AKM Moinul Islam Moin: Blue Ocean Strategy- In one page

AKM Moinul Islam Moin: Blue Ocean Strategy- In one page:                                                                                         Picture source: Google Blue Ocean Strategy: ...

Blue Ocean Strategy- In one page

                                                                                        Picture source: Google

Blue Ocean Strategy:

INSEAD Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne Creators of Blue Ocean Strategy. A blue ocean, as described in the book “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant”, it is the creation by a company of a new, uncontested market space that makes competitors irrelevant and that creates new consumer value often while decreasing costs.

Red oceans vs blue oceans:

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.

Action Framework:

"Four Actions Framework" to reconstruct buyer value elements in crafting a new value curve. The framework poses four key questions. The Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid pushes companies to specify the actions that they can eliminate and reduce, so they can communicate their strategy internally and take concrete action.

·         Raise: What factors should be raised well above the industry's standard?

·         Eliminate: Which factors that the industry has long competed on should be eliminated?

·         Reduce: Which factors should be reduced well below the industry's standard?

·         Create: Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?  

Principles of the Blue Ocean Strategy:

Six Principles of the Blue Ocean Strategy: first 4 formulating principles and rest 2 are executing principles

1. Reconstruct Market Boundaries: Re-evaluate the premises that form your industry’s assumptions and shape your company’s business model. 

2. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers: Keep your eye on the overall view and don’t get lost in the statistics.

3. Reach Beyond Existing Demand: Businesses naturally focus on current customers, a process that invariably leads to greater market segmentation analysis. 

4. Get the Strategic Sequence Right: Execute your strategy sequentially to achieve your “value innovation.” Just having a fancy new technology does not mean that you have a blue ocean product.

5. Overcome Key Organizational Hurdles: Successful execution demands that your company must resolve internal departmental differences. 

6. Build Execution into Strategy: Reduce your management risk by incorporating blue ocean implementation into your company’s ongoing processes. 

Great Examples:

Example of blue ocean strategy is Cirque du Soleil. By completely reinventing the circus, Cirque du Soleil achieved revenues that it took Ringling Bros. Southwest Airlines is another example of successful blue ocean strategy execution. Southwest tapped into a customer base who preferred driving to air travel due to the lower cost. Instead of competing with other airlines, Southwest positioned itself as an alternative to cars and offered reduced prices, improved check-in times and increased flight frequency.

Key Insights:

1. Don’t try to outperform competitors.

2. Create a new market space to make competitors irrelevant.

3. Value innovation is the key to creating a blue ocean strategy

4. Value innovation simultaneously pursues low cost, and differentiation.

Note: I've written this based on my take out after reading the book Blue Ocean Strategy of Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne .

Brand quote by AKM Moinul Islam Moin

"A good brand is for which people love to spend and tell" - AKM Moinul Islam Moin

How to Write - Ogilvy

On a beautiful morning in 1982, David Ogilvy(who was widely called as "The Father of Advertising" and the founder of the iconic agency Ogilvy & Mather) sent an internal memo to all employees at Ogilvy & Mather.  That memo’s Sparsely titled was “How to Write” and consisted of  the 10 ageless advice”. These points on this list have only grown more advisable with time.

1. Read the “Roman-Raphaelson” book on writing. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

Coca-Cola's Strategic Shift- Taste the Feeling

Coke is very fascinating brand for me. I’m sure same goes to other marketers. Its really stirring that how a brand becomes so vibrant with leadership since last 130 years!

(Image taken from google)

Recently Coca Cola launched new global campaign "Taste the Feeling" which will replace the seven year old Coca-Cola "Open Happiness" campaign. It is part of an effort to battle the trend of declining beverage sales, following consumers' health concerns about sugary drinks. The Wall Street Journal reported that Coca-Cola's sales (by volume) grew at just 1% in the first nine months of last year.

This campaign is marking a significant shift in their marketing strategy. For the first time, all Coke Trademark brands are being united in one global creative campaign: “Taste the Feeling”. At this new campaign ten television commercials will be part of the campaign, along with more than 100 campaign images, a new song developed by Avicii, interactive digital advertising and out of home advertising.

