TL;DR: Everyone chases the dream of the uncontested "Blue Ocean" market. However, these pure blue waters often turn red with competition faster than expected. A more sustainable and practical approach for many businesses, especially SMEs, is the "Purple Ocean" or Niche Strategy. This involves carving out a specific, underserved segment within an existing market through innovative business models. It offers lower costs, better market adoption potential, and reduced risk compared to chasing elusive Blue Oceans.
If you've spent any time in business strategy discussions, you've undoubtedly heard the terms "Red Ocean" and "Blue Ocean." We all know the picture: Red Oceans are the crowded, bloody waters of existing markets where companies fight fiercely over market share, often by cutting costs and mimicking competitors. Blue Oceans represent the pristine, untapped market spaces ripe with opportunity, free from rivals, where innovation leads to high profits.
The siren song of the Blue Ocean Strategy is strong. Experts often advise startups to escape the red sea entirely and find their unique blue water through groundbreaking innovation. It sounds perfect, right? Find a space no one else occupies, set your price based on value rather than cost, and reap the rewards.
The Fleeting Blue: A Realistic Look at Market Dynamics
Here’s the catch: the world isn't black and white, or purely red and blue. Most businesses operate in what I like to call the "Purple Ocean." Why? Because those pure Blue Oceans? They rarely stay blue for long. We've seen it time and again – a new, uncontested market space emerges, and almost overnight, competitors flood in, turning it reddish-purple, if not fully red.
Think about the initial wave of Virtual Banks. They represented a Blue Ocean move within finance – digital-first, lower overhead, appealing to a new generation. But how quickly did established banks launch competing digital offerings, and how many new virtual banks popped up? The blue rapidly shifted towards red.
Embracing the Purple: The Power of Niche Strategy
So, if pure Blue Oceans are rare unicorns, what's the pragmatic path forward? It lies in the Purple Ocean Strategy, which is essentially mastering the Niche Market.
The term "niche" comes from French architecture, describing a small, distinct recess built into a wall, often for a statue. It's small but clearly defined. In business, a niche market is a focused, specific segment within a larger market, defined by unique needs, preferences, or characteristics that differ from the market as a whole.
Unless you have unlimited resources, starting with or pivoting to a niche is often a smart strategic move. You can define these niches in many ways:
- Price: Luxury, mid-range, budget-conscious
- Demographics: Gender, age, income level, education
- Quality: Premium, handcrafted, economical
- Psychographics: Values (e.g., sustainability), interests, attitudes, lifestyle
Choosing to serve a niche isn't about thinking small; it's about thinking smart. It's a strategic decision to cater deeply to a specific customer group, often better than larger, more generalized competitors can. This isn't just about a slightly different product; it requires innovating your business model – how you reach customers, deliver value, or structure your service – to effectively capture your chosen niche. It’s about finding your blue space within the broader purple sea.
At Mercury Technology Solution, this is core to our approach. We partner with our clients, often established businesses in competitive fields, to identify and build out their unique niche – their defendable blue territory within their existing market – and we share in the success that follows.
Finding Your Niche: Examples in the Purple Ocean
While you might have popular product categories in mind, focusing on a niche within them significantly increases your chances of success. These are just starting points – within each, countless other innovative opportunities exist:
- Eco-conscious Consumers: Sustainable products, ethical sourcing, carbon-neutral services.
- Health & Wellness: Specialized fitness programs, mental wellness apps, specific dietary foods.
- Pet Owners: Gourmet pet food, specialized pet care services, tech gadgets for pets.
- LGBTQ+ Community: Targeted travel, inclusive financial services, community-focused platforms.
- Travelers: Adventure travel for seniors, budget backpacking gear, digital nomad resources.
- Gamers: E-sports coaching, indie game development tools, accessible gaming hardware.
- Remote Workers: Ergonomic home office setups, cybersecurity for remote teams, virtual team-building experiences.
The goal of the Purple Ocean strategy is to turn neglected corners of the Red Ocean blue again. It’s about separating out a "blue domain" through business model innovation and sometimes even disrupting the existing market rules.
The Advantages of Thinking Purple
Why adopt this Purple Ocean / Niche Strategy?
- Lower Costs: Since these "blue domains" are discovered within existing Red Oceans, you can often leverage existing resources, technologies, and familiar user preferences, helping to keep development and marketing costs lower than creating something entirely new from scratch.
- Higher Adoption Potential: Unlike radical Blue Ocean products that might only appeal to early adopters, a Purple Ocean strategy often targets an optimized group within the existing market. These users already exist; you're just serving their specific needs better, giving you a natural advantage in market penetration.
- Ideal for SMEs: Venturing into a completely new Blue Ocean requires significant resources and carries high risk. If it fails, a smaller company might not recover. Red Oceans, however, are established markets. SMEs operating within them already have unique user insights and potentially some resources or domain expertise. Finding a less competitive niche within that familiar territory (a purple patch turning blue) is a much more manageable and often more successful path to strategic breakthroughs.
