Introduction to the Blue Ocean Idea
This is one of the popular books that took me a while to pick up because I felt like there was no such thing. I was used to the red ocean way of living. Everything was under competition and we always needed to beat the next best competitor. This is how life is like for most Singaporeans. It is even more relatable for those who can study better. We are acutely aware of who is #1 and #2. Blue ocean is not a promise of lack of competition. It is a perspective which helps us to develop products or services, which are more likely to keep its competency for a longer time (maybe 5-10 years) before the competition realises it and develops something even better.
During my growing up years, the advice given success was to work harder than others, and to do more. While this has served me well during my growing up years, I soon realised that most of the successful people follow a different set of advice. Usually they are doing less (volume of tasks), but there are some things they are exceptionally good at and usually it’s not what I expect. That is the essence of this strategy.
A small company would usually have very limited resources and time. Yet, they have to find a way to beat their bigger competitors with more resources, more time and experience. The classic example given by the book is the circus Cirque de Soleil from 1980s. Circus business was very competitive, everyone was trying to build a better show tent, and purchase the most popular animals. Those who attended the shows, were mainly interested in circus shows and animals.
Illustration of the Blue Ocean Strategy
There are 3 steps in blue ocean. Firstly, understand the market and what is being offered. For the experienced business persons, this is probably at the back of your mind. Secondly, look at the specific areas of focus that cost the most. The new offering, would usually not contain most of them. In the case of the Circus, that would be the tent and the animals which made up bulk of the cost. Thirdly, These resources are to be allocated to another factor, usually overlooked or non-existent from their competitors. In the Circus, they re-allocated their resources on live music an a storyline development. Animal features were replaced with acts of human physical skill. The most interesting thing to me, is that the target customers have changed. The people attending this show, was not the usual crowd interested in circus shows and animals. Their new audience were interested in theatre arts (instead of animals), human skill (walking on ropes and shooting out of cannons instead of acting) and corporate clients (instead of traditional families).
Overall, their cost drop tremendously, they did not have to compete for the same employees/actors as the other circuses which reduces their manpower cost. The new crowd was also paying a higher price, because it was being compared to theatre arts and corporate events.
The Ally Media Story —
In the digital marketing and advertising industry, most agencies were into Google Search Engine Marketing (advertising), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Facebook advertising, as of 2018 when we tried to enter the market. We actually had a lot of experience in Facebook advertising, but clients were still very hesitant to take us up to help in their Facebook advertising. Those who were interested, ended up having product competencies lower than what we could develop ourselves earlier on, or could not make an offer attractive enough for us to take them up.
This makes a lot more sense when you look around instead of focusing on our own competencies. Facebook has been around for a very long time in 2018. Many agencies have been running Facebook advertisements in singapore for more than 5 years, and has some kind of gold awards, or certificates from Facebook themselves. Also these companies were already serving Singapore companies for a while now, and demonstrated that they were good enough across a range of industries. Our agency on the other hand, was new and untested. You will see that the exact same situation later that the client response is different (and opposite)
We tried our hand at search engine optimisation on Google. We found that most keywords were already highly competitive. There was almost no chance we could win. They had more experience, more product knowledge, a loyal following, high authority ranking, well researched articles, more credible authors etc.
And now on to our blue ocean strategy application. Something that I feel is important, is to understand our own strengths, core competency, and look at where that leads us into the new competencies we are about to develop.
We started by discovering that there was a new platform called Tiktok. When it was mentioned by our staff, I didn’t give it much thought. I thought it was a music platform. It was merely one of the suggestions to try. It is important that we try out new stuff from time to time. Eventually one of those will disrupt and replace our current work. And then they started to give us a lot of traffic, not 30 or 50%. it was by a huge 400x factor. while facebook and instagram was giving us 50 views, Tiktok was giving us 20,000 views. From our experience, when we find something new and working, the results are usually very distinctive and obvious, like a 100x factor at least.
Our service – to help clients to create videos on tiktok to market their product/service, collect leads and drive traffic to them.
we then moved to try out offering this service to others (our 6th try since 2018). Business started to pick up. As it turns out, our offer was unique in the market. Most other companies offered an influencer service, where an existing influencer with followers, would review a product/service, for a fee and the product/service. They could also feature themselves on the influencers channel to draw followers to the client. Usually this means that the client has to follow the direction of that channel. Some of the popular accounts in singapore like mingwei or xiaoming is about pranks, so all products/service are also presented in that manner. If you were not informed, you might have thought the post was not sponsored. Those videos usually belong to the influencer even though the client paid for it. If the client wants to further use the video like physically in the store or on their website or to run ads, there will be a loading fee, and the video still belongs to the influencer. this is a “turn off” for clients because they do not get to own the intellectual property asset, only to use and they will have to pay more and more if they want to use it for more purposes. Our services not only creates an organic video for them, but also gives them the full intellectual property rights to that video. This is BIG. Intellectual Property is a very big part of the value of a company, and it’s getting more and more important and valuable everyday. They can post this video anywhere they please. In fact, other social media platforms have worked with us to post those videos there for a fee, on top of boosted traffic. and they still own and keep the videos for future use. gifts/ad revenues accrue on the video on tiktok, and are paid to the client just like ad revenue on Youtube. I’m guessing we are barely touching on the full value of these videos. More and more (and accelerating) monetisation opportunities are coming for content creators.
