Seth Godin, in his book The Purple Cow, tells a story of when he and his American family visited France. They went for a drive through the scenic French countryside and noticed all the beautiful scenery and the scenic cows. “Wow” they stared at amazement about all the cool cows standing in the field. They went a little further and came across more cows. “Nice” they said. They kept driving and came across yet more cows. Now it was beginning to get boring. The cows were beginning to get ignored. They just became a part of the scenery.
What would make the family pay attention would be if all of a sudden a purple cow appeared (I will now replace “cow” for “camel” so that my Middle Eastern readers can relate better to the story). A purple camel would be something that you would pay attention to. A purple camel would be something that you would tell your friends about.
One of the best ways that you can market your product is to have a kick-@ss (replace “@” with “a” unless you are under 18) product. Because then the world will talk about it and do your marketing for you. Purple camels are easier to talk about. Get your friends to notice. Brown camels, unless you are completely new to the Middle East are a “been there, done that” product. You have to shout and spit three times as much if you are a normal looking camel compared to a purple camel in order to get noticed.
In the Middle East you can notice how Dubai used Purple Camel marketing effectively. A ski slope in the desert. A 7 star hotel. World’s tallest building. All these gave the city some buzz and enabled it to create a global brand. Building the second 7 star hotel is not quite as cool as it takes a lot longer to talk about.
Rather than spending a bunch of money on creating pretty looking brochures that look like every other product – why not spend the money on doing something original. Something creative. To offer some sort of service that others don’t do. That is purple camel marketing.