"Blue Ocean Strategy" Sample Customer Value Canvas

by Doug McQueen

McGregor Plant Sales

The "Blue Ocean Strategy" value canvas helps you map your investment strategies to reduce, eliminate, add and create so that you are different and uniquely valuable to a buying audience.

Here is a sample customer value canvas

This canvas demonstrates a typical box store bedding grower in red (R) who is considering moving to a blue ocean (B). The grower reduces and eliminates, adds and creates. Notably the grower opens a showroom style garden retail display at Home EXPO, IKEA and two other lifestyle chains and focuses on “do it for me consumer loyalty;” home delivery, and stylish consumer garden installation, bedding rotation and maintenance.

Tactically it invests in support, delivery, premium garden installations, plant selection and performance. Also the grower pays for these new advantages with delivery, installation and maintenance revenue, price improvement and reductions in store merchandising, shrink, terms and safety stock inventory. Further at the end of the day, the grower is closer to the end customer and improves loyalty and understanding of market needs.

There are so many combinations of things a grower can do to distinguish itself within the buying factors on the value canvas. Here are some other creative approaches.

• Focus on grocery channel and consumer coupon marketing.
• Focus on organics market and green lifestyle channels.
• Focus on government contracts; remediation, green roofs etc.

For more on "Blue Ocean Strategy," see the July issue of Greenhouse Grower magazine.