The problem with the purple cow

The problem with the purple cow

21 years ago, Seth Godin wrote a short (and very popular) book called “Purple Cow“. If you’ve not read it, here is a very quick snippet that explains the premise:

“The world is full of boring stuff—brown cows—which is why so few people pay attention…. A purple cow… now that would stand out. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing.”

It’s good advice, but it can be taken to bad places and I think we’re seeing a lot of it with Google. In recent weeks, they’ve unveiled some very impressive “purple cow” ideas, like they do every year. The problem is two-fold:

  1. They often bring these new ideas at the expense of more effective but less flashy improvements.
  2. Most of these new things just don’t last (or maybe never even come out). For example, in 2017 Google showed an impressive demo of removing a chain link fence from in front of an image, and seven years later it still hasn’t been released.

If you use Google products, you’ve seen the core issues with things like Google My Business (often too difficult to “claim” your own business) or the overcomplexity of Google Analytics 4. It wouldn’t be exciting for Google to announce that they’ve added more staff to help with business profiles, or that Google Analytics was now more streamlined for the average user. Instead, they chase the purple cow at every turn, and then quietly move on once the hype has died down.

I’m not against purple cows, but if you’re bringing them out at the expense of your brown cows, you’re eventually going to end up without any cows at all.

Bill Petro

Historian, technologist, blogger, podcaster

7 个月

I've got to agree with you on a couple of points: - Google Reader was a great reader for USENET articles and lots of other things. It was a newsreader and very useful. Then... what? - Google Analytics I've used since it came out. Easy to get a token on one's website. Now, I had to get help from a web executive to understand how to move to GA4. Ouch. Keep posting Mickey.

Mallie Hart

Why are you setting your hopes on hacks? Especially when you can hook and hold attention with killer copy and gorgeous graphics. That's where my 20+ years of design and writing expertise come out to play!

7 个月

I enjoyed this one immensely, Mickey. Started my morning off nicely!

Nancy B Howard

Marketing & Media Manager

7 个月

Very well said!

Thomas Graham

Upgrading your office phones to VoIP is complex, we make it simple - tmaVoIP

7 个月

I completely agree with the points being made here and will add 3 of my own: 1. Many people are looking for an alternative to Google when searching for content as most of us resent how Google manipulates and decides which content we should see, especially in regards to politics. 2. Most people do not appreciate Google building profiles on each user and selling that information to other companies without our consent. 3. Yes, Google needs to use some of those profits to hire more support staff to help users resolve account issues and glitches in their platform. . . great post Mickey !

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