W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne open Blue Ocean Strategy with their foundational metaphorical framework: "red oceans" representing existing, well-defined market spaces characterized by intense competition — where companies fight over existing demand, competing directly on similar factors — contrasted against "blue oceans," genuinely new, uncontested market space where competition becomes largely irrelevant.

How the authors develop this foundational metaphor:

• Red oceans, in their framework, represent existing industries where market boundaries and competitive rules are already well-defined and generally accepted, with companies competing to capture a greater share of existing, relatively fixed demand — a competitive dynamic the authors argue tends to erode profitability for all participants over time as intense rivalry compresses margins
• Blue oceans, by contrast, represent genuinely new market space created through value innovation — offering customers something meaningfully different rather than incrementally better versions of existing offerings — where a company can generate substantial new demand rather than competing over existing, relatively fixed demand
• The authors argue that while red ocean competition will always exist and matter for established industries, genuinely superior long-term profitability and growth potential lies in creating these blue ocean spaces rather than competing more effectively within already-crowded red ocean industries

This foundational metaphorical framework sets up the book's overall project: presenting specific analytical tools and frameworks for systematically identifying and creating these genuinely differentiated blue ocean market spaces, rather than leaving this kind of strategic innovation to chance or pure creative inspiration.