The growth strategy—and corresponding marketing strategy—of a company has a lot to do with the nature of its industry. When a new market is developed or discovered, we say there is a blue ocean—an unmet demand in a market that isn’t served or is vastly underserved. Market share and sales can be increased by simply letting consumers know that a product or service exists and convincing them that they want the product. By contrast, in a red ocean, the market and the major players are already established, and the market is saturated. The only way to increase market share is to take market share from a competitor. That can be exceedingly difficult to do. (more…)