APPLE INC. BLUE OCEAN SUCCESS
Think Different: Apple's Blue Ocean Formula for Success
The strategic thinking behind the world's most innovative company
Written by The Blue Ocean Team
The Blue Ocean Team shares case studies, stories and practical insights
related to the blue ocean tools and principles developed by Chan Kim and
Renee Mauborgne.
It's been almost a quarter of a century since Apple's iconic 'Think
Different' ad campaign, which captured in two simple words Apple's
vision for the company in 1997. The tagline, which continues to resonate
to this day, helped launch one of the biggest corporate turnarounds in
history.
As we shall see, Apple's 'think different' slogan also captures what it
means to have a blue ocean perspective. In this blog post, we'll explore
how Apple's 'think different' approach led the company to make a series
of strategic moves that reconstructed whole industries and changed the
world.
Think different: think like a blue ocean strategist
Developed by professors of strategy and world-renowned management
thinkers Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, blue ocean strategy, enables you
to ask a fundamentally different set of questions, the answers to which
help reveal the long-held assumptions and artificial boundaries we
unknowingly impose on ourselves. When you think like a blue ocean
strategist, you can't help but 'think different'.
Blue ocean strategists aren't fooled by what the rest of the world takes
for granted. Their viewpoint differs from the market-competing logic
that is prevalent in the minds of many corporate leaders and
entrepreneurs. They think differently, ask different questions, and
arrive at different results. Arguably, no one exemplifies this blue
ocean way of thinking more than Steve Jobs.
Apple's 'Think Different' campaign transformed the company
Jobs was not a conventional corporate leader. In 1997, just months after
returning to Apple as interim CEO, he re-visited the company's core
beliefs and formulated a clear statement of what the company stood for.
This came to light when Apple launched a global campaign called 'Think
Different', which portrayed its products as innovative and unorthodox,
in line with its new brand identity.
The 'Crazy Ones' commercial linked the ailing computer business with
some of history's most famous freethinking rebels. It celebrated
individuals who saw things differently, ranging from Albert Einstein and
Thomas Edison to Pablo Picasso and Amelia Earhart. These are the 'blue
ocean' thinkers and creators, innovators and adventurers who challenged
existing laws and refused to stand still.
The message behind Apple's 'Think Different' slogan
The tagline of Apple's 'Think Different' campaign expressed how, under
Steve Jobs' leadership, Apple would construct a radically different
future from its troubled days in the early 1990s.
Apple's 'Think Different' slogan altered our perceptions of campaigns,
advertisements, posters, and, of course, computers and technology.
Here's the transcript from the 'Crazy Ones' advertisement:
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The
troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see
things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect
for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or
vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because
they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may
see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are
crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."
The message communicates to customers what Apple stands for by
celebrating and linking Apple to those innovators who moved the world
ahead. The inference is that Apple users also think different, ask
different questions, and potentially change the world.
In Steve Jobs' own words, "you always had to be a little different to
buy an Apple computer."
"I think you had to really think differently when you bought a Mac.
It was a totally different computer, worked in a totally different way,
used a totally different part of your brain. And it opened up a computer
world for a lot of people who thought differently ... And I think you
still have to think differently to buy an Apple computer."
Apple now had three characteristics of a good strategy: it was focused,
divergent, and had a clear and compelling tagline. From this point on,
the company made several strategically critical and distinctive moves
that transformed Apple from a struggling tech company into the biggest
and arguably most influential company in the world.
The Power of Thinking Differently - Apple's Blue Ocean Strategic
Moves from 2001 to 2011
Throughout history, companies have created growth not by exploiting
existing demand but by reconstructing existing industry boundaries to
create new market space and unlock latent demand. We call such actions,
blue ocean strategic moves, a set of managerial actions and decisions
involved in making a major market-creating business offering.
Apple's strategic moves over this decade took the form of the iPod,
iTunes, the App Store, the iPhone, the iPad, and more. Rather than
trying to outrun competitors in existing industries, all these strategic
moves created new market space, generated new demand and made Apple the
most admired and valuable American company within a decade.
Apple may not have been the industry's first mover, but it was the value
pioneer that pushed the industry's frontiers outward and tapped latent
demand.
Let's look briefly at two of these strategic moves before taking a more
in-depth look of one of them, the iPhone.
Think different, listen different: The iPod
In the late 1990s, music began to migrate from stereos to computers.
Users increasingly downloaded music to their PCs over file-sharing
networks and then copied it to portable MP3 players.
By 2001, over 75 manufacturers offered about 100 MP3 players. However,
users had to choose between small, low-volume flash memory players and
huge, high-volume, difficult-to-use hard drives.
On October 23, 2001, Apple released the iPod with the tagline, "1,000
songs in your pocket." The iPod had the storage capacity of a hard drive
player but was also simple to operate and transport. Unlike most MP3
players, the iPod allowed users to navigate hundreds of songs
intuitively with their thumbs.
