Likes and Purple Cows for Running Evolution

The article about Purple Cows expanded on what we learned in the books Word of Mouth Marketing and Socialnomics that marketing starts with the product. In Purple Cow article, they pointed out that the marketing team needs to be part of the product development team. For Running Evolution, that step is already the case as it is mainly one person doing the marketing and developing. She has employees who are running coaches so she needs to make sure to include them in her class/group development on what people are looking for. Beth (the owner) does a lot of the coaching herself so she should be able to figure out what employees are looking for; but she needs to make sure to have regular pow wow sessions about what their clients are looking for in the running/training needs and wants.

Finding the Purple Cow:
Formalizing a Couch to 5K program that keeps you accountable is fairly innovative. Running classes are pretty rare - though running groups are common. Running Evolution (RE) has been innovative thus far but I'm not sure they've found their Purple Cow yet. The sneezers for RE are probably going to be fitness-aholics that are trying to get their friends active as the Couch to 5K is a good place to start. Other sneezers will be new runners that found their love of running through a class offered by RE.
For RE to find their Purple Cow, they need to figure out what running product isn't currently being offered. Since they're a small, local company, they would need to figure out the running needs of the Seattle runners. It may be a personalized training plan to meet your goals or finding the perfect coaching technique that inspires their clients to meet their goals and tell all their friends about it.

Likes
Currently, Running Evolution has a 'people' page on FB that you can "friend." I don't think this is a bad thing, but you can't "Like" it and the "Likes" article showed the impact of "Liking" page on FB is rivaling reviews. I would almost call it the 'lazy person's review' but it works. Reviewing takes time and thought; 4 stars or 5? What should I write? Etc. Sometimes you just like a company, so the "like" button on FB allows you to endorse the company, without too much complication. Running Evolution should create a company page that people can "Like." They can ask clients to "Like" their FB page at the end of a class and tell them what they post (recipes, training tips, events, etc) so the client has incentive to Like the page. Some clients may not want to be "Friends" with the company as that allows the company to see all their personal information. It's also more of a commitment.