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Seth Godin
Case Study: So Popular,
No One Goes There Anymore
Here’s a great case study of how the Purple Cow cycle
works.
Stew Leonard started an ordinary dairy store in
Connecticut. It was less than twenty thousand square feet,
selling milk, cheese, and the usual dairy store essentials.
Stew didn’t want to settle for a tiny store, though, so he
embraced the Cow.
He put a petting zoo out front. He developed a customer
service policy so simple and important he had it
carved in a 6,000-pound block of granite and put in
front of the store. He started featuring unique or unusual
products, and he sold many items for dramatically
reduced prices. The store was stuffed with robotic mooing
cows, dancing milk cartons, and a violin-playing chicken.
As the suburbs near his Connecticut store grew, so did
the legend of his Purple Cow. Stew expanded the store
more than ten times, eventually showing up in Ripley’s Believe
It or Not! He was lauded in one of Tom Peters’ major books.
He was an advisor to politicians and a friend of Paul
Newman. Stew also sold more Perdue chicken every day
than did any other store in the world.
The store and the innovation it stood for were so spectacular
that I took each and every employee I hired and
drove them an hour north to Connecticut just to see how
customer service and showmanship could combine to create
a world-class organization.
That was ten years ago.
Today, Stew Leonard’s is run by his son, and the store
has expanded to several locations. One of them is just two
miles from my house. I never go there.
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