It was a huge hit and dominated MP3 player sales. iPods made up 21.6
percent of the global digital music player market in 2003, and sales
accounted for nearly half of Apple's $7.1 billion in first-quarter
revenue in 2007. By 2010, Apple had sold over 297 million iPods and had
a 70% market share, reconstructing the digital music player industry in
the process.
Think different, shop different: the iTunes music store
By the late 1990s, the music industry had seen significant changes. Why
visit record stores when you could order CDs from internet sellers such
as Amazon.com? Or even better, just download songs in digital format and
play them on a variety of audio devices.
People had two options when it came to obtaining music online. There
were file-trading networks, like Napster and Kazaa, which allowed users
to search for and download songs from other people's music libraries.
An alternate means to download music without infringing on intellectual
property rights was to subscribe to online music services. Although
subscription-based music services delivered legal, high-quality music,
they had a restricted selection and limited permissions to play it.
Meanwhile, P2P networks offered a larger range of music for free, but
the downloads were frequently of poor quality and unlawful.
Despite a clear and irreversible new trend in the way consumers
purchased music, record labels lacked the foresight to capitalize on it,
with many predicting the failure of the music industry altogether.
In blue ocean terms, it uncovered insights into observable trends that
others were missing. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne write in Blue Ocean
Strategy:
"Three principles are critical to assessing trends across time. To form
the basis of a blue ocean strategy, these trends must be decisive to
your business. They must be irreversible, and they must have a clear
trajectory."
Seeing the huge, untapped demand for legal, high-quality digital music,
Apple focused on making an online music store that was easy to use,
offering legal and high-quality digital music at a reasonable price.
By allowing people to buy additional songs and strategically pricing
them far more reasonably, iTunes broke a key customer annoyance factor
or pain point: the need to purchase an entire CD when they wanted only
one or two songs on it.
Apple debuted iTunes Music Stores in April 2003. The online store
allowed customers to buy a song for 99 cents without having to
subscribe. Moreover, customers could listen to a 30-second sample of
each music before purchasing it, something unheard of in the industry.
The results surpassed all expectations. In the first week after its
inception, Apple sold one million songs. By 2006, Apple had an 88
percent dominance of the legal music download market in the United
States. It had reconstructed the digital music industry.
Think different, everything different: the iPhone
Phone manufacturers were facing a red ocean of competition by the early
2000s. Each worked on developing technology to make their phones more
appealing. To create phones with more functionality, manufacturers
merged MP3 players, game consoles, and digital cameras before adding
email, calendar, internet browsers, and other desktop-like features.
Apple took a different approach. Rather than making the mobile phone
smarter by adding more hardware features (such as a high-resolution
built-in camera, email push key, and so on), Apple invested in
developing a more reliable operating system and more intuitive user
interface, making it easier for people to use their mobile phones
effectively. By eliminating, reducing, raising, and creating factors
that the industry competed on, Apple reconstructed the mobile industry
to create a product a revolutionary new product.
Let's look at one of the key blue ocean strategy tools, the
Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid. Developed Chan Kim and Renee
Mauborgne, the ERRC Grid is one of many tools featured in their global
bestsellers Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift.
ERRC Grid of the iPhone
Apple unveiled the iPhone to the world on January 9, 2007. The device
had many of the standard smartphone add-ons, but what set it apart from
the competition was its simple user interface, with only four buttons
and touchscreen instead of a physical keyboard.
Additionally, Apple hosted a marketplace for mobile 'apps' made by Apple
or third-party programmers, allowing users to customize their phones to
reflect their specific interests. Although the idea of a mobile app
marketplace wasn't new, the App Store provided the first dependable
service with a diverse selection of high-quality apps.
Using iTunes, iPhone owners could rapidly explore, purchase, and
download apps, transforming their iPhone into more than simply a voice
and text communication device. It could also function as a handheld
gaming console, photo editor, or journal.
The App Store, which debuted on July 10, 2008, had 400,000 third-party
and Apple apps accessible. By the 22nd of January 2011, the App Store
had surpassed 10 billion downloads. The iPhone and App Store brought
tremendous success and made a fortune for the company.
Let's take a look at another blue ocean strategy tool, the Strategy
Canvas, that shows in one picture the current state of play in the
handset industry. You can clearly see how Apple's iPhone strategy is
different from that of its competitors.
Strategy Canvas of the iPhone
Apple's 'Think Different' approach reconstructed market boundaries
Today, Apple is arguably the world's most famous and admired technology
company. But it is not the technology that is at the root of the
company's success. Rather, the technology used by Apple serves to
provide unprecedented value to its customers. In blue ocean terms, it is
value innovation, not technology innovation that makes Apple what it is.
Apple reshaped market boundaries by providing extraordinary
breakthroughs in buyer value, something that can be done systematically
when applying blue ocean strategy's Six Paths Framework. It is a tool
you can use to look across six conventional boundaries of competition to
systematically reconstruct market assumptions to create new market
space.
