Buy massive amounts of ads to tell people it’s great.
- Use the profits to buy more ads.
In 2025, that model is broken. Consumers have “the ignore button” permanently switched on. If your brand is just “very good,” you are a brown cow. And brown cows are boring.
The Risk of Playing it Safe
The most dangerous thing a brand can do today is try to be “safe.”
- Safe is Risky: If you fit in, you’re invisible. If you’re invisible, you’re out of business.
- Very Good is Bad: “Very good” is an everyday occurrence. Nobody talks about a “very good” cup of coffee or a “very good” software update. They only talk about things that are remarkable—literally, worth remarking on.
How to Position Your Brand as a Purple Cow
1. Find the “Edges”
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Look for the extremes. Can you be the cheapest? The most expensive? The fastest? The slowest? The most exclusive? Brands like Liquid Death (canned water) positioned themselves on an edge by making water look like a heavy-metal beer brand. It’s remarkable because it’s unexpected.
2. Target the “Sneezers”
You don’t need to reach the mass market on day one. Instead, target the Innovators and Early Adopters—the “sneezers” who will catch your “idea virus” and spread it to others. These are people with an otaku (a Japanese word for obsession) for your niche.
3. Differentiate Your Product, Not Just Your Ads
If your positioning relies entirely on a catchy slogan but the product is identical to the competitor’s, you aren’t a Purple Cow.
- Starbucks didn’t just sell coffee; they sold the “Third Place” experience and personalized cups.
- Tesla didn’t just make an electric car; they made a high-performance computer on wheels.
| Question | Goal |
| If we went out of business tomorrow, who would miss us most? | Identify your core “tribe.” |
| What is the one thing we do that people actually tell their friends about? | Find your remarkable seed. |
| Are we afraid of being criticized? | If no one is criticizing you, you’re likely playing it too safe. |
The Bottom Line
In 2025, the cost of being boring is higher than ever. To win in brand positioning, you must stop trying to make products for the masses and start making something remarkable for a specific group of people.
Don’t be a brown cow. Be the one they can’t stop talking about.