Visualise your competitive position. Spot opportunities. Build a smarter strategy.

In a competitive market, it’s easy to get stuck chasing what everyone else is doing. The Strategy Canvas helps you step back, zoom out, and design a strategy based on what your customers actually value — not just what your competitors offer.

Originally developed as part of Blue Ocean Strategy, the Strategy Canvas is a visual tool that helps you compare your business to others in your industry. More importantly, it helps you identify how to break free from the noise and create value in ways your competitors haven’t even considered.

While this tool works as a great starting point, it isn’t a comprehensive tool on its own. For maximum impact, it should be paired with other key frameworks from Blue Ocean Strategy—such as the Four Actions Framework and the Buyer Utility Map—to build a more complete picture of how your business can stand out and deliver exceptional value.

Step 1: Identify the Competitive Factors That Matter to Your Customers

Before you can build a useful strategy canvas, you need to define the playing field — and that starts with understanding what your customers really care about when making buying decisions.

These are called competitive factors. They’re the attributes that customers consider (either consciously or subconsciously) when choosing between you and your competitors. These don’t just shape your offer — they shape your positioning in the market.

Depending on your industry, these factors might include:

• Price – Are you positioned as a cost-effective option or a premium service?
• Speed / Delivery Time – How quickly can you deliver results, products, or value?
• Quality / Reliability – Is your offering consistent and dependable?
• Customer Experience – How easy, enjoyable, or seamless is it to work with you?
• Innovation / Technology – Do you offer advanced features or cutting-edge tools?
• Personalisation / Customisation – Can your product or service adapt to individual needs?
• Support / Aftercare – What level of help or relationship-building do you offer post-sale?
• Brand Reputation – Are you known and trusted in your market?
• Ethical / Sustainable Practices – Do your values or environmental stance influence buying behaviour?

Take time to define these from your customer’s point of view, not just what you think makes your business great. You can draw on customer interviews, reviews, sales conversations, or competitor analysis.

Once you have your list of 6–10 meaningful factors, these will form the horizontal axis of your strategy canvas. Each factor becomes a point for comparison between you and your competitors — giving you a visual map of how the market is positioned.

Step 2: Map Out the Competitive Landscape

Now that you’ve identified the key competitive factors in your industry, it’s time to visualise how your business and your competitors perform across those factors. This is where the strategy canvas becomes a powerful tool — not just for analysis, but for strategic clarity.

Score Each Business on Each Factor

Start by scoring your business and your main competitors on each factor you identified in Step 1. Use a consistent scale—typically 1 to 10—where 1 means the factor is delivered poorly or not at all, and 10 means it's delivered to a very high standard or given significant strategic emphasis.

You’re not aiming for mathematical precision here. This is a visual, strategic tool, not a scientific report. Use your best judgement, informed by:

• Customer feedback or reviews
• Competitor websites and marketing messages
• Your own experience working in the market
• Sales and performance data (where available)
• Industry and competitor data

Be honest about your own performance — this isn’t about inflating your scores; it’s about revealing the real shape of your strategy.

Plot the Scores on a Line Graph

Create a simple line graph where:

• The horizontal axis lists your competitive factors
• The vertical axis scores each factor (1 to 10)
• Each line represents one company — your business, and each competitor

This is your strategy canvas. The shape of each line represents the strategic profile of a business: where they focus, what they ignore, and how they differ (or don’t) from others.

Start to Analyse the Landscape

Once plotted, you’ll quickly be able to answer key questions:

• Are all competitors (including you) clustered around the same factors?
  If so, the market may be saturated with lookalike offerings — an opportunity for differentiation.
• Are you investing heavily in areas your customers don’t value?
  You might be wasting resources on features or processes that don’t move the needle.
• Are you underperforming in areas that are critical to buyers?
  These could be priority areas for improvement — or a chance to innovate how that value is delivered.
• Where could you strategically diverge from the pack?
  Differentiation isn’t always about doing more — sometimes it’s about doing less, but in a smarter way.

