Blue Ocean Strategy for Alcohol Industry( Part 3 of the series)

                                    fig 1: Alcoholic drinks( source: espvisuals.blogspot.com)                                                                    

This is the 3rd  blog of the series: Blue Ocean Strategy for Alcohlic Industry. The 1st two blogs talked about medicinal benefits of alcohol and Strategy Canvass of the alcohlic beverage industry respectively where as this one will talk about the types of non customers of the given industry and the  implementation strategy to target them.

Three types of non customers for the alcoholic beverage industry

Blue Ocean Strategy fundamentally talks about three kinds of non customers:-

a) Customers who are mentally your non customers but occasionally do use your product out of some compulsion.

b) Customers who have the needs for the kind of service your industry offers but who still prefers to choose an alternate industry to fulfill their needs.

c) Customers who are far away from your industry and they are not at all willing to use your product/service.

According to the above frame work the non customers of the alcoholic beverage industry can be categorized into following categories:-

a) People, who are not frequent drinkers, don’t enjoy drinking alcohol as such but sometimes can consume a little bit. This is the most potent target customer for the given BOS plan. It consists of people who do not have any strong opinion against alcohol and hence can be persuaded to consume it in moderation.

b) People, who don’t consume alcohol but don’t have any religious cum cultural bias, also have health based requirements where alcohol consumption can be helpful. Though these people prefer other alternates such as exercise and diet control. It is somehow tough to convince the following non customer section to consume alcohol but still if a proper strategy is put into place a small section can be captured. The given set of non customers might include some top ranking executives and other busy professionals who might not have time for other alternatives such as work out and exercise. Such people can be convinced for moderate consumption of alcohol.

c) People, who have strong opinion against alcohol (often due to religious cum cultural factors). These are the people who will even avoid consuming a low alcohol drink such as a breezier or a beer. Since such people have strong psychological bias against alcohol it will be very tough to convince them for alcohol consumption. Hence it is advisable to avoid the given section of non customers.

Utility, Pricing, Cost, Adoptability

Utility: - Based on the kind of research work conducted by various prestigious medical organizations it can be argued that moderate consumption of alcoholic beverage can be beneficial for one’s health. Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverage can result in prevention of cancer, heart and kidney based diseases etc. Since a large amount of the current population is suffering from such ailments (or is prone to them in the nearby future) moderate consumption of alcohol for prevention purpose might find very high degree of utility.

Pricing: - Since the product is of medical purpose and not an intoxicant hence can be priced at 10-20% lower than the existing alcoholic beverages. This will ensure

1> Higher penetration among various socio-economic spheres.

2> It will also help differentiating the new alcoholic beverage from the existing brands. The existing brands are used as intoxicants , hence having a slightly lower price will help in positioning the newer brand as an moderate non intoxicating drink that can be consumed for medicinal purpose. In other words a lesser price will help in positioning the new brand as a lesser alcohol and hence might find smooth adoptability among non consumers. (Another point to be taken care of is that while a 10-20% reduction will lead to perfect positioning, further reduction might be detrimental. It should be noted that it’s a medicinal product and a very low price might raise questions regarding quality and effectiveness of it.)

Target Costing:- Cost is not a major issue over here. In the given BOS cost is going down on account of fewer investments in packaging, promotional activities, celebrity endorsements, strength etc. On the other newer investments will be required for:-

1> Promoting the idea of safe drinking.

2> Strong promotional campaigns that might require the help of medical fraternity to convince general public towards safe drinking.

Hence there are parameters where cost can be cut down as well as there are newer parameters which will require  investments. Overall it might be concluded that the cost structure will remain unchanged.

Adoptability: - The adoptability will not be very easy initially due to the perception of the product as an intoxicant. But over the period of time with the help of an efficient promotional strategy a lot of non customers can be convinced for moderate consumption. Promotional campaign will be discussed in details in the coming section.

Marketing cum Promotional Strategy

• The given BOS plan requires a promotional plan that is :-

a) Of large scale

b) Clever

c) Genuine

d) Diversified

e) Socially Responsible

• Large Scale: - There is a very strong bias against alcohol consumption due to cultural factors as well as side effects of over consumption. Hence in order to convince non customers towards moderate consumption it is essential that the manufacturers must implement a large scale promotional strategy.

• Clever: - Along with large scale it needs to be well crafted and subtle in approach. Promotion of alcohol for moderate consumption will attract lot of opposition from various religious cum cultural organizations as well as some medical fraternities. Hence it is essential that the entire campaign must be well crafted in dealing with all this. It should not be very strong in its approach because a strong campaign will attract a strong opposition. It must try differentiating itself from the regular brands which are nothing but mere intoxicant and also emphasize strongly on moderate consumption.

• Genuine: - Use of genuine evidences such as research works and testimonies by doctors can add strong strength to the campaign.

• Diversified: - Since the given BOS talks about a very new idea it needs to be communicated through various different kinds of media channels. Along with the regular media channels such as print ads, commercials, hoardings etc there is a wide need for on the spot promotion, purchase point promotion etc. Web based platforms like social networking sites; regular web campaigns etc can also add strong value to the overall campaign.

• Socially Responsible: - The campaign needs to be socially responsible, must promote only moderate drinking and communicate effectively the harmful effects of excessive consumption.