Apple demonstrated that by redefining industry boundaries, strategy can
overcome structural challenges. It overturned the common assumption that
industry conditions determine a company's strategy.
Take MP3 players. Even though the industry appeared to be profitable,
there was no clear winner until the iPod bridged the gap between the
strategic groups of flash memory players and hard-drive jukeboxes.
Or consider how it assessed trends across time. When the music industry
was in freefall due to the widespread distribution of digital music,
Apple created a new market sector with the iTunes Music Store, which
provided unrivaled value in the purchase of digital music at a low
price.
Instead of contending for existing demand, the iPod, iTunes store,
iPhone, Apple's many other offerings all took a similar strategic
approach. They reconstructed existing market boundaries and created new
demand.
Apple case study
The Apple case study is discussed in depth in Blue Ocean Strategy and
Blue Ocean Shift books. Check them out for a more thorough analysis of
Apple's 'think different' strategy through a blue ocean lens.
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3 Stocks That Followed Blue Ocean Strategy: What's in Store?
Nasdaq
Published: Sep 17, 2015 5:00 AM EDT
In a competitive market, as the battle for survival gets murkier with
intense price wars and diminishing technological barriers, companies are
increasingly devising newer avenues to outsmart rivals. These include
out-of-the-box ideas for innovative product concepts to redefining the
corporate strategy within a framework in accordance with the changing
dynamics of the customers.
In this regard, 'blue ocean strategy' has been one of the much acclaimed
tactical moves adopted by diversified companies to gain a competitive
advantage over peers. The term is coined from the book "Blue Ocean
Strategy" penned by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Before we seek some
classic examples as to how some companies have benefitted from it, let
us dig a little deep to get an essence of this strategy.
A Brief Synopsis of the Strategy
The concept exemplifies a typical scenario in the real world, where
intense competition leads to bloodbath and thereby renders an ocean red.
Instead of viciously fighting against each other to gain market share,
companies therefore should create an 'uncontested market space' or
rather a blue ocean, which is pristine and pure and devoid of any
interference or competition.
The strategy is likely to be successful as it would simultaneously
attract a large chunk of customers as well as raise the cost of
competition with a first-mover advantage. Whether it's a new product
altogether or an existing product refurbished with some added features
or services, the uncontested market space is likely to have a better
emotional connect and create a new value curve for the customers.
Various companies have successfully found this elusive blue ocean and
have been able to fend off competition against the odds. Here we take
the examples of three diverse firms to showcase the efficacy of this
strategy.
Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA : This automobile manufacturer that sells
battery-charged electric cars created a blue ocean for itself by
designing a car that integrates the features of a green vehicle with
that of a high-octane driven premium sports vehicle. The company
redefined the industry metrics with Tesla Roadster, a lithium-ion
battery fuelled car that clocked 0-60 mph in 4 seconds with zero
emissions and a sports-car look.
The Roadster hit the markets in 2008 and was the first highway-capable
all-electric vehicle in serial production for sale, which eliminated
fossil fuel usage and related high maintenance costs. Although electric
cars occupy a small portion of the global automobile market, Tesla has
acquired substantial market share within this niche segment. Its
subsequent car Model S was the best-selling electric vehicle in the U.S.
in the first half of 2015.
Tesla delivered a record high of 11,532 vehicles in the second quarter
of 2015, representing a year-over-year improvement of 52%. The company
anticipates annual sales of 500,000 units by 2020. Thereafter, Tesla
hopes to double its production every year for a few years to attain
annual sales of several million vehicles by 2025.
Starbucks Corporation SBUX : The speciality coffee provider was able to
develop an uncontested market space by redefining the mundane coffee
drinking experience into an ingrained way of customer life. This was
achieved by refurbishing the ambience with music, Wi-Fi, relaxed seating
and luxurious interiors that served a perfect occasion for customers to
socialize with friends and relax at a slightly premium price. Along with
the unique 'me-time' experience, Starbucks created a new value
proposition for its customers with focus on mobility and social media by
introducing the Mobile Payments Application.
Starbucks holds a leading position in digital, card, loyalty and mobile
capabilities through wide proliferation of smartphones and mobile
technologies. At present, more than one-third of all the U.S. and Canada
transactions take place through Starbucks cards. At the end of June
2015, the company had over 10.4 million active members in the U.S. under
My Starbucks Rewards (MSR) program, up 28% from the last year. Moreover,
Starbucks' mobile app is reportedly one of the most widely used mobile
payment apps in the U.S.
In an interview, Kim observed: "What they (Starbucks) are really selling
is atmosphere. By changing the atmosphere in which coffee is sold,
Starbucks created an uncontested market and made the competition
irrelevant."
Apple Inc. AAPL : This famed electronics goods manufacturer eked a new
chapter in its history by shifting its business from computer
manufacturing to disruptive innovations like iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad,
iCloud. These devices have since been an integral and essential part of
our lives.
