In business, it’s easy to get caught up in serving your existing market better more value, more features, more service. But what if the key to sustainable growth wasn’t doing more for your current customers… but reaching the people you’ve never served at all?
That’s the central idea behind one of the most powerful (and underused) growth strategies – focusing on noncustomers. Instead of fighting over market share, businesses that target noncustomers create new demand. They expand their playing field rather than competing harder within it. And in many cases, it’s not just an option, it’s a necessity for long-term success.
Let’s look into how businesses can identify, engage, and convert noncustomers into new revenue streams.
Why Blue Ocean Strategy Focuses On Noncustomers
Traditional marketing and sales efforts tend to focus on a single question – How can we win more of the existing market? But this approach assumes that the total addressable market is fixed.
Blue Ocean Strategy challenges this thinking. It encourages business owners to focus on creating new demand rather than competing for a slice of the current demand.
Noncustomers are people who
- Don’t currently use your product or service
- Have never considered your industry as an option
- Tried similar offerings in the past and walked away
These groups represent huge pools of untapped opportunity, often bigger than your current customer base. If you can understand why they’ve stayed out and what might bring them in, you gain access to growth without the pressure of competing on price, features, or promotions.
The Three Tiers Of Noncustomers
1. Soon-to-be Noncustomers
These are people on the edge of your market. They might occasionally buy from your category or are aware of it, but aren’t fully committed. They may be dissatisfied, price-sensitive, or struggling with a poor fit.
2. Refusing Noncustomers
These individuals are aware of the category but have actively chosen not to participate. Perhaps they think it’s too expensive, too complex, or not relevant to their situation.
3. Unexplored Noncustomers
This group has never been targeted by your industry. They don’t consider your offering because it’s never been positioned as something for them. Often, this is where the most innovation lies.
When you understand who these people are and, more importantly, why they’ve opted out, you can begin to reshape your product, message, or model to meet them where they are.
Here are a few practical ways to spot noncustomers.
Talk To People Outside Your Industry Bubble
Speak to people who don’t use your product or service or those who left. Ask why. Their answers will reveal what’s missing, confusing, or unappealing about the current options.
Look At Under-Served Segments
Are there groups of people who are excluded from your market because of pricing, complexity, jargon, or delivery models? These barriers might be easy to remove.
Analyse Who Never Converts
Look at your sales data. Who clicks but doesn’t buy? Who visits but doesn’t enquire? Who signs up for free trials but never pays? These drop-off points are clues to where your offer may not be resonating.
Challenge Industry Assumptions
Are there features, expectations, or processes that everyone in your industry follows, but that could be removed or simplified to serve a new segment?
Real-World Examples Of Businesses That Targeted Noncustomers
Afterpay
Traditional credit card companies relied on interest payments and annual fees. Many younger consumers rejected credit because of financial stress or mistrust. Afterpay created a new market by offering “buy now, pay later” with no interest, bringing in non-customers who previously avoided consumer finance altogether.
Apple iPod
Before the iPod, digital music players were targeted at tech-savvy users. Apple made music portable, simple, and desirable for everyday users, not just tech enthusiasts, opening up a new mainstream market.
Budget Airlines
Companies like Jetstar and Ryanair didn’t just take customers from full-service airlines, they attracted people who didn’t fly at all due to high costs. By reducing frills and offering ultra-low fares, they tapped into a huge segment of noncustomers.
Shifting From Competition To Creation
When you focus on noncustomers, the conversation shifts
- From How do we beat the competition?
- To How do we make the competition irrelevant?
- From How do we get a bigger slice of the pie?
- To How do we bake a bigger pie?
This doesn’t mean you ignore your existing customers. But it does mean you look beyond them for your next stage of growth.
Ask yourself
- What assumptions are we making about who our customer is?
- What’s stopping people from choosing us, or our category at all?
- How could we change the way we package, price, or deliver to make our offer more accessible?
Often, small changes in approach lead to entirely new segments opening up.
Practical Steps To Begin Targeting Noncustomers
Revisit Your Ideal Client Profile
Most businesses define their ideal client too narrowly. Widen your lens. What groups have needs you haven’t considered yet?
Simplify Your Offering
Could you offer a “lite” version, a more flexible model, or a different price point to attract new users?
Test New Channels
Noncustomers may not be where you normally market. Explore new platforms, communities, or networks where your current marketing may not reach.
Build Solutions Around Friction Points
Look at what frustrates or excludes people from your industry. Can you eliminate that friction?
Track New Segments Separately
Once you begin attracting noncustomers, monitor them as a distinct group. What do they respond to? How do they behave differently? This will help you adapt and improve your approach.
Growth Lives Outside The Comfort Zone
Focusing only on current customers keeps your business safe, but small. If you’re serious about scaling, you’ll need to look where others aren’t. Noncustomers represent possibility, and growth comes from stepping into that unknown with intention.
Break out of the usual mindset of competition. Start asking what you’re missing and who you’ve never thought to serve.
Thank you for being part of our Business Life community. If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in future newsletters, let us know we’re always listening.
Live with purpose,
Kristian Livolsi and the Business Growth Mindset Team
