In 2022, something strange happened at Mandalika. A rain shaman named Mbak Rara, armed with ritual and resolve, walked onto the MotoGP stage and—almost instantly—became the story the world couldn’t stop talking about. It wasn’t the racers. It wasn’t the speed. It was the unexpected spectacle. The anomaly. The Purple Cow. Seth Godin might not have predicted Mbak Rara specifically. But he saw her coming.

The Cow That Wasn’t Brown If you’ve ever driven past a hundred cows, you’ll understand the concept intuitively. You see one cow. You’ve seen them all. But if one of those cows were purple, your brain would jolt. You’d stare. You’d pull out your phone. You’d post. Godin’s idea in Purple Cow (2002) is elegant in its audacity: In a world saturated with sameness, the only thing that spreads is what stands out. Being good is no longer enough. Being different—that’s what’s rare. That’s what gets remembered.

Brains, Biases, and Why We Can’t Look Away There’s neuroscience behind this. Studies on visual cognition (Viviani & Aymoz, 2001) show that our brains are hardwired to detect deviation. When an object moves differently, looks odd, or breaks the pattern, the brain treats it as important. In a stream of sameness, our senses chase the outlier. This is why the Purple Cow works. It disrupts mental autopilot. It’s also why Mbak Rara made international headlines. She was, quite literally, the most unexpected element on the track.

Marketing’s Full Circle Godin makes another point. Decades ago, marketing was all about word of mouth. Then came the media blitz of the ‘60s through the early 2000s. TV, radio, print—the golden age of mass broadcasting. But today, the wheel has turned. The power has shifted back to the individual. Back to the sneezer, as Godin calls them—the first people who try something, love it, and can’t stop talking about it. We call them influencers now. But the behavior is primal. And that’s the deeper genius of the Purple Cow. It doesn’t just grab attention. It invites conversation. It gives people a reason to spread the idea—not because they’re paid to, but because it’s simply too weird, too cool, or too brilliant not to.

The High Risk of Playing It Safe Godin puts it bluntly: To be normal is to be invisible. In fact, the final—and perhaps most uncomfortable—lesson from the Purple Cow is this:

The safest path is often the riskiest of all.

When you blend in, you disappear. When you conform, you vanish. But when you dare to be remarkable, you take a risk. And that risk is the gateway to relevance.

So, here’s the question no brand can ignore: In your category, in your industry, in your story...

Are you a cow, or are you a Purple Cow?