A Purple (Possibly Little Green) Cow in Flagstaff

By on December 27th, 2007 In Marketing

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On Sunday, we took the kids to the snow in Flagstaff. We stayed at the Quality Inn. As an international motel brand situated in at the intersection of I-17 and I-40 it doesn’t really need to do a lot to stand out.

But the QI in Flag has a leg up — what marketing guru Seth Godin calls a Purple Cow – it proudly welcomes Martians (and, according to its builletin board, Shriners and Ramones).

I asked the desk clerk if this was related to Lowell Obervatory. “Not really,” she said. “It’s a way for us to stand out but it’s really about our values of non-discrimination. We welcome anyone here and we’ll provide you a great experience no matter who you are — even if you’re a Martian.”

Comments

Ann N. Videan, APR Says:
December 27th, 2007 at 9:15 am

I’m always up for standing out. Doing something unusual makes people talk about you, and it’s exactly that type of word-of-mouth technique I teach my clients. Let me just say, I do like their position now that I know what it means. But, I really didn’t know what it meant when I first saw it. Seems like they could have used something more clear like, “Everyone welcome, even Martians.” Just a thought from the trenches.

Unmentioned Says:
December 28th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

Talking of discrimination, have you seen the PRSA officer roster on another page? Why are 95 percent of PR jobs in Phoenix held by WHITE women? If PRSA WERE truly a professional organization, they would work to reverse that. That holds for IABC and AMA – the marketing group.

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