The blue ocean is a niche free from competitors
And the red ocean is a niche full of the same offers. It boils from the blood of competitors, it is difficult to sell their skills, services and goods. Swimming in the blue ocean is useful for everyone who wants to do something new, interesting, and at the same time to earn more.
"The Blue Ocean Strategy" is an excellent book on how to create a blue ocean around yourself or your business. I advise you to read it to everyone who wants to succeed, without spending all their energy on battles with competitors.
The book says that the blue oceans are always - you just need to be able to see the prerequisites for their creation. 150 years ago, many customary industries and economy did not exist: passenger air travel, space research, cinema ... And just 50 years ago the world did not know such phenomena as the Internet, mobile phones, digital cameras.
Yes there is 50 years! Just 10 years ago, no one suspected of crypto-fever, blockade, AR / VR, 3D-printing and other things that are usual for us today.
Industries are changing, many disappearing - new ones appear instead. And if this happened 50 and 10 years ago, then the same will happen in 10 and 50 years.
Theoretically it's easy, but practice is more complicated. All our modern theories, marketing tools, models of thinking and analytics are honed for swimming in the red ocean. In order to win back from the competition a small piece of water and protect it. The blue ocean says: dude, do not waste time fighting - swim where there are no competitors, and customers / customers / demand is there.
One of the vivid examples of creating the blue ocean - Cirque du Soleil
Circuses in the last 20-30 years are difficult. It becomes more difficult for them to fight for the attention and interest of children (the main target audience). Now they do not compete with a bad TV picture. They have to deal with games, streams, video blogs and records of any circus performances that you can watch, do not get up from the couch.
And in general, circuses are similar to each other. Trainers, clowns, gymnasts - all have similar numbers. A bear can not ride a bicycle in different ways, in every circus it will do it the same way. Jugglers equally toss and catch balls, and clowns make the same faces.
Former accordionist, acrobat and fire devourer Guy Laliberte coined and created the Circus du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) in 1984, bringing together a group of street artists. Speeches of the groups Cirque du Soleil have already seen 45 million people in more than 90 cities around the world. In circus groups around the world, 5000 people work, and annual revenues exceed 650 million dollars.
Guy Laliberte decided not to compete in the existing model of circus performances. Instead, he created a new one: colorful shows for adults with the best gymnasts and strongmen, dazzlingly beautiful costumes, a fascinating story, play of light and scenery, pyrotechnics. Without animals, without a struggle for the attention of children, without the blood of the red ocean.
The cornerstone of the Blue Ocean Strategy
At the heart of any Blue Ocean is value innovation. This is a strategic logic, in which emphasis is placed on innovation (new product, service, model), and on value (practicality of the goods, affordable price, minimum costs).
Innovations without value are simply technologies that are not needed by anyone, are not available, are not interesting. Values without innovation - in fact, the same thing that competitors do, but cheaper or slightly better. But in principle such a value is no different from what is on the market.
How to swim in the blue ocean?
What blue oceans are around us, how can they be created and found in the industry in which you work?
Examples of companies that have found blue oceans are all successful start-ups. Uber swims in the blue ocean of a taxi (although this ocean is already turning pink due to Lyft, Juno and other competitors). Airbnb has found a blue ocean on the market of short-term housing accommodation for tourists. The creators of Viber saw a large free niche and people's need for cheap communication through mobile phones WITHOUT payments to mobile telecom operators. There are a lot of examples.
Find the blue ocean in your niche will help the principles of design thinking. In fact, it is "consumer empathy", the ability to look at the product / service / process through the eyes of the customer, the buyer. This view helps to understand what is missing in the market, how you can improve customer experience and the very life of your customers.
Design thinking can help you significantly strengthen your proposal, make it more attractive, fundamentally different from competitors.
The result will not necessarily be a whole blue ocean. It can be "blue sea" or "blue lake", which is especially important for private entrepreneurs and very small companies.
For example, what "blue sea" can a photographer create with his own photo studio? Asking the right questions for his target audience, he will understand:
Many people feel uncomfortable in the "strange" situation, because of what they can not cope with the excitement;
Because of this emotion turns out to be tortured, and the photos themselves are unnatural. And postprocessing does not save;
Potential customers are not ready to go to the studio to the other end of the city, even if there is really beautiful, and coffee is delicious.
How to make it so that people during the shooting were as relaxed as possible and saved time on trips to the studio? It's right to come to them with a photo studio!
A roll with multi-colored backgrounds, lamps and flashes easily fit into the trunk of the car. All you need to arrange a mini-photo studio on site is a section of an empty wall, a wall outlet and a bit of free space.
Of course, you can not bring large scenery with you, but for a portrait shooting, a family photo or a business portfolio, this model is suitable. People save time, change clothes in their room (and not in a small booth in a photo studio) and feel comfortable. If there is a background and light, a good photographer does not care where to shoot.
And even such an outgoing photographer can partially or completely refuse to rent an office. Not a bad bonus.
What do you think, in what blue ocean can you swim?
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