With ingenious products that are based more on functionality and
usability, Apple creates technological innovations that customers least
expect, focuses on its unique selling points to build a need and scales
up production before competitors could react. This enabled the company
to gain a competitive advantage over its peers and create a niche market
when supply exceeded demand.
Apple's growth story was perfectly summed up by Kim, when he remarked:
"By making a series of blue ocean strategic moves such as iPod, iTune,
iPhone, and iPad, Apple not only achieved sustained profitable growth,
but also revitalized the declining consumer electronics industry. Apple
achieved its success not by investing in what was hot in the
marketplace, but by making strategic moves to lead and shape the
evolution of a declining industry."
What Lies Ahead for These Game-changers?
In a comparative study, all these stocks have performed relatively
better than the benchmark S&P 500 index in the last five years. Tesla
recorded a phenomenal 1,204.7% average return, followed by 338.3% by
Starbucks and 178.6% by Apple compared with a 73.7% return by the S&P
500. In addition, Tesla has a long-term earnings growth expectation of
25.0%, while Starbucks and Apple have 17.6% and 14.1%, respectively.
These metrics give us enough confidence about the long-term potential of
these Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stocks. Therefore, shouldn't these stocks
form an integral part of your portfolio?
-------------
How Apple's Corporate Strategy Drove
High Growth
Apple's success is self-evident. They are one of the most accomplishing
companies in US history. Through Blue Ocean Strategy, Apple is able to
refresh and renew its corporate portfolio to achieve a healthy balance
between the businesses of today and those of tomorrow, starting with the
iMac and coming to the modern era, maintaining a balanced business
portfolio. Enabling red ocean products, to feed new, blue ocean
initiatives - is the key to the success of any organization. There are
many blue ocean moves that contributed most to shaping Apple, navigating
between blue ocean and red ocean strategy for today's performance and
tomorrow's profitable growth.
Apple is a great example how a business can articulate the strategic
logic across its business divisions. Apple created future profits and
growth not by exploiting existing demand, but by reconstructing industry
boundaries to create new market space and unlock latent demand. As a
result, the company's value grew exponentially as the total market value
of a firm reflects not only today's performance but also its future
profitability.
---------------------------
Blue Ocean Strategy - The Case of Apple - iPod
and iPhone
Centre for National Culture
There are four underpinning principles that every organization employing
the blue ocean strategy must follow and these principles include:
(i) How to create uncontested market space by reconstructing market
boundaries
(ii) Focusing on the big picture
(iii) Reaching beyond existing demand and
(iv) Getting the strategic sequence right
It is imperative for any organization to know that a good strategy for
its market must be influenced by the thought of value innovation (Kim
and Mauborgne, 1997). Here, the organization under study is Apple
Incorporation.
History of Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is a company located in the United States of America. The
company was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on 1st April, 1976.
The company was first into just the manufacturing of computers and
software. Steve Wozniak manufactured the first computer with a
typewriter-like keyboard and the ability to connect to a regular TV and
when Steve Jobs saw the device, he was impressed with it and so decided
to sell his VW microbus to help fund its production as well as Wozniak
selling his HP calculator and that is how Apple Computer Inc. came to
fruition and the name of the company was suggested by Steve Jobs. Apple
Inc.
The company's first computers were manufactured by hand by Wozniak. The
first computer was named Apple I and was priced at $666.66 and a deal
made with Byte Shop to serve as its seller by supplying it with 50
computers at $500 each. The company sold around 200 units from April,
1976 and September, 1977 before Apple I phased out. Later, Apple Inc.
made Apple II and this time with better features such as a storage,
color graphics. The company created a blue ocean for itself with the
manufacturing of Apple II because as at the time, most computers had
visible boards and wires that connected the various components to the
motherboard but it had manufactured a low heat-generating switching
power supply that gave way for the computer to be placed in a plastic
case and this later led to the emergence of desktop machines through the
last two decades of the 20th century. In a period of 16 years of which
Apple II was in existence, it sold around 6 million units making it a
massive success.
Apple Inc. later began to manufacture Macintosh though it was producing
the Lisa software and computers. Later, the company manufactured its
mouse after Jobs saw the three buttons mouse which was much simpler and
less cheap than the Alto's mouse back then. The company capped its mouse
at $15 as compared to the $300 Alto's mouse. By 1984, Apple Inc. had
proven that it was a company to reckon with by its then competitor, IBM
because it had two products - Lisa and Macintosh which had a 3.5 inch
disks in them. Macintosh was a low-cost computer for both home and
business usage. The computers manufactured by Apple had the graphical
user interface (GUI) then which no computing company had and that
distinguished it from IBM causing a blue ocean scenario.
