Many companies nowadays find it hard to remarkable, because they are frightened. Let us examine some of the things they are frightened of:
First, they're frightened of criticism - being remarkable means attracting criticism, because you will stand out of the crowd.
As an example, the new CTS Cadillac has been widely criticized because it is ugly, despite the fact that it has sold well and those who have bought it love it. Making something truly exceptional simply attracts criticism - it's quite inevitable!
But definitely, criticism doesn't mean failure. In fact, if you don't get any criticism then you should be worrying. It means you are playing it safe and as mentioned earlier, this is the road to failure.
Second, many companies are also frightened of being offensive or looking like fools if they are too bold.
Indeed, being different can cause other people to make jokes at your expense. But even if people ridicul your product, their ridicule itself can become viral, thus further spreading the word of your product.
But being outrageous or offensive is not something you should knowingly strive for, as it only works on occasion. What's worse, it will create a scandal which will create negative word-of-mouth - definitely not what you want!
Finally, perhaps the most significant fear most large companies have concerning creating Purple Cows is that it would require them to drastically transform their existing infrastructures like factories
After all, once you understand what will be the thing that makes your company remarkable, you will do whatever it takes to achieve this, this often means big changes.
A primary example of conquering this fear can be seen in Brad Anderson, the CEO of major retailer Best Buy. To differentiate his company from competitors, Anderson has totally changed the way the company worked, starting with selling what customers wanted to buy rather than what the company wanted to sell. This shift of paradigm resulted in big changes to the infrastructure the company had heavily invested in earlier