Example: Mapping the Strategy Canvas for a Recruitment Agency

Let’s go back to our recruitment agency example. Suppose you scored your agency and two competitors across eight factors, and then plotted them on a canvas.

By mapping our agency and three competitors across key factors, some clear patterns emerge — and they highlight where the market is saturated, underserved, or ripe for differentiation.

1. Technology and Systems Used

• Our agency scores moderately (3), while Competitor 3 is leading with a high score (8).
• This suggests a clear opportunity to invest in smarter systems and automation if we want to compete on operational efficiency or tech-enabled experience.
• The market appears divided on this factor — which means differentiation is possible here.

2. Brand Recognition Within the Industry

• Competitor 1 is well ahead (9), while our agency and Competitor 2 trail (3).
• If brand credibility influences buyer choice (and it often does), this is a signal that stronger content marketing, PR, or thought leadership could close the gap — or position us differently.

3. Client Communication and Reporting

• All agencies score moderately to high, indicating this is a baseline expectation rather than a unique selling point.
• Going above and beyond here may not offer high ROI — but falling behind would be risky.

4. Post-Placement Support

• All competitors are weak in this area (especially Competitor 1 at 1), but our agency scores slightly better (4).
• This is a prime opportunity for differentiation — developing robust aftercare, candidate follow-up, or retention support could become a compelling selling point.

5. Level of Sector Specialisation

• All agencies are roughly equal (around 3), which again suggests market uniformity.
• Focusing on sector-specific expertise — and visibly communicating that niche — could unlock new trust and relevance in crowded markets.

6. Fees / Pricing Model

• Our agency leads here with a top score (10), with most competitors lower.
• If we’re offering better flexibility, value, or innovation in pricing — this could be leveraged more heavily in messaging.

7. Quality of Candidate Fit

• Our agency and Competitor 3 score highest here (9 and 10), meaning we're clearly aligned on delivering core value.
• Competitor 2 lags far behind (3), which might mean they’re vulnerable on client satisfaction or retention.

8. Speed of Candidate Placement

• Again, our agency and Competitor 3 lead (10), suggesting this is another area of strength we could lean into — especially if it's valued by time-pressured hiring managers.

Key Takeaways

• Differentiation is possible through technology, post-placement support, and sector specialisation — all areas where the market is inconsistent.
• Pricing and speed are strengths worth reinforcing in sales and marketing materials.
• Brand credibility is a weak spot — and a potential barrier to growth if left unaddressed.
• The Strategy Canvas doesn't just highlight what you're doing well — it exposes blind spots and shows where you're spending effort without standing out.

The shape of the canvas lets you see your strategy — and just as importantly, it helps you imagine new ways to reshape it.

Step 3: Analyse and Ask Better Questions

This is where the strategy canvas becomes a strategic thinking tool — not just a visual chart. Once you’ve mapped your business and competitors across the key customer decision factors, the real value comes from the questions it raises.

Use the canvas to move beyond surface-level comparisons and challenge your current assumptions about your positioning, your investments, and the needs of your market.

Here are four powerful questions — and how to use them effectively:

1. Where are we competing on the same terms as everyone else?

If your line closely follows the shape of your competitors, it means you’re offering more of the same. That might make you a safe option, but it also makes it harder to stand out.

Look for areas where everyone is clustered together — that’s usually where competition is fiercest and differentiation is weakest. It can also lead to price pressure and commoditisation.

Should you double down here and try to outperform? Or is it smarter to shift focus elsewhere?

2. What could we reduce or eliminate without harming customer value?

The canvas can reveal areas where you're overdelivering in ways that don’t matter as much to your customers. Maybe you're investing heavily in advanced reporting, but your clients only glance at the summary. Or you’ve built a complex onboarding flow when your market values speed.

Look for high-effort, low-impact areas. If they’re not driving real value, you might be able to redirect time, budget, or focus toward something more meaningful.

