Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Year Published: 2005
Rating: 
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The Big Moo, marketing guru Seth Godin’s latest project, is a collection of articles by 33 prominent business thinkers on what it takes to make your business succeed. In short, the only way your business will grow is if your customers think your product or service is “remarkable” rather than just “good enough.”
In Purple Cow, Godin explained the importance of being remarkable. He likened it to cows. Most cows are boring, but if you were driving down the street and happened to see a purple cow, it would grab your attention. You’d probably tell all your friends about this bizarre experience. Our society is cluttered with marketing messages and advertising. The only way to get through to customers is to stand out – like a purple cow would. The Big Moo is a purple cow taken to an extreme – an idea that completely changes how people think or do business.
The book is laid out in pithy blurbs of a few pages that each focus on what it means to be remarkable. As an added incentive to purchase the book, all authors are donating 100% of the book’s profits to charity.
What does it take to be remarkable? The hard part is that there’s no magic bullet that will work in all cases. Rather, everyone needs to hear a different message. What’s remarkable to one person may be yesterday’s news or completely irrelevant to another.
The book cites numerous examples of people that did remarkable things. For instance:
- Dr. Virginia Apgar devised a simple Newborn Scoring System to determine if a newborn was healthy. By monitoring 5 criteria – heart rate, respiratory rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and color – doctors can predict with high accuracy whether the baby is likely to be healthy or needs additional care. This simple, free diagnostic system based on common sense changed prenatal care and saved numerous babies.
- Bruce Katz created Rockport shoes to be thick soled, light weight and comfortable. Initially, he pitched the shoes as great for walking – but young, hip people don’t walk. Old people walk. So he changed the story to tie walking to fitness and health. Suddenly, sales took off. In 5 years, Rockport grew 1000% and earned more than $200 million in annual revenue. By making his marketing message relevant to customers, Katz created an extremely profitable company.
- Brian Camelio quickly learned that the internet made it very difficult to make a profit selling music cds. So he started ArtistShare.com to embrace the trend. But unlike other online music stores, ArtistShare.com sells more than just cds and singles. Artists can also sell all sorts of videos and music scores and interviews about the process of making their music. Jazz composer Maria Schneider claims that her fans spend on average of $53 – almost 3 times the price of a cd – on all the extras she sells. By embracing technology rather than whining about how it is eating away at profits, Camelio found a new, profitable way of doing business.
The book also includes checklists, suggestions for improving productivity, and questions to ask to get better results. For instance, if you’re always “too busy” to do something, write down everything you do in a work week and calculate the time spent. Chances are, you spend most of your time doing day-to-day stuff – answering emails, returning calls, filling out forms, attending meetings, and putting out fires. What would happen if you spent more time working on projects and thinking about your business and less time putting out fires?
The book isn’t set up as a “how to” book since there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creating innovative ideas. Instead, it’s a brainstorming tool. Each chapter blurb focuses on a concept, idea, or case study to get you thinking about how you can take that idea and apply it to your business.
The book is a quick read and conversational in tone. Godin chose not to credit authors with chapter bylines so you don’t actually know which authors wrote which parts. The result is a synthesis of ideas that flow together remarkably well. If you’re already a fan of Seth Godin’s writings, you’ll appreciate this. If this is your first exposure, start with Purple Cow or Free Prize Inside or even his blog.
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