Seth Godin makes the point of how remarkable marketing works through the lens of a story, in his book Purple Cow. The story goes something like this: his family was driving through France’s countryside on vacation and the storybook cow farms grabbed their attention as they drove by….for while. Then it all started to look the same. If they drove past something they had not seen before, say, a purple cow, then that would be worth remarking about.

Seth goes on to define remarkable marketing as the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. Not slapping on marketing as a last minute add-on, but understanding that if your offering is not remarkable, it is invisible.

So the solution, he argues, is to create remarkable products for the right people to seek out.  How do you target the right people? Don’t try to make a product for everybody, because that is a product for nobody.

Seth challenges the reader to make a list of competitors who are not trying to be everything to everyone. Are they outperforming you?

Now, this is all well & good, but what if you are not in marketing? Well, are you trying to get an idea adopted within your department? Having an idea cross the chasm is also a marketing problem, so maket to the right people. The same principles apply.