Seth Godin's premise is a simple one - you're either a Purple Cow or you're not, and by extension you are either remarkable or invisible.
Okay, that's intriguing and it makes you want to read more of what turns out to be a flawed book.
Godin asks what brands like Starbucks, JetBlue and KrispyKreme have that makes them special - how have they become purple cows?
They are all brands with spectacular growth, firebrands if you like, which literally stand out in their sectors like a purple cow in a field full of boring black and white Fresians.
After you've seen enough Fresians, they're boring, says Godin, and I couldn't agree more.
What we need is something phenomenal, exciting and unbelievable he cries.
However, to gain the purple cow status of the brands he singles out, it's apparently not enough to try to achieve the remarkable in your marketing efforts.
'Purple cowness' is inherent, an essential part of the DNA of an organisation.
'Purple cow' has to be in everything that you do.
Now, I have a great deal of sympathy with this as I work in a company that has put something similar at the heart of its very existence - we have one word that is a mantra throughout everything we do and that word is 'think'.
Using it in our positioning, promotion, client servicing and solutions to client brand challenges has enabled us to create something different and to set ourselves apart in a sector where there are literally hundreds of black and white cows all chewing the same marketing cud. So, while I have real empathy on this level with what Godin is saying, I would add that it is nothing new.
All marketing should begin with a product or service that is differentiated in enough ways to get it noticed. We are not the only company to 'think', for example, but one thing that sets us apart is that we have a huge percentage of ex-client marketers on our staff whose way of thinking makes us unique.
Basically, what the man is talking about is USP - a unique selling point - and this has been talked to death in varying forms since the '80s. Enough for us to know that unique is just that.
Take a moment, if you will, to think what car, what chocolate bar, what airline you would consider to be unique?
Hard, isn't it?
But what is easy is to recognise is that the recipe for uniqueness doesn't come from a book - particularly this one.
Godin's premise, for me, is just an old, tired one set out in a lively and engaging way.
He is literally painting a black and white argument a vivid purple in order to get our attention.
Okay, it works on the level of intrigue and the book will sell in truckloads to people who want to revolutionise their brand into the FTSE 100.
But don't blame me if you buy it and wonder where you have heard the arguments before.
Probably, like me, you will end up thinking something along these lines.
In a crowded marketplace there will always be somebody who is happy to buy by a cow, regardless of the colour, because there just aren't enough purple cows to go round.
Jason Nicholas is managing director of Billington Cartmell in the United Kingdom. This book review was first published on Haymarket's Brand Republic website, www.brandrepublic.com.