What are we doing out of habit, rather than out of strategic value?

3. Where could we invest more to create a bigger impact?

Spots where your score is lower than competitors—especially in areas your customers care about—might be your weak points. But they might also be your biggest opportunities.

The canvas helps you spot these underinvested strengths and evaluate whether boosting performance here could increase client satisfaction, improve retention, or drive differentiation.

Are we missing a chance to lead where it matters most?

4. Are there customer needs no one in the market is addressing?

Look at the white space. Are there factors missing from the canvas entirely — things that customers value, but no one is really offering? These might be emerging expectations or gaps created by rapid change in the market.

This is your opportunity to adopt a fresh perspective. Ask clients directly, look at shifting trends, and reflect on what frustrates or delights your audience.

What would radically improve the customer experience — and how could we be first to offer it?

The Goal: Strategic Differentiation

The aim of this step isn’t to beat every competitor on every point. Its purpose is to clarify where you can stand out — and where you might be wasting effort.

By asking better questions, you move from reacting to competitors to building a strategy that's uniquely yours. This strategy should reflect what your customers actually care about, not just what the industry expects.

Step 4: Use the Canvas to Design a New Approach

Now that you’ve mapped the competitive landscape and uncovered areas of opportunity, it’s time to put your insights to work. The strategy canvas's true power is in how you use it to reshape your strategy, not just what it shows.

This step is about turning analysis into action.

Reimagine Your Strategic Focus

Use the canvas to critically examine your business model and consider how you can adapt in ways that create real value for your customers — and meaningful differentiation for your brand.

Here are five areas you might rethink or refine:

1. Your Value Proposition

What do you really offer that makes you worth choosing? Based on the canvas, you may find that your true strengths are underplayed — or that customers aren’t recognising your unique edge.

Redefine your value in terms your customers care about, using the canvas insights to highlight underleveraged strengths or overlooked differentiators.

2. Your Pricing or Packaging

The canvas may reveal that you're delivering more in certain areas than competitors but pricing like everyone else. Or you may find your pricing structure doesn’t align with the value you're perceived to offer.

Consider new pricing tiers, productised services, or simplified packages that reflect your strongest value areas — and help customers buy with confidence.

3. Your Service Model

Do you need to offer more support post-sale? Could you simplify delivery for faster turnaround? If the canvas shows gaps in service quality or speed, this could be a prime opportunity to improve how you operate.

Make adjustments to your service delivery based on what clients actually want — not just what’s easy or traditional.

4. Your Positioning and Messaging

If your competitors all look the same on the canvas, there's likely a sea of sameness in your market. Use what you’ve learnt to reposition your brand and tell a different story — one that speaks directly to the needs your rivals overlook.

Refine your messaging to reflect not just what you do, but why it matters more than what anyone else offers.

5. Your Innovation Priorities

Finally, the canvas helps you make better bets. Instead of investing blindly in new features, tools, or processes, you can prioritise innovations that reinforce weak spots, double down on high-impact areas, or create entirely new value curves.

Focus your innovation efforts where they’ll have the greatest strategic payoff.

The Goal: Don’t Just Be Better — Be Different

The purpose of this whole exercise isn’t to compete harder in crowded areas — it’s to stand apart in ways that truly matter to your customers.

Using the canvas as a strategic blueprint, you can design a business that not only performs but also resonates. It is a business that competes less on price and more on purpose.

Final Thoughts

The Strategy Canvas is more than just a visual tool — it’s a lens for rethinking how you compete, serve, and grow. By mapping what truly matters to your customers and comparing it to how the market delivers, you can identify powerful opportunities to differentiate, streamline your focus, and build a strategy that works in the real world.

At Kaezn, we assist businesses in achieving this goal by focussing on clarity, confidence, and customer insight. Whether you’re refining your offer, repositioning your agency, or planning for scale, we’d love to support you.

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