Six path frame work for the new alcoholic beverage

The concluding part will be looking the BOS with the help of a six path frame work

• Look across alternative industry: - In order to realize the potential of the new beverage it is essential that the manufacturers should look across alternative industries. Rather than restricting the definition of alcoholic beverage as mere intoxicant they should also look at them as substance with medicinal values and hence consider other industries such as drug industry, health care industry, fitness industry etc into strategy formulation.

• Look across strategic group within industries: - Like any other industry alcoholic beverage industry also has many strategic groups within. There are brands which are priced very high and are known for their exquisiteness , brands which are priced moderately and are targeted for working and middle income class , brands which are known for their strength and then there are low quality cheap brands popular in the third world countries. Manufacturers are supposed to look beyond these strategic groups if they have to offer a value innovative service to their non customers. By simply sticking to their respective strategic groups probably can never get the insight needed for looking beyond the obvious and taping the huge non customer segment.

• Look across the chain of buyers: - manufacturers need to consider not only the direct user but also other influencers. For example in this case doctors can play a very important role in convincing the end users. So probably manufacturers can think of targeting doctors along with the end users.

• Look across complimentary industry: - In the given context it hardly makes any sense.

• Look across emotional and functional appeal:- The general trend have always been to promote alcoholic beverage as a high involvement products used as an intoxicant , companion of good times etc. But in order to capture the Blue Ocean market manufacturers need to look across it. They have to think beyond such stereotypical beliefs.

• Look across time: - Though still there are inhibitions in people when it comes to stuffs like alcohol and cigarettes but with time slowly but steadily it’s changing. People these are becoming more open towards such stuffs. Even if they don’t consume such stuffs it can be observed that many of them don’t associate these things with any social stigma. Hence if a proper communication cum promotional strategy is put into place then chances of converting a good amount of non customers into moderate drinking might be high.

Blue ocean Strategy for Alcohol industry ( Part 2 of the series)

                                               fig 1: alcoholic beverage( source istockphoto) 

The previous blog dealt with the medicinal benefits of alcoholic beverages, now the 2nd one will be dealing with Strategy Canvass of the alcohlic beverage industry.

Alcohol industry is right now focussing on the following parameters:-

1>Huge expenditure are on promotional activities .This includes the following:-

• Promoting alcoholic beverages as a companion of good times.

• Promoting them as a great intoxicant. Something that can get you high

• Promoting social drinking in pubs and parties.

2> Alcoholic beverages are also promoted on account of their strength and alcohol contents.

3> Signing in of celebrities with strong presence in the media and strong fan following.

4> Huge investment as well as emphasis is  made on the distilleries used and the process of beverage making adopted by the manufacturer.

5> On  strong distribution network.

6> High taxes:- In most of the countries around the world generally the govt. charges huge taxes on such products.

7> Stylish packaging:- A very large amount of investment goes in providing exquisite and very stylish kind of packaging. There is always attempt by manufacturer to promote such beverage as an ego satisfying entity. Hence stylish and exquisite packaging becomes inevitable.

8> Miscellaneous factors such age of the drink, legends associated with the drink, drinking traditions etc also consume a good amount of investment.

9> The industry is not focussing very high on the medicinal properties of such beverage.

So the industry canvass can be drawn as follows:-

Table 1: -

Properties                                           Degree of investment/ Emphasis

Promotional Strategy                           High

Celebrity Endorsements                       High

strength                                               High

Distribution network                            High

Taxes                                                  High

Process of manufacturing                     High

Packaging                                           High

Miscellaneous                                     High

Medicinal properties                           Low

fig 2: Strategy Canvass of the existing Alcohol industry

 

Now According to the blue ocean strategy the proposed drink will target the non customers in the following way:-

1> Moderate expenditure on promotion:-

• The strategy should not be to promote alcoholic beverage as an intoxicant.

• Proper emphasis will be given on promoting it for social drinking and as a companion for good times.

2> Beverage will not be promoted on the basis of strength.

3> Celebrities can be signed in but not big celebrities with huge fan following but responsible ones with moderate fan following. Celebrities that are considered more popular among the intelligent circles should be signed.

4> There will be moderate focus on the process of manufacturing to specify the safety level associated with the consumption.

5> High investments in distribution network. This will not only include selecting a large no. of efficient channel partners but also proper sales force training. The sales force needs to play a very important role in convincing the non customers for safe drinking.

6> Taxes will be high initially but it had been assumed that the given strategy aims towards moderate and safe drinking; so some pressure can be built on the govt. machineries for tax reduction. Hence it might go moderate in the long run.

7> There has to be minimal expenditure in packaging since the purpose is not to promote alcoholic beverage as an ego satisfying drink but as a health drink.

8> Minimal expenditure will be incurred on factors such as age and taste of the drink.

9> High investments will be incurred in educating people regarding the medicinal properties of alcohol.

10> High investment will be incurred in promoting safe and moderate drinking.

New industry canvass

Table 2

Properties                                                     Degree of investment

Promotional Strategy                                    Moderate

Celebrity Endorsements                               Moderate

strength                                                       Low

Distribution network                                    High

Taxes                                                          Moderate

Process of manufacturing                             Moderate

Packaging                                                   Low

Miscellaneous                                             Low

Medicinal properties                                   High

Safe & Drinking                                  High

fig 3: Strategy canvass of the new proposed market 

Now the next figure will be comparing both the red ocean as well as Blue ocean market

fig 3: Comparison of existing as well as proposed market 

Now in the concluding part of the blog the author attempts an ERRC framework which goes as follows

 Eliminate

• Heavy drinking

• Intoxication due to heavy drinking

• Health and other risks associated with heavy drinking

• Stylish Packaging Reduce

Reduce

• Celebrity promotion

• Promotional expenditure

• Taxes

• Emphasis on the process of manufacturing

Raise

• Awareness regarding medicinal properties of alcohol

• Other utilities (stress remover, Fighting cold etc) Create

• Awareness regarding safe drinking.

