Buyer utility map was proposed as a tool for identifying opportunities for value differentiation in the blue ocean strategy by W. Kim and W. Mauborgne. It is a two-dimensional matrix that displays the six stages of buyer experience cycle on one axis,...
Buyer utility map was proposed as a tool for identifying opportunities for value differentiation in the blue ocean strategy by W. Kim and W. Mauborgne. It is a two-dimensional matrix that displays the six stages of buyer experience cycle on one axis, and the six utility levers on the other axis. The six stages of buyer experience (; purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance, and disposal) are generic for the use of any products or services. However, the six utility levers (; customer productivity, simplicity, convenience, risk, fun & image, and environmental friendliness) may be not so. Moreover, the six levers do not seem mutually independent. For example, customer productivity, simplicity and convenience generally comes together in many cases.
In this paper, we examine 160 successful products in Korean market in order to find better utility levers. The product advantages for the commercial successes are derived, and classified using affinity diagram. The result shows 7 categories of product advantages (functionality, reliability, safety, usability, aesthetics, environmental friendliness and cost), which can be regarded as new utility levers. Since most of the commercially successful products considered in this paper are product line extensions, the majority of the product advantages belong to the use stage of the buyer experience cycle.