What Is The Blue Ocean Strategy?

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It can be difficult to succeed with other competitors that are saturating the marketplace. Fortunately for us, there are many strategies you can use in order to gain an edge on your competition.

A red ocean is a metaphor for a market full of competitors. Competition turns the ocean bloody.

Are you an affiliate marketer?

Then chances are that you are already operating in a market turning red, trying to figure out how you can make the competition irrelevant.

So, the question is: where would you like to be? Do you like to operate in the busy and highly competitive red ocean, or do you prefer the spacious yet very pioneering blue ocean?

However, once you become successful copycats will arise and take advantage of your idea, strategy, and the mistakes you made. They are forcing you in a red ocean, after all.

What is a red ocean?

To understand what a red ocean is, let’s talk about the blue ocean. A blue ocean where an affiliate marketer creates a completely new market space (or market category). This new market space is created by launching new offerings, with the aim being to make the competition irrelevant so that an organization can grow, uncontested, at least in the beginning.

You can think of a blue ocean being a place where the sailing is easy (uncontested with clear water) if you can successfully introduce an offering.

Blue Oceans can be thought of as markets that do not exist yet. An example of this would be basic water filters for your home.

Red Oceans can be thought of as all the marketplaces which currently exist. Kangen Water ionizers are considered to be a blue ocean and this trend started back in the 1970s, and today are still blue ocean, in comparison to the water filter red ocean space.

As such, Red Oceans already contain a number of competitors. You can think of the color red being used in the term red ocean because of the bloodbath that a highly competitive marketplace can sometimes feel like.

A Red Ocean Strategy is a strategy that aims to fight and beat the competition.

What is a blue ocean?

In contrast, is it the unknown market space, untainted by competition.

In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over.

There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid.

In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set.

A blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential to be found in unexplored market space. A blue ocean is vast, deep, and powerful in terms of profitable growth.

Here is a comparison between red ocean and blue ocean and it’s common characteristics:

Creating an opportunity to displace your competitor is going to require you to be patient, persistent, professional pursuit plan to carve a platform to make you stand out from the red ocean crows.

Focus on current customers vs. focus on non-customers

In most industries there is little effort to attract new buyers to the industry, thus the focus on the customers currently purchasing in that industry. In the Blue Ocean, there is a focus on trying to increase the size of the industry by attracting people who have never purchased in that industry.

Compete in existing markets vs. Create uncontested markets to serve

Sounds good, right?

But how do you do that?

Existing markets are all the customers doing business in the industry right now, whether they are doing business with you or your competitors. If someone wins a customer, then it is assumed, someone will lose a customer. For someone to win, someone must lose.

In uncontested markets, there is only a winner, you. No one else is fighting for the business because either they don’t know about it, or they don’t know-how.

Beat the competition vs. Make the competition irrelevant

The competition becomes irrelevant because they cannot duplicate the ideas in a way that is a commercial success. Remember, the whole idea of Blue Ocean Strategy is to have high value at low cost. If you are doing that, how can anyone compete with you? All the would-be competitors fall by the wayside.

Exploit existing demand vs. create and capture new demand

You will be creating value so high that you will be attracting customers that never before would have considered entering the market. 

Final thoughts: The winning strategic approach

One final point to consider is that the majority of the most affiliate marketers on the planet didn’t create the ocean they operate in.

Let’s look at, Google and Facebook were not first in their space but they now dominate.

In fact, they dominate so much that it creates a huge barrier to entry for new enterprises. This can be summed up with the following phrase:

Applying this phrase to your own business could mean that you pay attention to new categories being created by your competitors, and then move into that space with conviction as soon as the category shows real signs of promise.

No matter which you select, there are a few things to keep in mind. It is important to remember that value proposition and innovation are critical success factors.

Also, remain aware of the industry that you are competing against as well as new introductions to the market that may disrupt any market share that you have attained.