Blue Ocean Strategy
There are different ways to create a vision about the future of your organization, but the possibilities can seem overwhelming. It is hard enough to predict the next six months let alone what you’ll need to do to be successful in five years!
The Blue Ocean Strategy provides some structure for you to break down your product or service offering into components. By comparing you against your competitors on a ‘strategy canvas’ you will hopefully be able to find some new opportunities for your marketing.
Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas:
- Eliminate
What are the factors of your business that provide no differentiation between you and your customers, cause you headaches, and add little to no value to your customers? It can be hard to think about paring down your offering, but sometimes a simpler offering can actually help to better target your niche. - Reduce
This is not quite as radical as ‘elimination’, but there might be aspects of your offering that provide more than your customers require. Be careful about reducing price, though. Customers quickly get used to a reduced price but can backlash against future price increases. - Raise
In opposition to reducing your offering, are there aspects that you could increase to meet a currently unmet need? Think broadly about this one, because you can get big bang for your buck through aspects such as customer service training to ‘raise’ the personal touch that your customers feel. - Create
Let the creative juices flow on this one. This is where you start to think about aspects that could be totally new or novel for your offering. Can you partner with a complimentary business to offer a new service to your customers? What if you did the exact opposite than your competitors in certain areas such as product offering or convenience?
Creating a ‘blue ocean’ for your organization can help to free you from the tyranny of head-to-head competition and help you discover a previously uncontested niche. Give it a try and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the insights you’ll gain.
Source: Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Chris McPhee, MBA
Email: Chris.McPhee@Marketing-Matters.org
