The metaphor is straightforward. If you drive past a field of cows, you do not notice them. They are all the same. But if one cow is purple, you stop the car. That is what a remarkable product does: it makes people stop and tell someone else about it.
Godin wrote this book in 2003, when traditional advertising was still the dominant marketing channel. His argument was that advertising was losing its effectiveness because there was too much of it and people had learned to tune it out. The alternative was not better ads but better products, products so remarkable that customers did the marketing for you.
The book is short, about 160 pages, and written in Godin’s signature style: fast, punchy, and packed with examples. He profiles companies and products that succeeded by being remarkable (the Aeron chair, JetBlue, Starbucks) and those that failed by being safe (he is less kind to these, and many of the companies he criticized have since disappeared, which supports his argument).
Godin does not provide a formula for being remarkable. His position is that a formula would defeat the purpose, because following a formula produces predictable results, which is the opposite of remarkable. Instead, he argues for a mindset: when designing a product, ask whether it is worth talking about. If the honest answer is no, do not ship it.
The criticism of the book is that it is easier to say “be remarkable” than to do it, and that many of the examples involve companies with significant resources or unusual circumstances. Godin would probably agree but argue that the mindset is what matters, not the specific execution.
For founders, the book is a useful filter. Before launching anything, ask: would a customer tell a friend about this? If not, you have a marketing problem that no amount of advertising spend will fix.
At about 160 pages, the book reads in a couple of hours. It is one of Godin’s best-known works and remains relevant despite being over 20 years old.
