A Purple Cow Audit You Can Do in One AfternoonPurple Cow Audit 21 October 2026 · 3 min read · 227 reads
227readsMarketing · Business
A Purple Cow Audit You Can Do in One Afternoon
Five questions, one afternoon, one small change. How to find the part of your product worth talking about, and make it louder.
You do not need a consultant to find out whether your product is remarkable. You need one quiet afternoon, a notebook and a little honesty.
Seth Godin's Purple Cow gives the idea: a product that stands out from the herd gets noticed,
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talked
about
and
passed
on.
The
book
is
about
making
the
product
itself
the
marketing.
This
article
turns
that
into
a
working
audit
you
can
run
on
your
own
offer.
Question one: what do we sell, in the customer's words?
Not your product list. The outcome. A clinic does not sell consultations, it sells "I can finally sleep without back pain". A packaging supplier sells "my boxes arrive on time and do not burst".
Write the outcome in one sentence a customer would say. If you cannot, that is your first finding. You are describing features while the buyer thinks in results.
Question two: where do we look the same as everyone else?
List your three closest competitors. Under each, write what they promise. Now write your own promise beside them.
Look at the overlap. Every line you share with all of them is a line a buyer will ignore. Godin says a product can differ in design, packaging, pricing or even where and how it is sold, so check each of those, not just the product.
Compare: Looks like everyone | Worth a remark | Fair prices ; A price rule you explain openly | Good service ; A promise with a time limit | Quality material ; Proof you can show in a minute
Question three: what do customers already praise that we ignore?
Open your reviews, WhatsApp chats and thank-you messages. Look for the same odd detail mentioned more than once. Owners often overlook the thing customers love because it feels ordinary to them.
Question four: what could we do that is a little bit uncomfortable?
Remarkable usually costs something: a stricter promise, a narrower range, an extra step. Ask what you could offer that rivals would avoid because it is hard or inconvenient for them.
A same-day delivery window. A warranty that is simple to claim. A refusal to stock anything below a standard. Choose something you can keep without strain, because a promise broken once is worse than never made.
Question five: how will a customer pass it on?
A remark spreads only if it is easy to repeat. Check that your difference fits in one short sentence and that the customer has a moment to say it, like a card in the parcel, a line on the bill, or a sticker on the box.
Choose one and test it
After the audit you will have a messy page of notes. Do not try to fix everything. Pick the single point that is both true today and different from your rivals, and make it visible for thirty days. Say it on your counter, your invoices and your social bio. Then listen for whether customers begin to repeat it back.
If they do, you have found something. Invest more in that edge. If they do not, adjust the sentence or choose another point from the audit. You have lost an afternoon, not a year.
Keep the promise small enough to keep
A common mistake after an audit is to announce something grand and then struggle to deliver. Start with a promise your team can keep on a bad day, not just a good one. A two-hour delivery promise that fails every Friday does more harm than a four-hour one that never fails.
Walk through a normal week with your team and ask where the promise could break. Fix those points first, then speak about it publicly.
Try this
- Block two hours this week with a notebook.
- Answer the five questions in writing.
- Choose one difference that is true and hard for rivals to copy.
- Put it in one short sentence on your invoice or packaging for the next month.
- Note how many customers repeat it back to you.
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