• Promotion of alcoholic beverage as a health enhancer.

Create

• Awareness regarding safe drinking.

• Promotion of alcoholic beverage as a health enhancer.

Blue Ocean Strategy for alcohol industry( Part 1 of the series)

                                        fig 1: Portuguese wine( Source: Portugalweb.com)

                                                    

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl functional group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom, usually connected to other carbon or hydrogen atoms.[1] Alcohol is used for various purposes ranging from drinking beverages to medical purposes.

From ancient time itself use of alcohol as beverage has attracted lot of critics as well as lauders alike, has always been described in almost every major religious books and the design of social of code of conduct. The consumption alcoholic drinks can cause intoxication which can further lead to hangovers; because of such effect Alcoholic beverages were always associated with negative connotation in the sphere of ethics and moral code of conduct leading to a big range of people avoiding consuming alcohol on moral and ethical grounds.

In the upcoming series of three blogs the author will attempt to target these non customers by promoting the positive sides of alcoholic beverages and not to just to promote it as an intoxication arousing drink. The 1st blog in the series will be dealing with Medicinal values of alcohol with the help of various research work conducted worldwide. The next two blogs will be dealing with strategy canvass and strategy implementation respectively.

In the beginning itself it has to be made clear that the paper does not attempt to nullify the side effects of alcohol nor does it attempt to encourage people towards its over consumption. The only point that the paper wants to make is that alcohol is not all that bad as it had been portrayed due to various religious and cultural factors. It had been medically proved that a little amount of alcohol consumption can actually be very helpful and beneficial for one’s health. Based on these grounds the paper will like to promote moderate consumption of such beverages to its non consumers who have so far avoided its consumption on some predetermined perception and wrong notions. #

Medical benefits of alcohol [2] :-

1> It gives longevity:-

• A Harvard study found the risk of death from all causes to be 21% to 28% lower among men who drank alcohol moderately, compared to abstainers. [3]

• Harvard's Nurses' Health Study of over 85,000 women found reduced mortality among moderate drinkers.[4]

• A British analysis of 12,000 male physicians found that moderate drinkers had the lowest risk of death from all causes during the 13 year study. [5]

• Large-scale study in China found that middle-aged men who drank moderately had a nearly 20% lower overall mortality compared to abstainers. [6]

• A twelve year long prospective study of over 200,000 men found that subjects who had consumed alcohol in moderation were less likely to die than those who abstained from alcohol.[7]

2> It cures heart attacks and other cardio vascular disease.

• Harvard researchers have identified the moderate consumption of alcohol as a proven way to reduce coronary heart disease risk. [8]

• The Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up Study of over 44,000 males found moderate alcohol consumption to be associated with a 37% reduction in coronary disease.[9]

• The Honolulu Heart Study found a 49% reduction in coronary heart disease among men who drink alcohol in moderation. [10]

• Harvard researchers concluded about coronary heart disease that "Consumption of one or two drinks of beer, wine, or liquor per day has corresponded to a reduction in risk of approximately 20-40%. [11]

• The American Heart Association, based on the research evidence, concludes that the “Consumption of one or two drinks per day is associated with a reduction in risk of (coronary heart disease) approximately 30% to 50%.” [12]

3> It is effective in curing hypertension and high blood pressure

• A Harvard University study found the lowest levels of hypertension among young adults who consumed one to three drinks per day. [13]

• A study of alcohol consumption and subsequent high blood pressure for eight years among over 7,000 women found that those who consumed an average of about half a drink a day had a 15% lower chance of developing high blood pressure than did women who abstained from alcohol. [14]

4> Alcohol consumption is effective in curing diabetes and related ailments

• The American Diabetes Association reports that "In people with diabetes, light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol are associated with a decreased risk of heart disease, probably because alcohol raises HDL cholesterol, the so-called 'good cholesterol.'" [15]

• A study of almost 21,000 physicians for over 12 years has found that men who are light to moderate drinkers have a decreased risk of Type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus. [16]

• A study of 8,663 men over a period of as long as 25 years found that the incidence of type 2 diabetes was significantly lower among moderate drinkers than among either abstainers or heavy drinkers. These findings persisted after adjusting for age, smoking, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, waist circumference, parental diabetes, fasting plasma glucose, body mass index (BMI), serum triglyceride concentration, and cardio respiratory fitness. [17]

5> Other medical benefits of Alcohol

• Moderate drinkers have been found to be more resistant than abstainers to five strains of the common cold virus. Those who consumed 2 to 3 drinks daily had an 85% greater resistance. Those drinking 1 to 2 drinks daily had a 65% lower risk and those who drank less than daily had a 30% lower risk than abstainers.18

• Researchers at Boston Medical Centre analyzed data from 8,125 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study. They found that drinkers had a 43% lower chance of having Metabolic Syndrome than did abstainers or non-drinkers.19

• An analysis of data from 760,044 men and women who were tracked for seven to 20 years found that moderate drinkers are about 30% less likely to develop kidney cancer than abstainers. A large prospective study of 59,237 Swedish women age 40-76 found that those who consumed at least one drink per week had a 38% lower risk of kidney cancer than did abstainers or those who drank less. For women over 55, the risk dropped by two-thirds.20

Some of the important point that has to be noted over here is that:-

• The research works have been conducted over a large sample of people.