After a success in the computing industry, Apple broaden the blue ocean
strategy and religiously applying the blue ocean concept. Early in the
21st Century, Apple under Steve Jobs moved into the technological
industry more aggressively since leadership is a key component in
strategizing and achieving success. The company under Jobs created an
uncontested marketspace when it introduced iTunes digital jukebox
software in January, 2001 and later the same year on 23rd October, it
launched the iPod. The iPod is a device that serves as a portable media
player and also served as a multi-purpose pocket computer. The device
launched in 2001 initially offered people the opportunity to download
songs of about one thousand just on a single device when at that time
most devices could not facilitate the allowance of downloading and
storing about a thousand songs on a single device that also portable and
could be taking anyway to the extent of keeping it in one's pocket. The
iPod was later created by Apple when the organization started to produce
softwares for the expanding market of personal digital devices. Digital
cameras, camcorders and organizers had established mainstream markets
yet the company still could find a loophole in the system leading to its
reason for manufacturing the iPod. The picture Apple had was how to
solve this problem since it considered existing digital music players
(Walkman) as either big and chunky or small and useless with awkward
user interfaces; though Apple did not develop the software of iPod
entirely in-house.
As the device started reaping in revenue, the company modified the
interface of the iPod and in 2007, it again re-modified the interface
again and the device to not only take songs but also photos and videos.
This time around, by splitting the screen in half by displaying the
menus on the left and album works, photos or videos on the right. Later,
it allowed for third party application on to the device from companies.
Apple in 2005 announced that it will infuse its systems into vehicle
brands including Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Toyota, Alfa Romeo,
Ferrari, Infiniti among others though it had started with BMW; also
other independent stereo manufactured integrated iPod-specific
integration solutions and they included Kenwood, Sony and Harman Kardon.
In mid-2007, four major airlines, United, Continental, Delta and
Emirates also reached agreements to install iPod seat connections too
freely to allow passengers to power and charge their iPods.
With the idea of Apple Inc. going into telecommunication also expanding
its created Blue Ocean. Apple Inc. works with the aim of differentiation
and focuses on customers more than competition. It manufactured products
that whip up demands from customers rather than chasing demands. The
company's venture into manufacturing phones was influenced by Steve Jobs
asking the company's engineers to investigate touch-screens and tablet
computers. The iPhone was manufactured and its concept was influenced by
the company's Newton Message Pad manufactured in the mid 1990s. Apple
manufactured iPhone because it believed cell phones are important
devices for portal information access and therefore there is the need
for mobile phones to have excellent synchronization software. The
company announced the launch of the device on January 9, 2007 at the
Macworld Convention and later on June29, 2007, it officially launched
the phone. In that same year, it signed an agreement with AT&T formerly
called Cingular to sell it devices to its customers and yet retained
complete control over the design, manufacturing and marketing of the
iPhone. When the iPhone got launched, there were rumors that it will
start at $1000 but it started at $499 and after its manufacture, all
employees of Apple Inc. were given an iPhone. When it launched the
iPhone, it sold between 200,000 and700,000 units in the first week. This
is due to the uniqueness of its brand and design of the device. On
June11, 2007, it announced that iPhone would support third-party
applications using the Safari engine on the device. Today, Verizon has
an agreement with iPhone whereby it sells iPhones for Apple and so there
is the Verizon iPhone and it went on sale on February 10, 2011.
Due to the blue ocean created by Apple, the phone is available in most
countries including Africa as a continent and can be accessed by any
network as against only AT&T as at 2007.
----------------------------
Apple Watch is Blue Ocean Hitting
Switzerland
Scott Barron - Mar 20, 2015
In light of the geography, it's big news that a blue ocean is
frightening Switzerland.
Swiss watchmakers are facing a new, though not unexpected, threat from
the Apple innovation tsunami. Like the music and book sellers of old,
this is a game-changing moment for the time keeping industry. Those
disrupters from Cupertino are at it again, and the insights for school
designers are numerous.
Blue Ocean Watches - Of course this isn't the first digital competition
in the intricate world of watch-making. Those with a few gray hairs will
certainly remember the Texas Instrument watch back in the 70's. Those
red little number were so cool, and it could be a stopwatch and an
alarm, too! My friends were so impressed with it. Those were the days...
Back to the Future
Samsung, Pebble, Sony, LG, and many others have been selling
"smart-watches" for at least a few years. What's so great about the
Apple Watch? The difference is in the purpose and design. Apple's goal
is to save time not just track time, and that functional purpose is
enough to send tremors of competitive fear throughout Switzerland and
the rest of the industry.
Early users of Apple Watch say they spend significantly less time on
their actual phones, which means they don't get suckered into another
game of Words With Friends or the latest Facebook updates after making a
call. Loss of focus and increased distractions are the biggest drains on
productivity due to mobile usage, but these people have found that using
their Watch actually reduces this down time. What a great excuse for
buying a new Watch!
Swatch is most concerned about the threat posed by Apple. Over the last
few years Nick Hayek, the CEO of Swatch, bemoaned the small screens and
lack of elegance common to previous versions of the digital chronometer.
Now that he's facing lost revenue of over $500 million this year alone,
however, he has changed his tune, succumbing to the pressure by
announcing Swatch's digital response to the Apple Watch.