“Taste the Feeling” will feature universal storytelling with the product at the heart to imitate both the functional and emotional aspects of the Coca-Cola experience of drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola.

Here another major noticeable strategy is that Coke adopted a "one-brand" approach that will unite multiple varieties like Diet Coke and Coke Zero in a single campaign, rather than running disparate campaign.

If we look into the tagline “Taste the feeling” which is not a great line. It doesn’t have any artistic appeal – no memorable rhythm or something to make it memorable in the mind. But if we dig it out, we will find its simplicity. Coke has discovered a great insight that the more they position Coca-Cola as an icon, the smaller it becomes. The bigness of Coca-Cola resides in the fact that it's a simple pleasure. So the humbler they are, the bigger they are!

Now let’s wait and observe whether Coca-Cola’s new strategic shift can bring them new life and gain significant growth in the sugary drinks industry. My good wish for one of my loving brand Coca-Cola. J    

Cadbury vs Nestle: Commercial war

Commercial war is not a new thing. These wars through mocking are most probably driven by each brand’s desire to prove that their products are the superior. There have been high profile competitive commercial wars between the brands like Coke vs Pepsi, Horlicks Vs Complan, Mercedes-Benz Vs Jaguar, Vim Vs Dettol, Pepsodent Vs Colgate etc. All these were serious fights.  In some extent, Even in Bangladesh we see some commercial wars between Frutika vs Frooto, Radhuni vs Rupchanda mustard oil (Probably in Bangladesh, Mocking is not permitted, so they went in other ways).

As per I know, in the chocolate category such war was almost absent in this continent. But, at present, the battle over chocolate wafer is the talk of the advertisement town. Yes, I’m talking about Cadbury Perk and Nestlé Munch.

Cadbury (India) has launched its new commercial to promote the enhanced new pack of Perk and it took a tunnel at Nestlé . At this TVC we see, Monu leaves a letter for his father expressing his dejection over receiving the lighter chocolate. The amusing advertisement criticized Munch for its weight. The core idea was to emphasize that the new Perk was heavier with its twin bars and four-wafer layers. But yet it was priced at Rs. 5 as like its major rival Nestle Munch.

Not to be left behind, two weeks later Nestlé (India) posted a hilarious ‘Munch ka Punch’ video on YouTube tweaking the Perk’s commercial. This time, its Monu’s brother Sonu who has left a letter for his father expressing his disappointment. The idea was to tell that the weight of a wafer chocolate does not matter, what mattered was its crunchiness and taste.

Both brands were trying to position themselves on different attributes; Perk focusing on the size while Munch was focusing on the crunchier proposition.  My view on it is that Perk’s new positioning platform is weaker than Munch. Munch tried to break away smartly and offensively. But at the end of the day the remote is always in the hands of consumers. Ultimately, consumers are the king. J

GOOGLE SEARCH REUNION: A FUNCTIONAL AND EMOTIONAL BLEND

Google India’s recent new commercial grabbed my attention. Google released a commercial on 13th November’13 titled ‘Google Search: Reunion’ which is to touch an emotional chord with its viewers not only in India but also in Pakistan.. This three and half minute advertisement is currently going viral and owes its strengthening views to the breathtaking emotional appeal, grossing upwards of 3 millions  views.

The story of this commercial is: a woman in India reunites her grandfather with his childhood friend (who is now in Pakistan) following six decades of separation since the partition of India – with the help from Google search.

If we deeply look into this, we will find that it adds a human dimension to the otherwise routine search – almost suggesting that there are emotions to “googling” and friends to be found.

It’s story and executions are done in such a fantastic way from which anyone can be emotionally connected easily. The acting part, specially the character Yusuf was awesome.  This commercial is basically reemphasizing connecting humanity and making tangible effects on lives. Another aspect tying the movie with the commercial is the tech giant’s attempt to shed the association with a certain age segment.

Thanks to Google and thanks to Ogilvy for presenting such a nice commercial.