別再迷戀「藍海」 紫海策略有三大優勢
「藍海策略」和「紅海策略」你肯定都聽過，簡單來說，「藍海」是指那些面積寬廣、還沒有競爭者進入的新市場；而紅海呢，是指人多，特別擁擠的現有市場。
「紅海策略」的獲利方程式：壓低成本、搶佔市佔率、大量傾銷等傳統商業手法。「藍海策略」（Blue Ocean Strategy）就是不完全競爭的市場，這個市場競爭者少或尚未有競爭者。
由於進入者少的關係，對於商品價格，消費者沒有辦法做價格上的比較，企業得以訂出遠較成本高出甚多的售價，獲取高額的利潤。企業在這個市場中，需要不斷的創新，以差異性來吸引消費者，只要產品夠吸引，企業就能獲得良好的利潤。
很多專家都說創業要有「藍海戰略」，鼓勵創業者擺脫紅海，通過創新産品找到屬於自己的藍海。但是這個世界不是非黑即白，絕大多數時候其實都處於一片汪洋「紫海」之中。因為大部分「藍海」維持不了多久，我們都看到了一個個「藍海」瞬間變紅。例如: 虛擬銀行（Virtual Bank）就是紅變藍再變紅。
紫海戰略／Niche Market：
Niche來源於法語。法國人信奉天主教，在建造房屋時，常常在外牆上鑿出一個不大的神龕，以供放聖母瑪利亞。它雖然小，但邊界清晰，因而後來被引來形容大市場中的縫隙/ 小眾市場。對創業者，除非你有無限資源，小眾市場（Niche Market）是一個好開始.
小眾市場是更大市場中的一個細分部分，它可以通過其獨特的需求、偏好或不同與整個市場的特性來定義。例如，在女鞋市場中有很多不同的細分或小眾市場。大尺寸女性的鞋子亦可是一個小眾市場。
定義小眾市場的一些最常見方法是基於：
- 價格（奢侈、中端、低價）
- 人口統計（性別、年齡、收入水平、教育程度）
- 品質等級（高級的、手工的、經濟的）
- 心理學（價值觀、興趣、態度）
選擇專注於某個小眾市場是一種戰略性的決策，比那些定位較大市場的競爭對手，更好地服務特定客戶群。演繹新的商業模式，讓新創企業在紫海中找到自己的「藍海」，不是一味尋求全新且完全的「藍海」。
企業需要在創新理念上與過去切割，在過去的經營思路上苦苦掙扎，難有出頭之日，想取得非凡成功和超常規發展，必須「不正常/ 超常」，依靠商業模式創新在競爭中取勝。只要涉及商業模式的任何方面，即信息、市場、服務、概念或網絡等，都可能是創新的源泉。將企業內外可能有所創新的資源為自己所有，實現創新要素的有效配置和運用，就可能創造新的商業模式，建立屬於自己的獨一無二的核心競爭力。例如我IT公司的定位是找適合的商業客户一起合作去找到我們的藍海，然後共同享有成果。
7個小眾市場／紫海例子：
雖然你可能已經想到了熱門產品，但你可以通過從「紫海戰略」開始，然後深入尋找適合市場來提高成功率。小眾市場只是起點，你可以朝著完全不同的方向探索，也可以在每個類別中找到其他創新機會：
- 環保意識消費者
- 健康與保健
- 寵物主人
- LGBTQ+ 群體
- 旅行者
- 遊戲玩家
- 遠程工作者
「紫海戰略」就是讓在紅海中被遺忘的角落變藍，要通過創新商業模式把「藍色領域」從紅海中分離出來。還要大膽突破市場游戲規則，進行顛覆性創新。
「紫海戰略」有什麼優勢呢？第一是可以保持低成本。這些「藍色領域」是從紅海中發現的，所以原來市場的資源、技術支持、熟悉的用戶偏好，都能夠幫降低產品的成本。
第二個優勢是企業可以開發普及率高的大眾化產品。藍海戰略推出的新產品，往往只能吸引一部分小眾消費者。而紫海戰略選定的用戶呢，是通過紅海用戶優化的，有天然的市場佔有率優勢。
最後一個優勢是，「紫海戰略」有益於中小企業實現戰略突破。新市場的門檻高，一旦中小企業全力投入，遇到風險之後就有可能覆水難收。但是，「紅海市場」是確定存在的成熟市場，無論什麼規模的企業，在自己的領域裏都有獨特的用戶群和領地資源。所以，中小企業在紅海里，尋找那些競爭少，甚至是沒有競爭的區域，就很有相對優勢。
Stop chasing mirages. Look for the deep purple patches in the ocean around you – that's often where sustainable growth and real competitive advantage lie.
