BLOG: Dougal Paver hunts the Purple Cow

By Alistair Houghton on Sep 21, 09 01:54 PM

HERE'S the latest from LDP Creative blogger Dougal Paver:

BEST-selling business books tend to reach the top of the pile for good reason: there's some compelling nugget in there that can transform your thinking, drive change or spark some improvement or other.
And if you've ever read the seminal Purple Cow by Seth Godin, you'll know what I mean.

Chances are you were given it by a convert, page corners folded down and exclamatory remarks like Yes! and Bloody brilliant! scrawled all over the margins. I have those good chaps at O'Connor's solicitors to thank for my first dog-eared copy.
And the premise? It's remarkably easy to stand out from the crowd - you just have to understand how. Advertising is a waste of money, mostly, and there are easier, more impactful ways of grabbing your customers' attention. You can be exactly like your competitors in every respect, bar one - as long as that one thing is really stand-out. Like being a cow that produces milk and beef, except that you're not black and white, you're purple. Now that would make people stand and stare, wouldn't it?
You can, of course, offer your market more than one splash of purple - the more the merrier, in fact. And you have to recognise that purple's an easy colour to replicate, so over time your competitors will copy you. Which means, of course, you've constantly got to find new ways of giving your product or service the purple cow treatment.
So how have we put this in to practice? First up was our choice of office. Only a handful of offices in the city have private balconies overlooking the river - ours is 300 feet up, with views all the way to Snowdon and the Lake District and a private terrace of 2,000 sq ft. Jaw-dropping stuff and clients, staff and prospective clients love using it.
Second for us is the continuous stream of daft, different, difficult and fun challenges, events and hospitality that we throw. People tell us that we're constantly making things happen, putting people together and helping them have fun. Nowt original in that, of course, but we do seem to do it a goodly deal more than most.
So if you're not up to much on Saturday 25th September there are 21 of us from the Manchester and Liverpool business communities climbing Skiddaw in the north Lakes and it's open house. Let me know if you fancy it and we'll see you there.

Dougal Paver is managing director of Paver Smith in Liverpool