ブルーオーシャン戦略

を読んでみた。日本語版は知人に薦められて読んだことがあり、このときはまだ従来のマーケティングを知らなかったので、いまいちピンと来なかったけど、今回はかなり楽しんで読めた。自分勝手な備忘録としてまとめるので、興味があれば本を読んでみてください。

まずはレッドオーシャンとブルーオーシャンの定義から。

In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demend. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become comomodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.
Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and theopportunity for highly profitable growth.

従来のマーケティング理論はレッドオーシャンを対象にしたものが多い。すでに定義されているマーケットの中で、細かいセグメントに分けて、ニーズを明確化し、それに合わせて製品やサービス、価格、流通、広告などを決めていく。これは競争することが前提であり、その理由は軍事戦略から影響を受けているからだと言われている。

それとは対照的に、この本では、定義されていたマーケットをあえて壊して再構築することで、これまでの競争原理を無効化し、牛丼のような血みどろの戦いを避け、より多くの利益を上げようというもの。最近の例ではWiiで、この本の中でもシルクドソレイユやQBハウスなどの例を挙げている。

新たなマーケットの枠組みを作る手法としてThe Four Actions Frameworkを提唱している。具体的には
・Eliminate
・Reduce
・Create
・Raise
という4つのアクションを通して、買い手が手にする価値を再定義していくというもの。これを知ったところで何も意味がないので、自分で手を動かして考えなければいけないのだろう。このとき、何がかんでも加えたり、減らしたりすればいいというわけではなく、下記のポイントを意識して考えることを薦めている。

・Focus
Every great strategy has focus, and a company's strategic profile, or value curve, should clearly show it.

・Divergence
The value curves of blue ocean strategists always stand apart. By applying the four actions framework, they differenciate their profiles from the industry's average profile.

・Compelling Tagline
A good strategy has a clear-cut and compelling tagline. A good tagline must not only deliver a clear message but also advertise an offering truthfully, or else custmers will lose trust and interest.

そして、もう少し具体的にThe Four Actions Frameworkを適用して成功したパターンを6つ紹介している。

・Look across alternative industries
Alternatives are broader than substitutes and include products or services that have different functions and forms but the same purpose. Rarely do sellers think consciously about how their customers make trade-offs across alternative industries. However, the space between alternative industries provides opportunities for value innovation. (e.g. NetJets, iMode)

・Look across strategic groups within industries
Strategic groups can generally be ranked in a rough hierarchical order built on two dimentions: price and performance. The key to creating a blue ocean across existing strategic groups is to break out of this narrow tunnel vision by understanding which factors determine customers's decisions to trade up or down from one group to another. (e.g. Curves)

・Look across the chain of buyers
The purchasers who pay for the product or service may differ from the actual users, an in some cases there are important influencers as well. Challenging an industry's conventional wisdom about which buyer group to target can lead to the discovery of new blue ocean. (e.g. SAP)

・Look across complementary product and service offerings
Untapped value is often hidden in complementary products and services. The key is to define the total solution buyers seek when they choose a product and service. A simple way is to think about what happens before, during and after your product is used.(e.g. cinema and babysitter)

・Look across functional or emotional appeal to buyers
Emotionally oriented industies offer many extras that add price without enhancing functionarity. Stripping away those extras may create a fundamentally simpler, lower-priced, lower-cost business model that customers would welcome. Conversely, functionally oriented industries can often infuse commodity products with new life by adding a dose of emotion and, in so doing, can stimulate new demand. (e.g. QB house)

・Look across time
By looking across time - from the value a market delivers today to the value it might deliver tomorrow - managers can actively shape their future and lay claim to a new blue ocean.

最後に、新しく構築されたマーケットの潜在顧客を3つに分けて考えている。

・First-Tier Noncustomers
These soon-to-be noncustomers are those who minimally use the current market offerings to get by as they search for something better. Upon findings any better alternative, they will eagerly jump ship.

・Second-Tier Noncustomers
These are refusing noncustomers, people who either do not use or cannot afford to use the current market offerings because they find the offerings unacceptable or beyond their means.

・Third-Tier Noncustomers
These are the farthest away from an industry's existing customers and have not been targeted or thought of as potential customers by any player in the industry because their needs have always been assumed to belong to other market.

これらの潜在顧客の心を掴むために共通点を見つけろとざっくりと書いてある･･･。

これ以外にも、実際のビジネスプランの立て方や、組織マネジメントなどにも書かれていたりする。よく従来のマーケティングの差別化戦略と比較されているけど、従来のマーケットを対象とするのか、マーケットそのものを再構築して対象とするのかという視点(程度)が違いとして挙げられると思う。なので文章でただ書いてしまうと同じものとして聞こえる。

この考え方は自分の興味にすごく似ていて、枠を壊すということの一例だと思う。これをふまえて、もう少し自分の考えをまとめていきたい。