I’m sure all of us have read Purple Cow at some point but it was nice to revisit the high points. It is hard to believe that what Seth was talking about at the time was so innovative when it now seems like common sense, at least to us smart marketers.

Purple Cow is all about creating an innovative product (or service) and marketing it to the right influencers, or “sneezers” if you will. Unfortunately for a lot of us, we are not involved in the product planning or design or we simply are trying to market a product that was created long before there was a marketing department. I believe that many of the rules for creating a purple cow can be translated to creating marketing campaigns. Here are six ideas from Purple Cow on how to change or product (or campaign):

• Think small – “don’t try to make a product for everybody, because that is a product for nobody.” For marketers this means creating messages specific to niche audiences. Target a specific message to a focused audience. No spray and pray, ’nuff said.
• Outsource – If your internal resources can’t think outside the box for a new creative campaign, you might try using an outside vendor. If the campaign is successful, your internal resource will learn to shape up or ship out.
• Build and use a permission asset – Create a user community to allow your customers to communicate with each other and you. If you do not have enough customer to warrant creating your own community, use one on Facebook or LinkedIn. At the very least have a customer advisory board to keep you in check.
• Copy, not from your industry, but from any other industry – B2B Marketers steal from our B2C cousins all the time. Look for a company that is running a remarkable campaign and copy it.
• Identify a competitor who’s generally regarded as “at the edges,” and outdo it - Aren’t we always trying to outdo our competition. My advice, make your campaign remarkable enough that your competition can’t copy or outdo you.
• Ask, “Why not?” – Wacky ideas are good. Always ask yourself, “why not?”