The blue ocean strategy better demystified!

The true success of an MBA is all about creating an outstanding strategy. A strategy that sets you apart from your competitors and helps you in reaching out to your target audience. The better your strategy, the better will be your company's position in the market. During the two-year MBA course, every student hears the term Blue Ocean Strategy at least a hundred times. From this, you can easily understand how crucial this concept is in today's world.

The term was first coined by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. They talked about the red ocean and blue ocean to depict the complete market universe. The red ocean referred to the market space that is known to everyone and complete knowledge about it is available. On the other hand, blue ocean refers to the unknown market which is not yet explored by anyone, and not much about it is known.

The red ocean is called so because it depicts the cut-throat competition wherein every day a new company enters the market or leaves it thereby turning everything red. The blue ocean depicts the vastness of the ocean which is still untapped or unexplored by the companies and there are huge opportunities lying there.

Let's understand how the blue ocean strategy made it possible for the companies to grow manifolds and improve profitability. We are sharing with you certain examples. Read on to know about these companies.

Uber

Uber is an American multinational ride-hailing company that gives people a chance to book a cab and even order food through an app available on their mobiles. It sure is a great example of a blue ocean strategy as uber created a new market by combining technology and modern devices. It wanted to differentiate itself from competitors so it worked on its payment methods, pricing strategy, and revenue-cost model. The objective was to create a profitable company that creates value for the customers as well as drivers. It was a player in the uncontested market but when competitors started entering that market, Uber diversified its offering in India and started Uner Eats, a food delivery verticle. Definitely, a great strategy.

Canon

Canon's blue ocean strategy focused on targeting the users instead of corporate purchasers for selling their copiers. The competitors of Canon made big, durable copiers but Canon shifted to small, easy to use desktop copiers and printers thereby creating a new market space for itself. Canon tried to look past the buyers of copiers that were already existing in the market and focused on the new set of buyers and transformed their product as per the needs of the new buyer.

iTunes

Apple is a company that is famous for its innovative products. The day when Steve Jobs introduced the world to iPods, there was a transition observed from walkman to iPods. Every person shifted to an iPod and the product became people's favourite. To create a mark in the digital music space, Apple introduced iTunes. It basically solved the problem of the illegal downloads of music and even gave an option to people access to single songs instead of the complete album. All this was offered at a reasonable price and the quality was also good. Since every Apple product has iTunes for downloading music, the market space it holds is unimaginable.

If we look at the current market scenario, every startup is exploring the blue ocean. Their target audience or products or communication strategy is different from their competitors and they are working towards rediscovering themselves every day. This is a really good concept which if understood and implemented properly, can do wonders for a company.

With the Blue Ocean Strategy crystal clear to you, hope you are ready to use it to crack the next case study or B-plan competition that comes your way!