🌊 Invest Where Others Aren’t Looking – Blue Ocean Your Portfolio
1️⃣ Real-World Use Case
The circus industry was once dominated by acts like Ringling Bros., locked in a Red Ocean of fierce, margin-eroding competition over animal acts, acrobatics, and gimmicks. As costs rose and audiences shrank, a new player asked a radically different question:
What if we eliminated the traditional circus model and built something aspirational for adults instead?
Cirque du Soleil applied Blue Ocean Strategy by:
Eliminating animal acts and multi-ring chaos
Reducing kitschy humor and celebrity ringmasters
Raising artistic storytelling, production value, and emotional impact
Creating a new genre: theatrical, immersive, acrobatic storytelling for global audiences
The result? A $1B+ global entertainment brand—not by competing harder, but by redefining what a "circus" could mean.
2️⃣ Powerful Prompt
Role:
You are a strategy, innovation, or brand portfolio leader looking to escape commoditized competition and identify high-leverage growth opportunities
Context:
Your organization operates in a market where most players compete on similar features, price points, or distribution strategies. Leadership is seeking non-obvious whitespace opportunities to create differentiated value and avoid competing on the same tired metrics
Task:
Use the Blue Ocean Strategy framework to generate breakthrough strategic options
Ask the following:
What are the dominant features or assumptions in our industry or category?
Use the ERRC Grid:
What can we Eliminate that no longer adds value?
What should we Reduce that’s over-served or costly?
What should we Raise to set a new standard?
What can we Create that competitors aren’t offering?
Based on your ERRC analysis, identify 2–3 opportunity spaces that could shift us into uncontested market territory.
Support each idea with:
Target customer insight
Pain point or aspiration addressed
How it departs from industry norms
Output:
A short, high-impact memo or presentation slide that outlines:
The current value curve vs. your proposed new offering
The ERRC Grid filled in with strategic levers
2–3 whitespace ideas with rationale and business potential
Optional: examples of analogous shifts from other industries (e.g., Cirque du Soleil, Nintendo Wii, Dyson)
3️⃣ Why It Works (mental-model stack)
Blue Ocean Strategy to escape zero-sum competition
First Principles Thinking to deconstruct assumptions
Value Innovation to shift focus from competitors to customer value
Category Design to define new markets instead of fighting for old ones
4️⃣ How to Tweak It for Your Org
In healthcare, identify where patient experience is overcomplicated and reimagine care delivery
In B2B SaaS, explore which features add cost but no longer drive loyalty—and what new value could reframe the category
In consumer goods, question whether you're competing on benefits customers no longer care about—and where emotional resonance could be created instead
👉 Ask: What assumptions are we copying from competitors that no longer serve us—or our customers?
5️⃣ How to Use This in Your Next Session
• When to apply it:
– Facing stalled growth, rising competition, or exploring next-gen offerings
• What inputs you need:
– Current industry benchmarks, customer feedback, competitor offerings
• Step-by-step action flow:
– Map current value curve
– Fill in ERRC Grid
– Brainstorm and prioritize whitespace ideas
– Draft short memo or slide
– Align cross-functionally on 1–2 experiments
• Estimated time:
– 90 minutes to 3 hours
🔄 This prompt doesn't just ask how to compete better—it challenges your team to redefine the game.
Think better, frame smarter, decide sharper. – Clarity Prompts team