The Blue Ocean in Switzerland
Other watchmakers like Patek Philippe and Mondaine Watch are also
being forced to compete based on Apple's strength in consumer technology
design. That's called Blue Ocean Strategy--where the goal isn't to beat
the competition, but to make them irrelevant--and it's going to happen
more frequently in the education space.
Blue Ocean Strategy is a path that more schools are considering because
they recognize that their strengths and assets allow them to redefine
the way they can deliver an outstanding educational experience for the
students in their target market. Their value proposition is no longer
defined by tradition but rather by strategic devotion to their students.
The design of their schools, especially the faculty culture, reflects a
devout dedication to purpose rather than compliance.
----------------------------
iTunes - Apple's iTunes has opened a
blue ocean in the field of digital music, and it has also made the
successful iPod player more attractive.
Apple has seen that since the late 1990s, with the help of file sharing
programs such as Napster, Kazaa and LimeWire, the sharing of illegal
music files has become widespread. By 2003, more than 2 billion illegal
music files were traded every month. Although the recording industry has
worked hard to combat illegal copying of CD records, the download of
illegal digital music continues to grow.
Since everyone can use existing technology to download music for free,
the development trend of digital music is self-evident. The rapid growth
in demand for mobile digital music MP3 players confirms this trend,
including Apple's hot-selling product iPod. Following this important
trend with a clear development trajectory, Apple opened the iTunes
online music store in 2003.
iTunes has reached an agreement with five major record companies
(including BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music) to
provide users with legal, convenient and flexible on-demand music
download services. On iTunes, the buyer is free to browse 200,000 songs,
listen to them for 30 seconds, and then download them for 99 cents for a
single or $9.99 for the entire album. By allowing customers to buy
singles and implementing a very reasonable pricing strategy, iTunes
solves an important problem for customers: customers may only like one
or two songs on the CD, but they have to buy the entire CD.
Customers have turned to iTunes, and record companies and artists have
also become beneficiaries. Through the iTunes model, every time
customers download a song, they can get 65% of the price. They finally
profited from the digital download frenzy. In addition, the copyright
protection measures adopted by Apple further protect the rights of
record companies. These measures not only did not cause trouble for
post-Napster users who have been accustomed to freely downloading
digital music, but also made the recording industry happy.
Today, the iTunes music store provides more than 8 million songs for
people to download. It is the largest music retailer in the United
States, with more than 5 billion songs sold.
----------------------------
Blue Ocean Strategy of Apple Inc. -
Essential to Survive in Crowded & Oversupply Market
By Analysis Case Study
Apple with its disruptive innovations
like iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, iCloud have not only fascinated the
customers but also made these devices an integral and essential part of
their lives. Customers feel Apple products as completely new despite the
fact that smartphones, MP3 players, online music stores existed even
before Apple developed them and also customers feel Apple products and
services resolve problems and make their lives better. Apple markets its
products based on functionality and usability not on the technical
specifications of products as compared to its competitors the technical
specifications are weak. For example iPad processor compared to
competitor's tablets is comparatively slower but Apple focused on the
thinness and light weight of product to cover the weakness. Apple has
also been successful to take advantage of its ecosystem and offer
products that seamlessly worked and made the customer's life easier.
Apple initially began as Personal Computer manufacturer like Macintosh
computers but now its product portfolio is dominated by iPhones, iPads
and iPods. It is also argued that Apple is more a design-driven company
rather than a technology-driven company and it created products that are
far beyond customer's expectations and thinking. Basically Apple creates
a product that customers do not expect, build a need for the product
among customers and quickly scale up the market and in between make life
difficult for their competitors as competitors struggle to keep up with
Apple's products thereby losing market share to Apple.
In an interview published in Forbes, Dan Schawbel interviewed W. Chan
Kim, the BCG Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at
INSEAD, Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute and
co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy Book, said "Our study shows that blue
ocean strategy is particularly needed when supply exceeds demand in a
market. This situation is applying to more and more industries today and
will be even more prevalent in the future. Let me illustrate this using
the example of Apple. The company was once a PC maker in a mature and
unattractive industry. By making a series of blue ocean strategic moves
such as iPod, iTune, iPhone, and iPad, Apple not only achieved sustained
profitable growth, but also revitalized the declining consumer
electronics industry. Apple achieved its success not by investing in
what was hot in the marketplace, but by making strategic moves to lead
and shape the evolution of a declining industry. From the perspective of
blue ocean strategy, companies seeking profitable growth should not
focus their efforts on identifying an existing lucrative market, but
should set out to create and capture one." Apple has consistently
redefined the industry boundaries, created uncontested market space and
its products and services always focused on delighting customers and
making them essential part of their lives. Apple products eliminates the
problems, raises the functionalities and expectations of customers,
reduces the problems of usage and creates a need for the customer and
make them use their products for long time. Apple profitability and
revenue growth can be directly attributed to Blue Ocean Strategy and
company constantly needs to find Blue Oceans in Red Oceans so that it
continues its profitability growth. Without its charismatic founder
Steve Jobs, company has to continue its journey of creating new products
and services and fascinate customers.
