Purple cow thinking
About purple cow thinking
The purple cow metaphor was developed by US marketing guru Seth Godin in his book 'The Purple Cow' to represent standing out from the crowd.
Many new products fail to stand out from the crowd and consequently fail or have mediocre performance. Products such as smokeless cigarettes, Ford Edsel, Par Bake bread rolls and the McLean burger. To read more about being a purple cow read 'In praise of the purple cow'.
Purple cow thinking and QUTopia
Each semester in QUTopia we encourage the students to innovate and stand out from the crowd with their products, branding, stall design and promotional strategies. Those businesses that demonstrate innovation receive a Purple Cow award.
On screen title: Student of the Market - QUTopia Student Documentary.
On screen: QUT Business School Z Block
Emily Taylor: Hi I’m Emily and you’re watching Student of the Market, welcome to QUTopia.
Throughout its 10 year history QUTopia has provided the opportunity to be immersed in a local market day atmosphere, and is an occasion to indulge and be exposed to fresh produce and craftsmanship. QUTopia’s definitive dynamic is the patent platform for creativity.
I caught up with Professor Rebekah Russel-Bennett founder of QUTopia to discuss QUTopia’s origins and her opinion on this matter.
“Can you tell us a little bit about the origins of QUTopia?”
Professor Rebekah Russel-Bennett: “I like the idea of getting students to invent their own small business, think of things in a very tactical way and get their hands dirty. What is marketing like in the real world like and trying to simulate that as much as possible both in terms of process, outcome and also the emotions that go along with the world of marketing.”
Emily Taylor: “In regards to previous market days, do you believe the best approach is to have an original idea or work off something that has been previously successful?”
Professor Rebekah Russel-Bennett: “I think it depends on your willingness to take a risk. I think if you’re not willing to take a risk and do the effort that that requires I think doing something original could be a real disaster. On the other hand by sticking with what has been done before isn’t going to be outstanding. It’s not going to be unique or original. Translating that to the real world if you just want to be an average business and make a reasonable amount of money then you could play it safe. However, if you want to be a runaway success or a really fantastic business you’ve got to do something different.”
Emily Taylor: I questioned some of QUTopia’s business owners on their creative integrity and surrounding competition.
Sweet Street: “The most appealing stall would be humanity and retrospect, they kind of stick out”
Sugar Sticks: “I like picture this, with the photo frame hanger and I just think that’s a really good idea”
Polar Oasis: “I’m a bit partial to Mexican, so the Mexican is pretty good”
Shaken Not Stirred: “I really like the Nachos, yummy! Quick Spritz is also really good, as well”
Emily Taylor: “Why is it so important that people do this in their business studies?”
Bill Proud (Director of Studies, QUT Business School): “It’s part of what we do to give you real world experience to make sure that the students understand what goes on outside the university as well as inside and applying theory into a practical situation.”
Emily Taylor: After hearing the hype I decided it was time to get amongst market day and I was not disappointed.
“Can you explain to us a little bit more about this purple cow?”
Professor Rebekah Russel-Bennett: “Basically the idea of a purple cow is that they stand out from the crowd and we encourage the students to try and become a purple cow through their product ideas and their design and truly get out there and see what they can do. One that has won a purple cow this semester was cut and burn. They had quite a unique product, they had key rings done with laser cutting but what was more unique was the way they marketed it. They discovered a way on Facebook of integrating an addon that allowed you to have an order form that was built into the Facebook page.
Emily Taylor: “I’d hear positive comments on business, Cut and Burn’s creativity, it was about time I queried the business owners.
Cut and Burn: “We’ve been way more successful than I think any of us had ever thought we would be. I don’t think it was just down to innovation, we had a really good product, we priced it well, we did some market research earlier in the semester so I think it was a lot of preparation and our hard work that definitely paid off in our success.”
Emily Taylor: “So this is it for QUTopia for another year proving that in this competitive QUTopian environment and possibly the world of marketing that originality and innovation are far more successful than following previous trends.
I’m Emily Taylor and thank you for watching Student of the Market.
On screen: "Student of the Market"
On screen: Host: Emily Taylor
On screen: Director: Hayley Dell
On screen: Camera: Mary Holgate
On screen: Sound: Fumika Ishii
On screen: Writer: Thomas McClifty
On screen: Editor: Jessica Stewart
On screen: Special Thanks to Rebekah Russell Bennett and the AMB240 Students and Staff!
On screen: QUTopia a real-world marketing simulation