I guess you’ve probably read the purple cow.

It’s one of the books everyone in innovation talks about. Seth Godin announces the death of advertising and the need to sell your product to enthusiastic early adopters so they can tell everyone else about it. He talks about creating something that stands out from the crowd, a product that will vitually advertise itself. The book is a bit simplistic in my view and polarises to make a point (“the TV-industrial combine is dead”). Does every product that your company makes have to be an absolute stand-out from the crowd, remarkable thing? I don’t think so. However, If you have even have a few products which do stand out, I agree it can make a big difference (just look at Toyota with the Prius). Do you even need to change your product to turn it into a purple cow?

Shreddies have found a new way to talk about their product without changing anything at all watch?v=pqRtynIV96E&NR=1 which stands out a bit. Some people seem to have got quite annoyed by the whole diamond shreddies thing, but I guess that’s the point.

In the end though, in my view, there are better books to read if you want to uncover powerful new directions for your future innovation. I prefer the Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen myself. More on this book in future posts.

If you want to see Seth Godin in action, here is a link to one of his talks. He speaks well anyway.