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Blue Ocean Strategy Tools

Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean Strategy

Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean Strategy thumbnail
VS

Red Ocean Strategy Blue Ocean Strategy
Compete in existing market space. Create uncontested market space.
Beat the competition. Make the competition irrelevant.
Exploit existing demand. Create and capture new demand.
Make the value-cost trade-off. Break the value-cost trade-off.
Align the whole system of a firm’s activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost. Align the whole system of a firm’s activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost.

© Kim & Mauborgne. All rights reserved.

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne coined the terms red and blue oceans to denote the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today – the known market space, where industry boundaries are defined and companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of the existing market. Cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody red. Hence, the term ‘red’ oceans.

Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today – the unknown market space, unexplored and untainted by competition. Like the ‘blue’ ocean, it is vast, deep and powerful –in terms of opportunity and profitable growth.

The chart above summarizes the distinct characteristics of competing in red oceans (Red Ocean Strategy) versus creating a blue ocean (Blue Ocean Strategy).

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W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne created a comprehensive set of analytic tools and frameworks any organization can apply to create new market spaces and make the competition irrelevant.

Blue ocean strategy tools, methodologies and frameworks bring structure to what has historically been an unstructured problem in strategy – informing organizations’ ability to create new market spaces systematically. With blue ocean strategy tools and analytics, companies can now pursue and create blue oceans of uncontested market space in an opportunity-maximizing, risk-minimizing way. The best way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.

Select from the icons below to learn more about the analytic tools of blue ocean strategy:

All analytic tools © Kim & Mauborgne. All rights reserved.

Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean Strategy
Value Innovation
Visualizing Strategy
Strategy Canvas
Four Actions Framework
ERRC Grid
Six Paths Framework
Pioneer Migrator Settler Map
Three Tiers of Noncustomers
Sequence of Blue Ocean Strategy
Buyer Utility Map
Price Corridor
of the Mass
Four Hurdles to Strategy Execution
Tipping Point Leadership
Fair Process

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Blue Ocean Strategy tools and frameworks developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

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