• They have been conducted over a very prolonged period of time.

• They have been conducted over various geographies such as USA, Italy, and China etc.

• They have been conducted by some of the very prominent organization in the area of medical science.

Thus it can be assumed that the degree of veracity in all these research works should be high.

Alcohlic beverages are good for health for the following factors:-

• Alcohol contains various types of anti oxidants that not only helps in curing diseases but also helps in providing better sexual health.

• Alcoholic beverages can be good for human heart because it increases the content of good HDL cholesterol.

• It also reduces the risk of blood clots in the coronary arteries. It can prevent platelets from clumping together to form clots, prevent sudden rise of fibrinogen (a protein) from liver that in many times is responsible for forming blood clots. [21]

• It is believed that Alcoholic beverages such as red wine contain a large amount of anti oxidant like flavonoids. It had been argued that such anti oxidants are good for human health and helps in prevention of thrombosis. [22]

• Apart from the medical properties one other aspect of alcohol is that it helps people in socializing. It had been seen that drinkers have better social circles than abstainer's .A better social life ensures prevention of loneliness thereby ensuring better health, lack of depression and longevity in living.

So the 1st blog fundamentally dealt with the medicinal benefits of Alcohol. The next two will be dealing with the Strategy canvass and Strategy implementation

# The paper talks only about moderate drinking. It strictly prohibits heavy drinking; heavy drinking has far more disadvantage than advantage. It can cause heart failures, kidney and liver damage, cause heavy intoxication that might lead to accidents, etc. Heavy drinking is something that must be avoided at any go. It is only moderate drinking that has so much of benefits associated with it. Though there is no hard and fast definition of moderate drinking but according to many of the doctors it could be 1-3 glass a day for a healthy man. Since women are generally smaller in size than men, the alcohol consumption should be about 25-30% lower

References

1 Wikipedia

2 http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/AlcoholAndHealth.html

3 Camargo, C. A., et al. Prospective study of moderate alcohol consumption and mortality in US male physicians. Archives of Internal Medicine, 1997, 157, 79-85.

4 Fuchs, C. S., et al. Alcohol consumption and mortality among women. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1995, 332(19), 1245-1250

5. Doll, R., and Peto, R. Mortality in relation to consumption of alcohol: 13 years' observations on male British doctors. British Medical Journal, 1994, 309, 911-918.

6 Yuan, J-M., et al. Follow up study of moderate alcohol intake and mortality among middle aged men in Shanghai, China. British Medical Journal, 1997, 314, 18-23

7 Boffetta, P., and Garefinkel, L. Alcohol drinking among men enrolled in an American Cancer Society prospective study. Epidemiology, 1990, 1(5), 42-48.

8 Manson, J. E., et al. The primary prevention of myocardial infarction. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1992, 326(21), 1406-1416.

9 Rimm, E., et al. Prospective study of alcohol consumption and risk of coronary disease in men. The Lancet. 1991, 338, 464-468.

10 Blackwelder, W. C., et al. Alcohol and mortality. The Honolulu Heart Study. American Journal of Medicine, 1980, 68(2), 164-169.

11 National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol Alert, No. 45. October, 1999.

12 Pearson, Thomas A. (for the American Heart Association). Alcohol and heart disease. Circulation, 1996, 94, 3023-3025.

13 Gillman, W. M. et al. Relationship of alcohol intake with blood pressure. Hypertension, 1995, 25, 1106-1110. Also: Beilin, L., Puddey, I., and Burke, V. Alcohol and hypertension - kill or cure? Journal of Hypertension, 1996, 10, 1-5; Ramsey, L., et al. Alcohol and myocardial infarction in hypertensive men. American Heart Journal, 1979.

14 Thadhani, R., et al. Prospective study of moderate alcohol consumption and risk of hypertension in young women. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2002, 162, 569-574.

15 Wheeler, M., et al. Is there a place for alcohol in your diabetes meal plan? Diabetes Forecast, 2003 (August).

16 Umed, A., et al. Alcohol consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus among US male physicians. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2000, 160, 1025-1050.

17 Wei, M. et al. Alcohol intake and incidence of type 2 diabetes in men. Diabetes Care, 2000, 23(1), 18-26.

18 Cohen, S., et al. Smoking, alcohol consumption and susceptibility to the common cold. American Journal of Public Health, 1993, 83(9), 1277-1283.

19. Freiberg, M, et al. Alcohol consumption and the prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome in the US: A cross-sectional analysis of data from The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Diabetes Care, 2004, 27(11), 2954-2959.

20 Rashidkhani, B., Åkesson, A., Lindblad, P, and Wolk, A. Alcohol consumption and risk of renal cell carcinoma: A prospective study of Swedish women International Journal of Cancer, 2005 (December 10), 117(5), 848–853.

