Whether you are an advertising or marketing student, an entrepreneur, or a business professional, prepare to learn about one of the most basic and functional tools for marketers that is still widely practiced today: SWOT analysis. Like many subjects in school that students seem to avoid (learning the quadratic formula in calculus, reading Brave New World for English, or that extremely awkward subject that everyone in health class is embarrassed to learn), detailed SWOT analysis is something that you are going to have to face learning and getting used to writing no matter how advanced our advertising methods are. Detailed SWOT analysis will be around forever and can really help you understand the environment your product or service is getting into and what it has to offer your potential customers that your competitors have forgotten about. So here it is in plain English: the good, the bad and the ugly of detailed SWOT analysis.
As a professional marketer who has been working in this field, representing a multitude of businesses throughout North America for over 15 years, I continually advocate the benefits and effectiveness of developing and using a detailed SWOT analysis. Before starting any new project, whether for myself or a client, I have and will continue to include the development of a SWOT analysis. My suggestion to you is that if you want your marketing initiatives to work like a professionally developed plan, you should think and act like a professional marketer. In this article I am going to share with you…
o The good thing about developing a proper SWOT analysis “The good thing”
o What is the disadvantage of developing a proper SWOT analysis? “The bad”
o What if the SWOT analysis doesn’t seem to add value to my marketing plan? “The ugly one”
So why do seasoned advertising executives say that a detailed SWOT analysis of your product/service could open your eyes to an opportunity you never imagined? Let’s put it this way: If you’re the owner of a new business and need to sell your business to your future employees, who are ultimately responsible for reselling your business idea, you probably better have a clear idea. sense of what your business is. The vision, mission and core values of your business are very important in determining whether or not customers see your product/service as a necessity. Is the product category you’re in thriving, full of competition, or is it yesterday’s trend? All these answers can be yours, breaking down your company in a SWOT analysis.
What good is a SWOT? The easiest way to answer this question is in the acronym, stated clearly, a SWOT will tell you what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are to your business. Strengths and weaknesses are attributes of your business that are identified internally. What happens within the environment of your own company? Some of the strengths you may have are that you were the first entrant in a category (i.e. Red Bull in the energy drink category), if your company won any awards, what makes you different from your competitors (do you have something to they don’t. Is it that hard to copy?) Weaknesses might be that you weren’t “one of the originals” and that you’re lumped in with all the other thousands of soap varieties available today – you lack that “must have” feature. Or maybe your product or service is a seasonal item, so your key sales peak only happens during a certain quarter of the year, in which case how does the company survive through the other 3 quarters? Strengths and weaknesses are easy to identify if you really sit down and think about what your company is, what it stands for, and what it offers to its customers. Opportunities and threats are externally identified – these are things that happen outside of your business that you cannot control. Going back to the Red Bull example, the fact that the general public more often felt exhausted and sought a ‘lift’ paved the way for Red Bull to really resonate with the public. And perhaps the easiest example of a threat is something most businesses seem to be dealing with today: the depressed state of the economy and the spending-wary public. These four aspects are quick and easy ways to get into your business, and with a little thought, you can open up your business to opportunities you hadn’t originally seen.
What’s wrong with a detailed SWOT analysis? Well, for a newbie, brace yourself, this is just one of the millions of SWOT analyzes you will perform on a variety of companies and products. But don’t worry, practice makes perfect. Sometimes the first few SWOTs can take a bit of time to nail down the formula, but soon it will become as simple as riding a bike.
The ugly thing about detailed SWOT analysis is very rare but it has seen the light of day. Perhaps the product category is so complex that a SWOT doesn’t really answer any immediate questions for your business. Or you’ve finally completed what you thought was an amazing analysis, only to realize that after investing a lot of money in your “dream project” you’ve entered an overly saturated market and your product (without much added value) . ) will soon be lost among the masses – YIKES! Also, some companies confuse their internal strengths with external opportunities, where their SWOT analysis becomes skewed and useless.
So while as a first timer you may be frustrated with what makes an attribute internal or external, the fact that you sometimes need to research your category to really access some interesting opportunities once you get familiar with this process, there is a There’s a good chance you can Start dreaming about SWOT analyzes and start applying them to your everyday life: One of the best things about a detailed SWOT analysis is that it’s a basic framework that really puts your business in perspective for you, your employees, and , more importantly, what you have to do. offer to your customers.