Hello! You are on the Free Opinion channel, thanks for reading me! Every positive and kind comment warms my soul!
The article is subjective and expresses the personal opinion of the author.
Step #4 is to create a Blue Ocean strategy that reconstructs existing market boundaries. Thankfully, the Blue Ocean Strategy book provides six classic ways to reconstruct a market boundary. The easiest way is to "Look Across Alternative Industries" for answers. In other words, look at products or services that have different forms or functions but the same purpose. For example, NetJets (which offers fractional ownership in corporate jets) looked at its two basic alternatives in the world of business travel: commercial air travel ("business class") and full ownership of private jets. Both options can be costly, and NetJets solved the problem by blending the two alternatives into fractional jet ownership. So, take a lesson from NetJets and consider what the blog alternatives are... if you write a gadget blog, what can you learn from the alternatives to gadget blogs, such as newsstand magazines and Walt Mossberg's weekly gadget column in the Wall Street Journal?
Step #5 is to fine-tune this value innovation strategy to make sure that you actually have a Blue Ocean strategy,and not just a "me-too" strategy. It might be the case that you have arrived at an "incremental" tactical improvement, but not a breakthrough strategic move, in which case you'd have to go back to the beginning of the process. For example, deciding to post 10 times a day instead of 5 times a day is not a Blue Ocean strategy. It may improve buyer utility marginally, but it will probably raise your costs (time spent at the keyboard) to an unsustainable level. There are three key questions to ask when constructing a Blue Ocean strategy: Is the strategy focused? Is the strategy divergent? (in other words, Is it obvious that what you are doing is different from what everyone else is doing?) Are you able to create a compelling tagline that speaks to users? (Hint: if the tagline includes a lot of Web 2.0 jargon, it's probably not a compelling tagline).
Anyway, that's the basic framework for understanding Blue Ocean Strategy. It's tough to boil down a 200-page book into a concise blog posting, but I've tried to provide a flavor of what it takes to move from the C-list to the A-list. It's hard work to come up with a viable strategy, but it's well worth the payoff...
To guide you on your efforts, there was one case study in the Blue Ocean Strategy book that is a dead-ringer comparison for the blogosphere: the $20 billion U.S. wine industry. California wines dominate the domestic market, capturing two-thirds of all U.S. wine sales. Not only that, but the top 8 companies produce more than 75% of the wine in the U.S., and the remaining 1,600 other wineries produce the remaining 25%. The dominance of a few big companies allows them to leverage distributors to gain shelf space and keep their costs down. Not only that, but their profitability allows them the benefit of huge marketing budgets, further increasing their built-in advantage. Competitors are left to create micro-niches. Wines from France, Italy and Spain compete with wines from Argentina, Australia and Chile, and these in turn, compete with wines from domestic vineyards in Oregon, Washington and Long Island. But nobody can beat the California winemakers, who are entrenched, dominant, and only getting stronger. Sound like a situation you've heard of?
Yellow tail.jpgAgainst this backdrop, one tiny Australian winemaker (Casella Wines) broke out of the pack by executing on a Blue Ocean strategy. Instead of trying to win over U.S. wine drinkers by poaching wine drinkers from other wines, the company tried to win over "non-customers" -- people who normally drink beer or other alcohol. For many beer drinkers, the wine industry is hopelessly complex (is that a hint of citrus I detect?) and even walking into a wine store can be an intimidating experience. Thus, for its yellow tail wines, Casella decided to remove all technical jargon from the bottles. Instead of including a chateau or classy-looking vineyard on the bottle, the company put a striking, simple and non-traditional image on its label: a yellow-tail kangaroo! Instead of appealing to wine snobs, the company simplified the wine, making it bolder, fruitier -- almost like a cocktail or wine cooler. Then, the company played on its Australian outback image to further differentiate itself from the pack (this is the cool Aussie kangaroo wine!) and priced its wine affordably (less than $7 a bottle).
If you, my friends, liked it, I will be glad if you click "subscribe"! Also, do not forget about your royal like and sincere commentary under this article. Thank you for attention!