----------------------------
Forbes Article:
Surface 3 and Apple Watch - Red Oceans v Blue Oceans Strategy
Adam Hartung - Apr 2, 2015
Microsoft launched its new Surface 3 this week, and it has been
gathering rave reviews. Many analysts think its combination of a full
Windows OS (not the slimmed down RT version on previous Surface
tablets,) thinness and ability to operate as both a tablet and a PC make
it a great product for business. And at $499 it is cheaper than any
tablet from market pioneer Apple.
Meanwhile Apple keeps promoting the new Apple Watch, which was debuted
last month and is scheduled to release April 24. It is a new product in
a market segment (wearables) which has had very little development, and
very few competitive products. While there is a lot of hoopla, there are
also a lot of skeptics who wonder why anyone would buy an Apple Watch.
And these skeptics worry Apple's Watch risks diverting the company's
focus away from profitable tablet sales as competitors hone their
offerings.
Looking at these launches gives a lot of insight into how these two
companies think, and the way they compete. One clearly lives in red
oceans, the other focuses on blue oceans.
Red Oceans vs Blue Oceans and business strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy (Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne) was released in 2005
by Harvard Business School Press. It became a huge best-seller, and
remains popular today. The thesis is that most companies focus on
competing against rivals for share in existing markets. Competition
intensifies, features blossom, prices decline and the marketplace loses
margin as competitors rush to sell cheaper products in order to maintain
share. In this competitively intense ocean segments are niched and
products are commoditized turning the water red (either the red ink of
losses, or the blood of flailing competitors, choose your preferred
metaphor.)
On the other hand, companies can choose to avoid this margin-eroding
competitive intensity by choosing to put less energy into red oceans,
and instead pioneer blue oceans - markets largely untapped by
competition. By focusing beyond existing market demands companies can
identify unmet needs (needs beyond lower price or incremental product
improvements) and then innovate new solutions which create far more
profitable uncontested markets - blue oceans.
Obviously, the authors are not big fans of operational excellence and a
focus on execution, but instead see more value for shareholders and
employees from innovation and new market development.
Microsoft is a Red Ocean competitor - low end machines are Red Ocean
market
If we look at the new Surface 3 we see what looks to be a very good
product. Certainly, a product which is competitive. The Surface 3 has
great specifications, a lot of adaptability and meets many user needs -
and it is available at what appears to be a favorable price when
compared with iPads.
But .... it is being launched into a very, very red ocean.
The market for inexpensive personal computing devices is filled with a
lot of products. Don't forget that before we had tablets we had netbooks.
Low cost, scaled back yet very useful Microsoft-based PCs which can be
purchased at prices that are less than half the cost of a Surface 3. And
although Surface 3 can be used as a tablet, the number of apps is a
fraction of competitive iOS and Android products - and the developer
community has not yet embraced creating new apps for Windows tablets.
So, Surface 3 is more than a netbook, but also a lot more expensive.
Additionally, the market has Chromebooks which are low-cost devices
using Google Chrome which give most of the capability users need, plus
extensive internet/cloud application access at prices less than a third
that of Surface 3. In fact, amidst the Microsoft and Apple announcements
Google announced it was releasing a new ChromeBit stick which could be
plugged into any monitor, then work with any Bluetooth enabled keyboard
and mouse, to turn your TV into a computer. And this is expected to sell
for as little as $100 - or maybe less!
Surface 3 is a Red Ocean strategy product launch
This is classic red ocean behavior. The market is being fragmented into
things that work as PCs, things that work as tablets (meaning run apps
instead of applications,) things that deliver the functionality of one
or the other but without traditional hardware, and things that are a
hybrid of both. And prices are plummeting. Intense competition, multiple
suppliers and eroding margins.
Ouch. The "winners" in this market will undoubtedly generate sales. But,
will they make decent profits? At low initial prices, and software that
is either deeply discounted or free (Google's cloud-based MSOffice
competitive products are free, and buyers of Surface 3 receive 1 year
free of MS365 Office in the cloud, as well as free upgrade to Windows
10,) it is far from obvious how profitable these products will be.
Apple is a Blue Ocean competitor
Amidst this intense competition for sales of tablets and other low-end
devices, Apple appears to be completely focused on selling a product
that not many people seem to want. At least not yet. In one of the
quirkier product launch messages that's been used, Apple is saying it
developed the Apple Watch because its other innovative product line -
the iPhone - "is ruining your life."
Apple is saying that its leaders have looked into the future, and they
think today's technology is going to move onto our bodies. Become far
more personal. More interactive, more knowledgeable about its owner, and
more capable of being helpful without being an interruption. They see a
future where we don't need a keyboard, mouse or other artificial
interface to connect to technology that improves our productivity.