21. http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/cardiovascular/heart/alcohol-good-for-your-heart.htm

22. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089

Blue Ocean Strategy for Hinduism

                                                                 
As a part of his idea of promoting Hinduism as a successful brand the author attempts to apply blue ocean strategy on Hinduism. For those who do not know what Blue Ocean strategy stands for, it should be made clear that it is a very revolutionary and innovative business strategy plan that attempts to capture the non customer segment of a brand by providing them value innovation. For further idea one can refer to the blog articles written by the author. Here goes the link:- http://themanagmentguru.blogspot.com/search/label/BLUE%20OCEAN%20STRATEGY


Three kinds of non customers for Hinduism1:-

a) 1st tier: - Hindus themselves who have some idea of Hinduism and also need of spirituality. They do follow some rituals but often due to busy schedule and lack of interest their own understanding is very stereotyped and superficial2.

b) 2nd tier: - A large chunk of agnostics, atheists, scientologists, religious humanists and people from other religions with very feeble religious inclinations. These people too have some spiritual inclination but find the current schools of religion as illogical, dogmatic and impractical.

c) 3rd Tier: - This includes religious zealots and fundamentalist from various religious faiths and hardcore atheists.



Value Innovation: - Hinduism the oldest religion of the world is also the most complex one. This complexity arises from the fact that there is not a single set of beliefs that is supposed to be followed rather there are end no. of different schools of thoughts that constitute the religion as a whole. It consists of thousands and thousands of gods, scriptures, chants, mantras, rituals, meditation techniques etc. Understanding Hinduism as a whole is not only tough but quite impractical. Hence in order to market it to its non customer base it is quite essential that rather than selling it as a whole only specific parts be promoted. Specific ideas those are relevant to the modern people. Hence an ERRC3 frame work will be applied:-

Eliminate:-

a) All types of social practices that promote social evils such as cast based discriminations, exploitation of women in the name of religion, sacrifices etc. Also scriptures directly supporting such ideas should be discarded.

Reduce:-

a) Priesthood: - though priesthood is important for religious conservation but too much reliance on priesthood can be detrimental. Many a times it had been seen that inspired by personal benefits they communicate wrong signals to devotees which leads to misconception. Also they are not hesitant of molding the meaning of scriptures for personal gain.

b) Rituals: - Hinduism is a highly ritualistic religion and many times there abundance eclipses the real knowledge and enlightening practices. Too much of rituals give it a paganic shape. Hence it also needs to be curtailed to some extent.

c) Things that raise superstition in the name of religion.

d) Emphasis on Hindu mythologies.

Raise:-

a) Stand alone practices like Yoga, chanting meditations, dynamic meditations etc.

b) Emphasis on higher levels of philosophies embedded in Hinduism.

c) Alliance with other related religious faiths such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism4 etc.

d) Emphasis on classical and logical ideas like classical advaita, Karmic theories etc.

e) Promotion of Hindu art crafts and symbols. Use of logos and symbols on apparels, desktops etc5.


Create:-

a) Professionally designed spiritual cum religious tour packages that will not only include touring religious places but also lot of yoga sessions, spiritual discourses, debates etc.

b) Hindu religion is a very symbolic religion where everything has a strong symbolic meaning but unfortunately over the period of time the symbols have taken the front stage and the real meaning have lost. For the marketing of religion to the intellectual circles it’s essential that the real meaning must be communicated. Exp: - Krishna is a mythological character but in reality it defines a kind of consciousness, a perfectly enlightened and pure consciousness but over the period of time the mythological dimension has completely surpassed the true meaning. Hence a large amount of discourses, lectures along with written documents should be produced to communicate the real meaning of symbols.

c) Strong emphaisis on liberal sides of hinduism which believes in individual liberty, freedom and openness.



(Note:-

1:- Initial focus should be to capture tier1 and tier 2 non customers.

2:- There knowledge lacks the intellectual dimension of Hinduism and is often restricted to visiting temple and following rituals.

3:- eliminate, reduce, raise and create framework. A blue ocean strategy framework used for giving new innovative values to the non customers.

4:- Emphasis should be only in showing similarity. This should not result in any controversy.

5:- Stuffs that can hurt religious sentiments should be avoided.

)

Blue Ocean Strategy for BJP

This article will be a confluence of two widely divergent ideas that is, management principles and Indian politics. It attempts to design a blue ocean strategy for BJP.
(Non Indian readers please note that BJP also known as the Bhartiya Janata Party is a national political party of India that believes in Hindutava)
(Blue ocean strategy is a strategic approach that tries to capture non customers for a firm by providing them cost efficient value innovation)

Before carrying forward the analysis 1st we must understand the customers and non customers of BJP.
Customers:-
1> Any Hindu fundamentalist be it a hard core or a moderate.
2> Educated Urban class(Delhi is an exception)
3> Business class people and Brahmins(BJP is also sometimes known as Brahman Baniya party)
4> Others(that include people from various socio economic classes that cannot be categorized)

Non customers:-
1> A large amount of Indian population that is politically inactive,do not have any opinion of itself, and often rely on any crap that the media tells them(The author is of the opinion that Indian media is highly biased against the Hindutava forces of India and often portrays them in negative light( views are personal))
2> A large part of rural poor
3> people from scheduled caste and scheduled tribes(There is another tendency In Indian media of  portraying Hindutva as something anti-dalit )
4> Marxist (Both hardliners as well as moderates)
5> pseudo seculars(India has a good chunk of such people)
6> South Indians in general (baring Karnataka)
7> Muslims and Christians (Includes both hardliners as well as moderate)
8>Others (again those that cannot be categorized)

