Be a purple cow, but be a purple cow that produces white milk which tastes good!

I hear this a lot from business owners - "Differentiate or die." And, I agree. You certainly need to be a purple cow* and stand out. But, being purple is only piece of the puzzle. It helps you to get noticed and to attract potential customers but being purple does not necessarily lead to long-term relationships based on value exchange between the buyer and the seller. Purple cows can also attract people who don't really care about what the purple cow has to offer. In fact, purple cows may attract people who are just looking for the next big purple cow to marvel at and get entertained but have no appreciation for the core of the purple cow's offering. I would suggest that you start off by first being relevant to your customers' needs and then paint yourself purple. In other words, inside the purple cover, there should be something that truly meets or exceeds the needs of your customers. And, if your goal is to build a company that will last into the future and thrive on change, then you should also have a marketing engine that continuously keeps track of changing customer needs and wants and can continuously morph your product or service to stay relevant in the midst of change. Of course, that also means tomorrow's cows may need to be green; not merely to stand out, but to survive!