Author : John Alquist
How can you render competitors totally irrelevant?Answer: increase your business by using "blue
ocean" strategies, which provide almost infinite
possibilities for profitable growth."Blue ocean" marketing means you find new strategies,
new ways, new products, and new places to do business—all
yet undiscovered by competition.Consider your "blue ocean" to be your "uncontested market
space," where you can swim successfully and profitably
without running into large schools of hungry sharks."Blue ocean" marketing is characterized by both
exceptional value (real or perceived) and innovation.A few examples:Southwest Airlines' successful "blue ocean" growth
strategy was not to compete with other airlines for
the existing market of flyers, but to create
a new market of flyers from non-flying car drivers.Result: many airlines are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Southwest is flourishing.The Starbucks "blue ocean" strategy took the old
coffee shop concept up several levels. Starbucks coffees
are international, upscale and pricey. They sell marvelous coffee-related products as well.It's cool to hang out a Starbucks. It's an inexpensive,
hip place to take a date. This coffee retailer even serve
non-coffee drinkers a line of milkshakes, Frappuchinos.Starbucks, the world's largest coffee retailer, offers an upscale experience, not just a mundane cup of cheap coffee,
in its thousands of stores internationally.Starbucks has enjoyed huge profit increases, while mediocre coffee shops flounder and perish.The alternative to "blue ocean" selling is to swim in
the "red ocean" of fierce, bloody competition where
there is little opportunity for new growth and robust
profits."Red ocean" markets and products experience slow growth, incremental (usually meaningless) product enhancements,
and heavy (often both inane and insane) price slashing.How many "blue ocean" strategies can you develop and
implement in 2006?Why compete in bloody "red ocean" situations against
inferior products, marketed by price cutting?Merchants for years have referred to such products as
"schlock." Now we can call these things "red ocean"
stuff.You cannot find cheap Rolex watches, unless they
were stolen and being sold by a crook. So why ever
discount and give away your top-notch products?Properly sold, a hefty price can reaffirm product value
and make the buyer feel good about his/her purchase and himself/herself, since it meets a person's real or
perceived need.So, business people, let's make 2006 the year
of "blue ocean" excellence for ourselves.The "blue ocean" concept was developed by W. Chan
Kim & Renee Mauborgne. It's explained in their book,
"Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market
Space & Make Competition Irrelevant."The authors are professors at INSEAD, the world's
second largest business school, located in France.John J. Alquist and his wife, Shirley, own and operate Alquist Enterprises, a firm which promotes self-employment. John is a big believer in targeting upscale markets and competing on anything except price.Vist John online at http://www.tell-it-well.com or email him at
john@tell-it-well.com.
Keyword : blue ocean, red ocea, rolex, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, competition
สมัครสมาชิก:
ส่งความคิดเห็น (Atom)
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น