Chain of Buyers

Blue Ocean Strategy Glossary - Chain of Buyers

Chain of Buyers refers to the different players involved directly or indirectly in the buying decision. Generally speaking there are three groups: purchasers, users and influencers. Although these three groups may overlap, they often differ. For example, a sick child would be the user of a prescribed medicine, their parent, the purchaser, and the doctor, the influencer.

However, normally an industry converges on a single buyer group. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, focuses overwhelmingly on doctors, the influencers. When reconstructing market boundaries, managers should challenge conventional definitions of who is the target buyer and look across the chain of buyers. This is because different buyer groups often hold different definitions of value. Thus, by shifting the focus to other buyer groups companies can often see new ways to unlock value. See Six Paths Framework.

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