How to Apply Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean strategy is a relatively new model which discusses how companies can move away from highly competitive markets and create an uncontested market space for themselves.  Let’s compare marketplaces to oceans. Imagine That companies are sharks and customers are fishes. In the marketplace as the competition increases and the focus becomes on hooking the limited customers the margins start going down and there are not a lot of profits to be made. The ocean become bloody as the sharks are fighting with each other.  But if the company can move away from the traditional market place concept and focus on innovatively creating a space for itself by uniquely fulfilling customer needs, it has created a blue ocean. The Model was proposed by Dr. Kim Chan and Dr. Renee Mauborgne. Here is n explanation of it:

Imagine you want to start a circus. Would you?

 Not really as it is no longer lucrative due to the following reasons:

A few players holding monopoly

Animal rights issues

Tight regulations

Multiple arenas to manage

Star performers demanding more compensation

Some acts can be dangerous for the performers

The present generation of kids more interested in video games and internet activities

So instead of trying to fight it out a company Cirque Du Soliel created its own Blue Ocean

See the video below on how Cirque Du Soliel created a market space for itself

The Blue Ocean strategy suggest that you ask the following questions to identify possible Blue oceans.

What can be eliminated?

What can be raised?

What can be reduced?

What can be created?

Applying this to Cirque Du Soliel:

They Eliminated

Star performers

Animal shows

Aisle concession sales

Multiple show arenas

They Raised

Venue quality

Theatrical aspects

Story lines

They Reduced

The danger in the shows

Slapstick Humour

They Created

Theme

Refined environment

Multiple productions

Artistic music and dance

Here is a video of how they reinvented Circus

Here is one of the authors explaining what A Blue ocean is:

Another example for blue ocean strategy is the chain of Citizen M Hotels

See how they applied Blue Ocean to their industry

[learn_press_profile]