Now other than hardliners, from the red camp and from the religions of Islam and Christianity ,BJP has the potential of attracting all other class of non customers)

Presently, BJP is hugely spending its resources:-
1> Hindutava:-
a) Genuine issues:- such as terror attacks, safety concerns of people, respect of national symbols, Cow slaughter etc.
b)Not very genuine issues:- defending any crap that is related to Hinduism even that might be something like the caste system, defending a shankra charya who had been involved in murder case, or any other Hindu ritual that does not make much sense these days.
2> Opposing the incumbent central govt. for any action it takes.
3> Maintaining strong ties with other Hindutva factions such as Rss, Vishawa Hindu parishad, Ram sena,Shiv sena etc.
4>Projecting leaders like Narendra Modi & Varun gandhi as the new face of Hindutva.
5> Struggling hard to solve its internal differences.

Now the author attempts to do an ERRC analysis

(ERRC is eliminate, reduce,raise & create analysis where some of the existing parameters are reduced or eliminated where as some are raised and some new are created)

Eliminate:-
1> Anything that shows the irrational side of Hindutva should be scraped completely from the party agenda(Its good for party as well as Hinduism also)
2> Internal troubles of the party.
3> unwanted minority bashing

Reduce:-
1> Reduce, pestering the incumbent govt. for anything and every thing.It sends wrong signal to the media.
2> Reduce Strong ties with parties like Rss and ram sena(though this really does not mean that ties should be completel cut off, because provide essential force to the Hindutava movement but BJP must understand that general Hindu psyche dislikes very aggressive viewpoint)
3> Reduce activities that deals with symbolic side of Hinduism. Stuffs such as national song etc does not make much sense in the present scenario (Though the author finds them very important)

Raise:-
1> Raise activities that are focused more towards development rather than religion.

2> BJP govts (as well as allies)have done phenomenal jobs in states like Madhya Pradesh,BiharGujrat,Chattisgarh etc. BJP must try to promote strongly on these lines.

3> Karnataka:- Karnataka is the 1st South Indian state where, BJP had formed its government,so strategically it has great significance ,but unfortunately nothing substantial have been done by the govt over here. Since Karnataka can be the launching ground for spreading the influence in other south Indian states,  BJP needs to take extra care for carrying out strong development works over here.
4> Though hard-line Hindutava is dangerous but there are lot of important issues that needs to take care of, including terrorism, Kashmir crisis,conversions in the name of money etc. These issues should be raised seriously ,not only will it be good for the health of nation but will also help in garnering support of a large no. of people who in general are politically inactive but do fear such stuffs.
4> Promote Modi and Varun for their vision (also developmental activities in Modi's case),not for Hindutava

Create
1> Take initiatives for the development of the Scheduled and backward classes of India. Hindutava(moderate) cannot be a Viable idea until unless these people will remain marginalized.
2> Take strong action against illegal Immigration:- India especially its eastern and north eastern parts are infected heavily with illegal immigration. West Bengal itself has some one crore illegal immigrants(thanks to the local government).BJP must try to garner public support on such issues.

Though this alone is not sufficient and as a party BJP needs to take a lot of other steps but these steps if taken properly can surely convert a lot of non customers into customers.

(Views here are personal and attempt to see certain things with a very objective approach, the blog does not intend to hurt any one)

Blue Ocean Strategy

“BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” or BOS is a revolutionary management philosophy that questions all the conventional wisdoms that have been predominant in the management circles till date. It consists of a very radical view that if one wants to beat competition the only way that is possible is to not focus on your competition. The idea came first into picture in the form of a bestseller namely “BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” written by two INSEAD professors “W. Chan Kim” & “Renée Mauborgne” in the year 2005. The book talks about creating blue oceans that is uncontested market space. So far the traditional wisdom had been to fight against competition, most of the successful management theories in field of strategy such as “porters five force” “resource based model” and “delta model” basically talks about gaining competitive advantage with the help of product differentiation and price cutting. Such kinds of strategic moves are known as “RED OCEAN” strategy where companies fight bloody warfare against each other. It had been seen that though such moves might give a firm competitive advantage over another and can also result in top lines but since a large amount of resources are wasted in fighting against the competition ,cutting price and providing high end solutions to the customers at lower price it often ends up affecting the bottom line. Contrary to this belief “BOS” talks about creating blue oceans or in other words uncontested market space. It says that rather than focusing on existing customers and devising strategies to beat competition in order to get a larger share of the existing market space, companies should try to focus on the large share of population that has so far been the non customers of the company. Rather than trying to woo the same existing customers by giving them higher service at lower price the prime focus of the firms should to achieve value innovation. According to the book “VALUE INNOVATION” means:-


“ Value innovation is created in the region where a company’s actions favorably affect both
its cost structure and its value proposition to buyers. Cost savings are made by eliminating
and reducing the factors an industry competes on. Buyer value is lifted by raising and
creating elements the industry has never offered. Over time, costs are reduced further as
scale economies kick in due to the high sales volumes that superior value generates.”


THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT IS VERY FUNDAMENTAL TO BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:-

1> “BOS” fundamentally tries to capture the non customers of a company.

2> “BOS” proposes to shift the focus away from competition.

3> “BOS” proposes “avoid segmentation and to look at the commonalities between customers and non customers spread across various profiles”.

