The Blue Ocean Strategist

06May 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Stage Six is Disposal.

Disposal. This is a huge stage in the buyer experience cycle. Today, more than ever, how your product is disposed of after use or whether or not it creates waste or by-products is extremely important. Let's take a quick look again at the preceding components or stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Click each link to see the post written associated with that stage if you wish to review it. Purchase -> Delivery -> Use -> Supplements -> Maintenance The grid used in Blue Ocean Strategy work associated with the Buyer Experience Cycle and its associated levers is call the Buyer Utility Map. The Buyer Utility Map features the six stages we've discussed in this series of posts on the horizontal axis. On the vertical axis, we see what are…

05May 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Stage Five is Maintenance.

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

We've been discussing the buyer experience cycle from a blue ocean strategy perspective in this series. As a quick review, the six stages of the buyer experience cycle are Purchase - Delivery - Use - Supplements - Maintenance - Disposal. Today's stage is Maintenance. We're all familiar with purchasing something and then having to maintain it or paying the price if we don't. In a blue ocean strategy context we view these buyer experience cycle stages as a way to gauge how these stages affect buyer utility. When you use these stages as factors on a horizontal scale and what are called levers, on a vertical scale, you end up with a Buyer Utility Map. Those of you that have been following along have seen this image in each post.…

04May 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Stage Four is Supplements.

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

Supplements. It's a loaded word with lots of applications. In the context of our business discussion today, we are going to stick solely with a narrowly defined meaning. When your customers buy your product or service, are they required to, or is it helpful for them to buy something in addition to what you have sold them? For example, my wife recently purchased a car. It had beautiful carpet on the floors and we didn't wish to destroy it with heel marks, grime, moisture, etc. We bought after-market floor mats custom sized to fit the vehicle, thereby protecting the carpet. This is a supplement. Simply stated, it is a product or service that is supplemental to your product or service. Most of you have thought of these issues. However, most…

01May 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Stage Three is Use.

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

How a customer uses your company's offering, whether it's a product or service is massively important. I know this seems intuitive but allow for a moment's thought here. How often have you bought that piece of furniture from Ikea, Target, or, Wayfair and realized, "Wow, there are a lot of parts here." It is still a delightful surprise when you open a box of any kind and experience things just coming together. You know, when things are well explained and easy. Translate this to an online offering. I build WordPress sites. I'm not a coder but have built 50 or so over the course of time. There are occasions where you utilize a Theme, the skin that rides over the Wordpress software architecture allowing for design and functionality. When these…

30Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. Stage Two. The Delivery.

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

In this series we're unpacking the Blue Ocean Strategy Buyer Experience Cycle. We are discussing how our new realities are requiring a systematic approach to unlocking value by reassessing how the customer experience looks through the entire buyer experience cycle. In review, there are six stages of the buyer cycle. These are measured against six levers on a vertical axis. Today, we cover stage two in the buyer experience cycle, delivery. We are encouraging you to carefully ask what are the blockages to the delivery of your product or service to your customers. The consumer package goods market has undergone transformation in the last few years and it is being accelerated and stressed at the moment. When you think of your product or service, what is the customer's experience when…

29Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle. More Important Now than Ever. Stage One.

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

In the launch post of this series, I shared the importance of testing for exceptional utility. The reason this is so important is simple. Many industries, most in fact, will have to reassess how customers are experiencing the product or service offered. The safety of customers, clients, employees, staff and more will all become a first consideration. All liability for that safety will rest on how the buyer experience is planned, implemented, and monitored. It is imperative that companies assess these factors. The greatest blocks to buyer utility often represent the greatest and most pressing opportunities to unlock exceptional value. Building value and value innovation that naturally follows is what leads to blue oceans of uncontested market space. The buyer experience defined: It is summed up as the entirety of…

28Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

How Do You Measure Your Buyer Experiences NOW?

Blue Ocean Articles, Buyer Utility Maps

We are all seeing differences in how we shop, work, and experience everyday interactions. Whether it's a trip to the grocery store, the dentist, the pediatrician, or the garage. Restaurants are literally having to reinvent their customer experiences to accommodate our current and future reality. This exercise, now a necessity, has been an ongoing process and growth strategy in Blue Ocean Strategy. It's known as "Testing for Exceptional Utility". In the past, i.e. last January, companies fell into traps of ignoring measurements of exceptional utility because they were enamored with new technology or the novelty of their product. This is no longer an option. Once a company has sufficiently drilled down on its offerings through use of a strategy canvas or strategic plan of some kind they can really begin…

27Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

Competitive Factors in Your Industry. Do You Know What They Are?

Blue Ocean Articles

Identifying key factors of competition in an industry is not a straightforward process. The challenge lies in the fact that the various constituencies in the industry all see competitive factors through their own lens. The CEOs see competitive factors one way. The frontline workers see competition another way and consumers see something entirely different from everyone else. We tend to see things very much in ways that are based on our own responsibilities. If I'm responsible for delivering a certain part of a customer experience, that's how I'll see the competition. I won't be paying a lot of attention to other parts of the business or supply chain that may be heavily affecting how competition really is measured. So what to do? And why is it important? Let's discuss the…

23Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

Covid-19 Advertising – Good, Bad, and the Really Ugly

Blue Ocean Articles

“We have a unique opportunity now to be radically generous, best we can and that can be financially and thoughtfully aggressive. Some of our businesses are threatened. Most businesses are down in meaningful ways. As business leaders, we got to navigate through this the best we can.” – Christopher Lochhead Listen to Christopher Lochhead and Eddie Yoon discuss ideas around radical generosity and thoughtful aggression in this recent podcast. Its relevance can't be overstated. Click Here In my last post, I wrote on how poorly some advertisers are handling communications during this historic period. There are some big misses taking place out there. They are being perpetrated by agencies and companies that should know better. One example that demonstrates how bad it can be is found here. It's a parody of…

21Apr 2020 by Sherman Mohr

Reconstruct your industries boundaries to find new markets

Blue Ocean Articles

In today's final red ocean trap, we learn that some believe that blue ocean strategy is synonymous with creative destruction or disruption. This is actually not the case. In the case of disruption or creative destruction, we see a displacement of a previous offering. The horse and its staff of caretakers was displaced by the automobile and its completely alternative supply chain. The traditional retailer has in great part been displaced by Amazon. While there are blue ocean elements to those industries they were destructive of the previous industries with their displacement characteristics. Blue ocean strategy is not predicated on displacement or destruction of markets. One classic example of success used in Blue Ocean Strategy, How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant is Viagra. This "lifestyle"…