In 2005, Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne launched a REVOLUTION in marketing strategies. Their first book sold more than 4 million copies and was translated into 44 different languages. Together they were inspired to teach readers how to get out of the bloody shark infested and highly competitive “Red Oceans”, and move to the “Blue Oceans” where there is little to no competition. The Blue Ocean strategy is a sensation and opened up the door to many possibilities in the marketing world! What makes these books so fascinating is that this is more than just an outlined plan “strategy”. It’s a total shift in mindset and how to be the best leader possible for success in your business!
Picking a Niche
The Red vs. Blue Ocean Marketing is actually a pretty simple concept to understand. Red Ocean is where every business or competitor in your industry is right now. Similar to a shark infested ocean where all the sharks are fighting for the same prey, these are the businesses doing the same exact thing everyone else is doing.
The Blue Ocean is a totally different environment. This is where there is little to no competition and lots of food. There’s no fighting, there’s plenty to go around for everyone. This is where everyone ideally wants to be! Here’s a little breakdown of the difference between the two.
So how do we form this Blue Ocean? First you MUST pick a niche that you feel passionately about serving. Let’s say for example, you love helping new home buyers find their dream home. You have to get more specific. What age group are you targeting? Zip code? What social media platforms do they go on the most? Narrow it down as best as you can and make that your center focus. That’s just the beginning, but everything starts falling into place as soon as you make this first step.
Program
The whole idea behind this successful strategy, is to have high value at a low cost. Competition becomes completely irrelevant, because they can’t duplicate your original ideas. All the potential competitors begin to fall by the wayside! Let’s use Cirque de Soleil for example. About 150 companies attempted to compete with them and everyone went out of business.
“Cirque did not make its money by competing within the confines of the existing industry or by stealing customers from Ringling and the others,” Kim and Mauborgne wrote in the Harvard Business Review magazine. “Instead, it created uncontested market space that made the competition irrelevant. It pulled in a whole new group of customers who were traditionally non-customers of the industry – adults and corporate clients who had turned to theater, opera or ballet and were, therefore, prepared to pay several times more than the price of a conventional circus ticket for an unprecedented entertainment experience.”
The same pattern is seen over and over again. A new captivating idea or company comes out and captures the attention of a specific market. Similar companies try their best to imitate it and fail.
One of my favorite speakers, Tony Robbins, gives a quick podcast lesson on why this strategy is so important for success in your business. Click on the video below to learn more about how to dominate your crowded market with this strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stB18qB5eXE
Think Outside The Box
Have you heard of the luxury car brand Tesla? Of course you have! According to USA Today, “The swoopy electric sedan outsold all models from other luxury brands – Porsche, Volvo, Lincoln, Land Rover and Jaguar…With 4,714 new Teslas registered over the six months, it even topped some established conventional luxury models like Lexus GS at 2,298, and Audi A6 at 1,619.”
All of Tesla’s competitors were well established brands. Tesla was a brand new concept- all electric cars- that are now dominating the market.
So what are some ways you can really stand out in the Mortgage or Real Estate business? Here are some great tips that can produce substantial success!
Email Marketing: Optin Monster concluded that there are more users on email and more people are active on email and use it more often than social media. Click here to read how you can hit the jackpot with email marketing!
Invent New Programs: Analyze your competitors current programs and presence on social media. Outline what you can do to be better. Post good quality content. Create an app for your business. Lay out simple steps and an “easy to use” system that will captivate their attention.
Foster Relationships & Building new ones: Building solid relationships plays a pivotal role in the success of your business. You never know what connection can lead to potential clients, future hires, etc. Just like any relationship, these connections will require consistent nurturing. Over time, make sure to build trust, keep in contact, and be helpful when needed. Provide advice and feedback. Promote their work by sharing it with others, or on social media.
Host a community event and invite contacts and their families. This can be a BBQ, Fall Festival, Christmas Party-brainstorm ideas depending on the season and plan something fun!
Do the things others won’t! If you took the above ideas and stayed consistent, you’d see new clients popping up instantly. Especially since most people won’t go out of their way to do these things. They’re either too lazy or don’t understand that going above and beyond is what will bring in new business. It’s proven that only about 5% of people are the risk takers, the fearless go-getters who dismiss the fear of putting themselves out there.
So the real question is… are you ready to be in that 5% group? Or are you comfortable with the other 95% surrounded by competition in the Red Ocean? Today I’ve only covered a small aspect of this great concept, but it’s definitely worth your time to really dig deep and do some more research.
Best of luck! Have a great Monday and remember to think outside the box this week!
Until next time!
References:
http://www.corporatestrategy.com/red-ocean-vs-blue-ocean/
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5647-blue-ocean-strategy.html