4> “BOS” talks about diverting from existing industry norms and coming up with value innovation.


Along with proposing a strategy Blue ocean strategy also consists of various strategic tools that can be applied to implement “BOS” in real life business situations. These are:-

ERRC FRAME WORK:-

A strategic frame work which plans to :-

1. ELIMINATE:- eliminate few of the product features that are not required by the non customers.

2. REDUCE:- Reduce few of the product features in comparison to the industry standard that are not very essential for non customers.

3. RAISE:- Raise the standard of few of the product features higher than the industry standard.

4. CREATE:- Create few new product features that can fulfill the requirements of non customer .



MENTAL MODEL:-

In order to implement “BOS” it is very essential that the way companies think needs to be changed .Until unless there is no paradigm shift in this, it will be very difficult to implement “BOS”. There are fundamentally two kinds of paradigm shift that is very important over here.

1> Focusing on non customers:-

Companies need to start focusing on their non customers rather than customers. Focusing on non customers can give them various kinds of new insights which otherwise is very difficult to obtain. Non customers are generally classified into three types .These can be:-



a) Customers who are mentally your non customers but occasionally do use your product out of some compulsion.

b) Customers who have the needs for the kind of service your industry offers but who still prefers to choose an alternate industry to fulfill their needs.

c) Customers who are far away from your industry and they are not at all willing to use your product/service.



2> Try to see the commonalities rather than specific requirements: - Often it had been seen that large amount of resources get wasted in segmenting the existing customers and providing them high value services. An alternative approach could be rather than trying to concentrate in differentiation, companies can try generalization. Between customers and non customers there is always some kind of commonalities. There are some basic requirements which are shared by people across both the customer as well as non customer bases. Companies should try to leverage this and try to come up with such cost efficient solutions that can fulfill the main requirements of both kinds of people that is those who are customers as well those who are non customers. That may help in increasing the market share by leaps and bounds.



UTILITY, PRICING, COSTING, ADOPTIBLITY MODEL:-

1> UTILITY: - In order to make a new product a big hit in the market it is very essential that the product must have exceptional utility for its end users. The very same principle holds true for blue ocean strategy,”BOS” calls for coming up with value innovation, but this value innovation will not serve any good until unless it does not have exceptional utility in the non customer base.

2> TARGET PRICING: - Along with utility it is very essential that the price should be fixed in such a way that it can be afforded by a wide range of customers.

3> COST: - Along with price it is also essential that the cost of innovation and producing the product should be very much within the limits of the budget of the company. Proper pricing cannot be done until unless costing is not with in budgets.

4> ADOPTIBLITY: - the new innovative measures should find easy adoption both amongst the customer base as well as among the employees of the company.

Review of Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

Author attempts to review a research paper that describes the Blue Oceanic thinking in 20-20 cricket.The link for the research paper goes as follows:-
http://www.slideshare.net/deepakagrawal2009/20-20-cricket-blue-ocean-strategy

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY & 20-20 CRICKET


PRODUCT:- 20-20 cricket.

MARKET:- vast majority of people that include both cricket followers as well as non followers who will be impressed by the newer version of cricket which packs cricket,thrill,speed and entertainment altogether .

The given research (in the form of ppts) is about the use of blue ocean strategy to innovate a newer version of cricket known as 20-20 cricket which packs a great amount of thrill and entertainment along with the usual stuffs of a cricket match.

The paper discusses that earlier there were one day international and test cricket which were having limited loyal customers but after implementing value based innovation which was combined with entertainment, a newer version have been created in the form of 20-20 cricket which is much shorter, less time consuming but gives a high value of entertainment and thrill to its viewers. A strategy canvass curve is drawn which states that for 20-20 cricket viewers have to spend less money and time but get a very high value of return in the form of entertainment, speed of the game, involvement of the family, certainty of result ,excitement etc.

Analysis of the 20-20 cricket had also been attempted with an ERRC framework. The frame work states that:-

ELIMINATE :-


1> Conventional Wisdom about cricket

REDUCE:-

1> Time spend

2> Money spend

3> Uncertainty of result

RAISE:-

1> Pace of game.

2> Excitement

3> Poll of young talent

CREATE :-

1> A new industry itself that takes its inspiration from both cricket as well as well entertainment.


In the final slides a classification had been made for 20-20 cricket, one day international, and test cricket as pioneer( one that changes the industry’s strategic canvass by giving value innovation to its non customers coupled with huge expenditure on promotion so that the new concept can be positioned well ), migrator (one that applies some innovation to give better value to customers but still is unable to change the industry’s strategic canvass), settler( one whose strategic canvass resembles the industry’s strategic canvass by 100 % and which plays entirely in the red ocean) respectively .

TYPE OF THE PAPER:- Practical application.

SCOPES OF FURTHER IMPROVEMENT:-

There are further scopes of improvement:-

1> Comparison of the 20-20 version of game with the most famous sport of the world that is soccer can add more value to the research.

