The Ultimate Battleship Strategy Guide

One of my all time favorite marketing books is Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The Blue Ocean Strategy involves innovatively expanding to new markets where there is no competition rather than fight for market share in bloody “Red Oceans”.

My favorite example is Cirque du Soleil which is amazingly successful. Instead of competing with other traditional circuses they created a theater like experience with intricate costumes and story lines. Since they have significantly differentiated their product they have no competition and tremendous demand.