Embrace Blue Ocean Branding
Iteration can be a useful tool. Sometimes what you need to do is refine, polish, and make your brand feel more premium than competitors. That has been the traditional approach of branding agencies. But what if that’s not enough? What if you’re chasing a qualitative leap, a way to fundamentally change the rules of competition? That’s the essence of Blue Ocean Branding, a concept which guides the work we do at Blink Twice.
The idea behind Blue Ocean Branding is to reframe a brand, not as one competitor amongst many, but as the only choice in its own category. A completely sui generis thing for which there isn’t a substitute. We want to make a brand stand on its own in uncharted territory, not simply stand out in a crowd.
How Blue Ocean Branding Works
The Blue Ocean Branding approach is about seeing your brand from a different angle. The crux of the process is identifying positioning that no competitor can follow you into because it’s rooted in something only you can own. What is the aspect of your product or brand which is unique, and how do we make that indispensable. This could be your origins and the emotional resonance of that story, or a key aspect of the product.
Absolut Vodka did this to incredible effect. The belief that high-value spirits required gold foil, royal crests, and old-world prestige dominated the market. An unknown Swedish brand entering a US market dominated by Russian giants needed something radical. Inspired by 18th-century medicine bottles, they stripped the paper label and printed text directly on clear glass. They stopped selling Heritage and started selling Contemporary Art. They made every other bottle look cluttered and dated.
Vacuums were boring domestic appliances that should be cheap, plastic, and opaque. After 5,127 prototypes, Dyson positioned themselves as an engineering innovation brand rather than just another vacuum manufacturer. They rebranded the vacuum as a high-end engineering product, showing the dust, the cyclones, and the engine through transparent casing. They turned a chore-based tool into a technical status symbol. They moved the vacuum from a hidden utility to a piece of engineering pride.
But consumer products aren’t the only product category where this tactic excels. AirBnb successfully used Blue Ocean Branding to build a tech-services empire. Hotels offered the same beige room and service in every city. Convincing people to sleep in a stranger’s house required a narrative stronger than ‘it is cheaper than a hotel’. They branded the inconsistency of a spare room as the gateway to living like a local. They made standardized hotels feel soulless and touristy. Rather than selling accommodation, they reframed their product as a sense of home. Sometimes the red ocean is an entire product category consumers undervalue.
Then there’s perhaps the most audacious category inversion, one which proves the power of this type of branding by taking it to its logical extreme. Water branded as pure, soft, and gentle, using snow-capped mountains and blue/green plastic was the industry playbook. How do you sell a free commodity? You stop selling water and start selling a rebellious identity.
Liquid Death took the visual cliches of a vice, heavy metal, skull graphics, and beer-like cans, and applied them to the healthiest product on earth. They created a social badge for the sober-curious. It allows drinking water at a party to feel at home in a beer can aesthetic while murdering the boring cliches of the wellness industry.
Why This Matters for Growth
This is exemplified in our work with Dip. A laundry sheets brand swimming in a red ocean dominated by Big Laundry. They could’ve competed on being more eco or more affordable. But this would still mean they were simply a good choice amongst many. Instead, we charted blue ocean territory by making the health of the home desirable. We branded Dip as the antithesis to home products which felt clinical and joyless. Dip became a brand which leaned into non-toxic cleaning that feels warm, modern, and elevated. We positioned them as the first true home wellness brand.
From clinical sterile packaging under the sink to aspirational, design-led Dip branding. By borrowing codes from beauty and lifestyle rather than traditional cleaning, we created a brand system that let them show up distinctively. Sharp positioning made every conversation easier.
Dip grew from £1m to £5m in revenue within 18 months, with sales tripling in the first month after launch. When your brand charts its own blue ocean territory, it doesn’t just look different. It compounds growth.
When your brand is only competing with itself by charting new waters, the money invested in marketing and branding nets a substantially higher return.
Content doesn’t have to jostle for position and every customer conversation becomes easier, you’re not trying to explain why you’re a better choice compared to a deluge of similar brands, you’re simply offering a value proposition.
And while it works for established brands, this is particularly essential for smaller brands. We’ve worked with a number of startups and scaleups and we know that it takes something special to leapfrog competition with more resources. When your competition can outspend you, and has a legacy, you win by creating blue ocean space.
Ready to chart your own Blue Ocean? We partner with a select group of scaling founders to architect their Category of One.