2> The case only talks about the blue oceanic thinking involved in 20-20 cricket. Annexation of success sagas like IPL & 20-20 World cup can add more value to the researc

Review of a Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

In  the following blog the  author attempts to review a "BOS"  based research article . the link is given below
http://www.csi-sigegov.org/3/13_379_3.pdf


ICTs for the Effective usage of Blue Ocean Strategy for Societal Development: An analysis with reference to the parameters of capability


Vinay Sharma , Piyush Seth and Shujauddin Niyazi

This research is about conceptualizing the idea that ICT( information and communication ) can be used in serving the “Bottom of the Pyramid “ population by providing value innovation.( Value innovation here refers to cost efficient as well as innovative products that cannot only fulfill the requirements of the rural population but are also in the limits of their affordability). The research paper further concludes that serving Rural BOP as blue ocean customers will help in bringing prosperity as well as in their overall growth & development. This in turn will ensure economical and social harmony. One very important aspect of this research is that it does not only believe in reducing poverty on absolute terms such as better per capita income, better health and education facilities but also on the development of skill sets and capabilities of individual that can lead them towards the path of sustainable growth.

Target Segment:- Rural Bottom of the Pyramid customers.

Sample size:- 300

Type:- Practical applications.

Research Methodology: - Focus Group discussions (FGDs)

With the help of local influential people villagers were assembled at village head’s house. Initially a very formal chat was conducted so that their understanding of issues likes health, literacy; general well being can be understood. After that the discussion took a serious turn and based on their two groups were made one which were distinct in their perspectives.

Key Parameters of Capability Discussed

• Social


• Political


• Health


• Education

• Economic

Some of the common findings that came in the due course of discussion were :-

1>  64% of the total respondents believe strongly that the distance between the villages and the nearest post office effects the frequent communication of villagers with others and rest of the 36% of total respondents believe in the same fact but with some less confidence

2>  67% of the total respondents strongly believe that listening radio, watching television and reading newspapers are beneficial for the respondents and they get the required information by these mediums for their concerned livelihood and rest of the 33% also believe in the same fact but with some less confidence.

3>  74% of the total respondents are strongly with the fact that health is the most important factor for leading whole of their life, 21% of the total respondents agree with the same fact with some lesser.

4>  98% of the total respondents consider water resources as one of the reasons for good health and rest of 2% deny that

5>  45% of the total people say that they believe in skill related education, 16% of the total people say that they believe in literacy related education, 12% say that they believe in qualification related education and 26% of the total people say that they believe in job oriented education.

(Similarly other related concerns were evaluated)

Conclusion:- After the given research it was clear that rural populace at the bottom of pyramid have their own latent needs and they clearly understand that entities like health, communication, and better governance can influence their well being and development of capabilities.

This rural populace constitutes a large blue ocean of customers. To tap it what is needed is that companies must come up with innovative solutions that can suffice their requirements in an economical fashion and can provide them capability building facilities. The paper also gives due credit to ongoing strategic moves such as e-Choupal , Yeshaswini, SKS Microfinance, Mann Deshi Udyogini. To make such initiatives easily affordable and accessible what is needed is utilization of ICTS (information & communication technologies)

Scope of further Improvement:-

The research paper gives a strong foundation regarding the scope of “BOS” for catering to the rural populace but it does not give any innovative measure itself. Had the research been extended a bit further to design one two strategies then that would have been a strong value addition.

Review of Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

            

                                                                            
The author attempts to review a research paper written "BOS". The link of the  original research paper is given below. The research paper will be helpful for anyone  who wants to implement "BOS" as a strategic tool for future growth of their companies.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&hid=104&sid=caf61ccd-9b0e-485f-97b3-414c3ec26520%40sessionmgr113

Analysis of the Use of the Blue Ocean Strategy; Case Study Analysis On 14 Different Agencies


Zainal Abidin Mohamed,

Graduate School of Management/ Faculty of Economics and Management

University Putra Malaysia

E-mail: zainal@econ.upm.edu.my

Blue ocean strategy is attracting a lot of attention these days (in both Academics as well as Managerial quarter .) but since it’s a new idea there is a dearth of good quality research work done in the following field. The given research paper that have been conducted on 14 companies is among the very few original work that had been done in the given field.

The given research is basically exploratory work that includes case study approach as well as in depth interviews and seminars. It had been done on 14 companies that come from various segments such as educational institutes , govt. organizations ,pvt. companies etc. The topic on which research was done was the “ERRC” cycle( Eliminate , Reduce, Raise, Create ).For someone who is not very familiar with BOS, it should be noted that “ERRC” is an important tool that is very fundamental to BOS, it aims at erasing and reducing few of the unimportant elements from the value chain accompanied by raising few and creating entirely new values with the help of innovation so that better solution be provided to the end users. In the given research first 6 out of 23 companies (these companies claimed that they are using BOS) were selected and they were termed as group “A”. Another 20 companies were selected and they were termed as group “B”. Group “B” consisted of companies that were interested in understanding “BOS” in an organized frame work . For these 26 companies a half day seminar was done , After the seminar individual visit were made at each and every of these companies and detailed study of their “ERRC” strategy was made . Though these companies were from different back ground but a lot similarity had been seen in their “ERRC” frame work. Components like cost component and stuffs which were not giving good return, diversification plans etc were put under eliminate and reduce frame work where as for create and raise framework stuffs like customer satisfaction, providing new products and services were considered seriously.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: the research has given some fresh insights on “ERRC” frame work of the “BOS” and can be used by all types of industries which are willing to implement BOS as a strategic framework for their growth.

SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENTS:- 1> Research paper had been written too short which makes it difficult to comprehend. Making it a bit more elaborative will serve the purpose better.

2> Graphs have not been explained very properly. The attribute taken for the y- axis is not very clear which again makes it difficult to comprehend.