Our service was special. we have built up alot of accounts while we were learning about the Tiktok platform. We used this experience to help clients to launch their own Tiktok accounts from zero. as it turns out, no one else could do this. The influencers (our competitors) could only build their own accounts. To the clients who wished to have something of their own, we were the only choice. there was no alternative. we did not intentionally plan for this, even though we were looking out for it. we “accidentally” created a differentiated service that our other competitors could not provide. I think this is how it happens for most people. I feel like our clients are different too. While the mainstream digital marketing agency was targeting mostly experienced corporate clients, most of our clients are small businesses who believes in building an online loyal fan base, but have not yet successfully done so.
most agencies were also running advertisements. these advertisements were usually very basic, something you can design under an hour. maybe the item, and some simple offer like “christmas 30% off”. They charge a %fee, which is usually about 20-30% depending on which advertisement platform was used. This job was very simple, so we stayed away from it mostly. The service we provide must be obviously 10x better than anyone else on the market, and the advertisements will not make the cut. perhaps we are only 2-3x better and thats not enough.
hiring a digital marketing agency comes with risks. They need to invest a monthly fee for years in order to reap the full benefits. The relationship will require cultivation and investment of resources. If your service is not at least 10x better than anything else the client can find, they are not going to take the risk.
Challenges of applying the Blue Ocean Strategy in real business
When I tried to apply the blue ocean strategy, I felt very lost. I think it took me 3-4 years before it became obvious what I was trying to do. The key factor, which is the new competency that others don’t have, but i can develop, is highly elusive. no one can give you encouragement or confirmation that it is correct. in fact, the opinions of others were confusing me even further. most will discourage the risky step, and rightfully so. The others will mention that the existing factors are important (yet we are trying to give it up). and if others knew this well enough, they would have given it a go, and the opportunity will no longer be available to me. (because they took it). This is a solo journey that you will not be prepared for. But I think this is part of business, and something memorable in my life.
The road is fraught with bumps and potholes. On top of the uncomfortable feeling, the product/service quality was also difficult to maintain and improve. Since the product is in its own new category, there are no guidelines to follow. Most of the improvements (90-95%) will turn out in failure. This is natural. Such a high failure rate does not sit well with most clients. Client management and assurance is a very big portion of the job. This is new territory for both of us, and they are just as afraid as we are. Relationships take time to build, and we need to cultivate, nurture and grow the relationship over time.
Product improvements are also costly and slow. This is supposed to be a difficult job. While the finished product will end up generating amazing returns over the next few years, Initial investments will sap away most of your resources and you have to be prepared for that. Hopefully the pot of gold comes in the end for those who wait. again, i feel this forms part of the natural barrier to entry, and gives me the assurance that my business is likely to last longer before finally losing my position. I pursued this path because I realised that eventually, all companies will need to have their own special product/service. We tried avoiding this path because of how difficult it is, and the result was that the position we earned for ourselves, quickly faced competition and we saw our profits erode away. this is because the problem was easy and many others could solve it too.
Another area to pay attention to will be employee welfare. This is like building castles in the air, while piling the foundation at the same time. Everything seems to be falling apart and it can be very frustrating for everyone. Employees will need to be constantly reassured, and also we need to hear their concerns and frustrations. They are at the forefront of the business, and many times they have shown me that they better understand the challenges in front of them, and most of the time had a better solution than I did.
Dealing with relationships is tricky. I like to believe that everyone around me would support my journey, but it might be better to accept the realities most of us will face.
Parents – You can’t choose your parents. But you can explain to them and ask for their acceptance. Especially if they do not come from a business background. You cannot expect them to understand. If they did, they would have done it for themselves.
Spouse/husband/wife – This will be the most important decision you make in your life. More important than any of your career choices, friends and everything else. He/She will need to understand and support your journey. It is not possible for them to understand if he/she does not come from a similar background. This background usually refers to the family background and sometimes the environment they grew up in. This is not something you can put in extra effort to make better. most of the factors are decided even before you meet. This thing works on a “match basis”. You get a score at the start and it usually does not change. If you get this right, going thru challenges will be very much easier. Otherwise the business pressures will break up your relationship. It’s going to be painful. The good news is, breaking up is much much better than sinking in and getting married and having children.
Friends – Each of us is on a different path. Most likely we are in different industries and have different strategies. It can be difficult to see where the other party is betting on. I have had friends remove me from Facebook/Instagram because of my focus on Tiktok. This is a necessary step for us to move forward. Those who do not align have to go. I don’t like this, but this is the rule of the game. These relationships would not have been fruitful later anyway. Of course those who are lucky have that 1 or 2 friends who can support us. They are rare finds and should be treasured.
This story is not new. Before writing this, I have read at least 10 other product development stories, and they all follow a certain framework. They usually have challenges in the existing industry, and are way behind existing competitors. they end up entering the new industry (which the old one will eventually become), where existing competitors were not interested because a large investment of time is required. Their product/service will come under a new category, and for a long time they are the only offer. and as time passes by, the old industry evolves into the new, and the new format becomes the standard format.
Good Luck