Blue Ocean Strategy Portfolio of Templates

Blue Ocean Strategy is a marketing strategy in which a business makes a paradigm shift away from existing highly competitive saturated markets to creating and capturing new demand in a largely uncontested market where competition becomes irrelevant.

This contrasts with a red ocean strategy which focuses on beating the competition in saturated markets to gain an increased share of existing current demand and usually involves making a value/cost trade-off. This cut-throat competition turns the ocean blood red. On the other hand, the undefined and unexplored market resembles the vast and deep blue ocean.

A blue ocean strategy is appropriate for enterprises that are fighting in a fiercely competitive market which contains major players, i.e., strong competitors. Typically, in such fiercely competitive saturated markets supply exceeds demand and companies struggle to survive over the long-term.

Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne introduced the blue ocean strategy in their book ‘Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and the Make Competition Irrelevant.” Their Blue Ocean Strategy website provides extensive resources, including training, blog, videos and an elibrary.

Blue Ocean Strategy Template Portfolio.

Our portfolio of templates provides eight typical tools that are used to define and implement a blue ocean strategy. The portfolio contains the following templates:

• Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid (3 different formats)
• Six Paths Framework
• Three tiers of noncustomers
• Buyer Utility Map
• Four Hurdles to Strategy Execution (2 different formats)

ERRC GRID Template to Move from Red to Blue

The Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid is a matrix tool that drives companies to focus simultaneously on eliminating and reducing, as well as raising and creating which helps the enterprise to create a new value curve which enables it to address new blue ocean opportunities.

It focuses the enterprise to systematically analyze every factor the current industry/market competes on. What new blue ocean type markets can be created by eliminating or reducing some of these factors or alternatively raising them or creating new factors. The factors that really impact the customer should be created or raised, while eliminating/reducing factors that do not. This creates a new product offering that does not currently exist, in a space without direct competitors.

There are three alternative formats of the ERRC Grid included in the portfolio of templates.

Six Paths Framework

The Six Paths Framework helps to successfully identify commercially attractive blue oceans by reconstructing market boundaries. It can be used to address the transition from red ocean to blue ocean under six classifications. These six classifications are (a) industry (b) strategic group (c) buyer group (d) scope of product/service (e) functional-emotional orientation and (f) timescale.

The strategy focuses on moving away from an existing saturated and highly competitive markets and searching for new markets. Specifically, these new markets give a company a very high competitive advantage as well as low price/cost pressure.

Three Tiers of Noncustomers Template

The blue ocean strategy identifies three tiers of noncustomers. In a red ocean strategy, an enterprise seeks to retain and expand their existing customer base to grow their share of a saturated highly competitive market. This frequently involves a value/cost trade-off.

The blue ocean strategy seeks to identify opportunities beyond the current market. Although the universe of noncustomers typically offers blue ocean opportunities, few companies have significant insights into who noncustomers are or their needs.

To identify blue ocean opportunities is useful to segment noncustomers. The three tiers of noncustomers template allows the enterprise to segment the noncustomers into three tiers. This provides a deeper understanding of the totality of noncustomers and helps to identify blue ocean new markets and latent demand within the entire noncustomer domain.

The first tier of noncustomers is closest to the current market. It consists of “Soon-to-be” noncustomers who are on the edge of the enterprise’s current market and are likely to be the tier most attracted to the current offering and positioning.

The second tier of noncustomers is people who refuse to use an industry’s offering. These are buyers who have viewed the current offering as a potential option to fulfill their needs but have decided against participating. Thus, a new offering, that focuses on meeting their needs, must be created if they are to be attracted.

The third tier of noncustomers is farthest from the market. They are noncustomers who have never considered the market’s offering as an option.

The tier analysis, where the characteristics and needs of the particular tier is understood, helps to identify potential blue ocean opportunities that can be exploited by responding to and satisfying those identified needs.

Buyer Utility Map Template

The Buyer Utility Map focuses on the six stages of the buyer experience cycle. It enables analysis of the appropriate levers to use at each stage of the buyer cycle.

By identifying how the buyer experience is currently handled (red ocean) it focuses attention on other potential paths (blue ocean). Other paths of interest are where a product or service can potentially respond to the buyer needs or wishes at each stage of the buyer cycle. It further identifies which of the six utility levers, i.e., the ways in which companies provide benefits for their customers, are most suitable to use at each stage. By mapping a potential new offering on to the buyer utility map, one can see if, and how, the new path creates a different value proposition from existing offerings and if the value proposition is such that it should be incorporated into the blue ocean strategy.

Four Hurdles to Strategy Execution Template

As with all significant change, implementation of the blue ocean strategy can be challenging. To be valuable and relevant all strategies must be supported by a clear implementation action plan.

The Four Hurdles to Strategy Execution template lays out four areas that must be addressed in implementing something that is a significant departure from the current model as a blue strategy implementation.

These are:

• The Cognitive Hurdle: The action to be undertaken convince/get the buy-in of key individuals of the need for a strategic shift.
• The Resource Hurdle: Identification of the additional resources required for the strategy implementation.
• The Motivational Hurdle: What actions are planned to motivate key players to drive the implementation and overcome obstacles?
• The Political Hurdle: Are there political issues to be overcome and, if so, how is this to be done. 

There are two alternative formats of the Four Hurdles to Strategy Execution Template included in the portfolio of templates.

Key Features: Blue Ocean Strategy MS-Word Template

Key features of the Word Blue Ocean strategy template are:

• Eight different templates, click on the images above to enlarge.
• Each template can be copied and pasted into any Word document.
• Uses only standard Word features.
• Each template is fully customizable.
• Comprehensive Blue Ocean Strategy Templates User Guide available to download to check the full details before purchasing.
• Comes with a NO Quibble Money Back Guarantee. 

Similar Products for Strategic Analysis & Planning

We have an extensive range of other Strategic Analysis and Planning templates to complement the Blue Ocean Strategy Template.

As the Blue Ocean strategy is focused on the "big picture" Porter's Five Forces, Grand Strategy matrix and SPACE Matrix are also useful to review and analyze the overall macro strategy.

The Business Tools Store offers individual templates for each of the SPACE Matrix, Grand Strategy Matrix and Porter's Five Competitive Forces.

For those wishing to use a number of the templates we also offer packages of multiple templates at a discount of up to 50%.

A clear understanding of the macro-external and competitive environment provides an ideal background for  PEST, SWOT or TOWS analysis and competitive analysis.

We provide tools for PEST, TOWS and SWOT analysis and enterprise competitive analysis.

 You can check them out here: 

• SWOT Analysis Templates
• PEST Matrix Template 
• TOWS Matrix Template
• Competitive Analysis.
• Market Mapping

Our comprehensive User Guides  provides more details of the individual templates

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