Case Study Description of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy
This case addresses the new opportunities and challenges in design and marketing to customers who are elderly or have disabilities. A product manager learns that Leviton's wall switches are favored over less expensive competitive products by homeowners with limited vision or dexterity. With the help of a federal center on disability research, she convinces her managers to develop a marketing program to promote these features to this large and growing market segment. Leviton's in-house marketing department prepares a promotional campaign modeled on a previous successful niche marketing program. The research center staff warns that treating elders and people with disabilities as a niche market will cause the program to fail. They recommend emphasis on the "universal design" appeal of Leviton's products to children as well as elders, able-bodied as well as disabled. The product manager must choose a direction for the program based on either the research center's experience with this new market or her own company's marketing expertise.
Swot Analysis of "Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy" written by Cynthia A. Ingols, James L. Mueller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Leviton's Elders facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Product development, Social responsibility and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Leviton's Elders, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Leviton's Elders operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Leviton's Elders
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Leviton's Elders
Strengths Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Leviton's Elders in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Leviton's Elders has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Leviton's Elders to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Leviton's Elders to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Leviton's Elders to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Leviton's Elders has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Leviton's Elders is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Leviton's Elders is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Leviton's Elders are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Innovation driven organization
– Leviton's Elders is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Leviton's Elders in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Leviton's Elders is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Leviton's Elders in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Leviton's Elders
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Leviton's Elders does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Leviton's Elders is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Leviton's Elders is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Leviton's Elders has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Leviton's Elders 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy, is just above the industry average. Leviton's Elders needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Leviton's Elders has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Leviton's Elders is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Leviton's Elders is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Leviton's Elders needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Leviton's Elders to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Leviton's Elders has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Cynthia A. Ingols, James L. Mueller suggests that, Leviton's Elders is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Leviton's Elders has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Leviton's Elders even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Leviton's Elders, firm in the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Leviton's Elders in the consumer business. Now Leviton's Elders can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Leviton's Elders can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Leviton's Elders has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Leviton's Elders to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study. Leviton's Elders can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Leviton's Elders has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Leviton's Elders can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Leviton's Elders has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Leviton's Elders to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Leviton's Elders is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Leviton's Elders to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Leviton's Elders to increase its market reach. Leviton's Elders will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Leviton's Elders can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Leviton's Elders can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Leviton's Elders to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Leviton's Elders can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Leviton's Elders with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Leviton's Elders.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Regulatory challenges
– Leviton's Elders needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Leviton's Elders can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Leviton's Elders is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Leviton's Elders will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy, Leviton's Elders may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing wage structure of Leviton's Elders
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Leviton's Elders.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Leviton's Elders can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Leviton's Elders needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Leviton's Elders can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Leviton's Elders high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Leviton's Elders in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.: Universal Design Marketing Strategy is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Leviton's Elders needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.