Right. That is easy to discount. Apple's leaders are betting on a
vision. Not a market. They could be right. Or they could be wrong. They
want us to trust them. Meanwhile, if tablet sales falter..... if Surface
3 and ChromeBit do steal the "low end" - or some other segment - of the
tablet market.....if smartphone sales slip..... if other "forward
looking" products like ApplePay and iBeacon don't catch on......
Comparing Red Ocean competition to Blue Ocean competition
This week we see two companies fundamentally competing differently.
Microsoft thinks in relation to its historical core markets, and
engaging in bloody battles to win share. Microsoft looks at existing
markets - in this case tablets - and thinks about what it has to do to
win sales/share at all cost. Microsoft is a red ocean competitor.
Apple, on the other hand, pioneers new markets. Nobody needed an iPod...
folks were happy enough with Sony Walkman and Discman. Everybody loved
their Razr phones and Blackberries... until Apple gave them an iPhone
and an armload of apps. Netbook sales were skyrocketing until iPads came
along providing greater mobility and a different way of getting the job
done.
Apple's success has not been built upon defending historical markets.
Rather, it has pioneered new markets that made existing markets
obsolete. Its success has never looked obvious. Contrarily, many of its
products looked quite underwhelming when launched. Questionable. And it
has cannibalized its own products as it brought out new ones (remember
when iPods were so new there was the iPod mini, iPod nano and iPod
Touch? After 5 years of declining iPod sales Apple has stopped reporting
them.) Apple avoids red oceans, and prefers to develop blue ones.
Which company will be more successful in 2020? Time will tell. But,
since 2000 Apple has gone from nearly bankrupt to the most valuable
publicly traded company in the USA. Since 1/1/2001 Microsoft has gone up
32% in value. Apple has risen 8,000%. While most of us prefer the
competition in red oceans, so far Apple has demonstrated what Blue Ocean
Strategy authors claimed, that it is more profitable to find blue
oceans. And they've shown us they can do it.
----------------------------
Apple Takes a News Bite: Blue Ocean
Strategy in Action or Red Ocean in Motion?
Business Journal - March 27, 2019
By Dr. Phil Osagie, Jsp Communications
Given Apple's sound reputation monopoly and its insanely legendary sense
of innovation, when Apple sneezes, the competition catches a cold! With
the latest launch of a News Subscription service in a fiercely
competitive news market, it is not so clear which side will catch the
cold this time around!
Strategy Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their
best-selling book, Blue Ocean Strategy - How to Create Uncontested
Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant describe two types of
market playing fields: Red oceans, where competition is fierce in bloody
waters, strategy centers around beating rivals, and wins are often
zero-sum. The cutthroat competition often results in nothing but a
bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking and shark-infested
profit pool
Blue oceans, on the other hand, is where a market space is new and
uncontested, and strategy is built around creating a leap in consumer
value, thereby making the competitors irrelevant. It is about unlocking
new demand and outperforming rivals in a whole new level.
Apple, in an expansive effort to build more services to run on its
various devices, has just rolled out a subscription service for news
featuring some of the biggest newspapers and magazines.
The company said its Apple News+ (Plus) subscription will include access
to 300 magazines, including The New Yorker, National Geographic and
InStyle. It will also feature newspapers like The Los Angeles Times and
The Wall Street Journal. The subscription will cost $9.99 a month and
will start out from the United States and Canada.
Apple describes the new service as News you can trust - All in one
place. Apple News promises to "provide the best coverage of current
events, curated by editors and personalized for you. Dive into your
favorite topics or discover new ones. And stay up to date with rich
videos, breaking news notifications, and subscriptions to some of your
favorite publications."
The subscription service builds on a free news app that the company
released in late 2015 that comes installed on the company's iOS
software. Apple said about five billion articles are read monthly on
Apple News.
The news subscription is part of a series of announcements of Apple's
new services, including a streaming video offering.
The New York Times reported that the new services represent an evolution
of Apple's business model. For years, Apple focused mainly on selling
hardware products, counting on consumers to upgrade phones and tablets
every few years. But as technology and design improvements have become
less apparent, demand for the iPhone, the company's flagship product,
has flattened.
The company is now shifting its focus to selling content and services
for Apple's roughly 1.4 billion active devices, which include Apple TV
boxes, Apple Watches, Mac computers and iPads.
Apple already has 56 million subscribers to its streaming music service
and it generated $10.9 billion from services in the last quarter of
2018, compared to $73.4 billion of hardware sales.5 billion articles are
read on the current Apple News app each month.
Spotify and some other competitors in the streaming business are already
screaming foul at Apple's dominant strategy of stifling competitive
services and abusing the marketplace power of its App Store.
The question is will this News subscription service be another money
spinner for Apple or will it eventually end up as another me-too news
outlet?
The news segment is already a bloody red ocean with many entrenched
players including Google News, Microsoft News, HuffPost, Flipboard,
Reuters News, CNBC and hundreds of others.
Apple is however expected to leverage the Apple brand name, pedigree and
psychology marketing to change the rules of the game and redefine the
market.