Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992
Describes Du Pont's 1992 corporate advertising campaign, and its objectives and key messages. The campaign is set in the context of Du Pont's historical corporate positioning ("better things for better living"). Includes target audiences, budget considerations, and the role of print and television advertising as well as events sponsorship. Also includes Du Pont's approach to evaluating its corporate advertising. Acquaints students with the objectives and detailed program specifics of corporate advertising campaigns, to examine the continuity of corporate image position of a major high-visibility diversified firm.
Swot Analysis of "Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992" written by Stephen A. Greyser, Norman Klein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Du Pont's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Du Pont's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Du Pont's 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Du Pont's
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 Du Pont's
Strengths Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Du Pont's in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Du Pont's 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 Du Pont's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Du Pont's in the sector have low bargaining power. Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Du Pont's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Du Pont's 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Du Pont's has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Du Pont's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Du Pont's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Du Pont's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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.
Training and development
– Du Pont's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Du Pont's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Du Pont's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Du Pont's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Stephen A. Greyser, Norman Klein can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Du Pont's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Du Pont's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Learning organization
- Du Pont's 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 Du Pont's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Du Pont's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 are -
Need for greater diversity
– Du Pont's has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont's 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992, is just above the industry average. Du Pont's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992, it seems that the employees of Du Pont's don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Du Pont's has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Du Pont's, firm in the HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Du Pont's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Du Pont's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Du Pont's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Du Pont's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Du Pont's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Du Pont's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Du Pont's needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 | 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Du Pont's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Du Pont's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 case study. Du Pont's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Du Pont's 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Du Pont's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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.
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. Du Pont's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Du Pont's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Du Pont's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Du Pont's to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Du Pont's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Du Pont's can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Du Pont's 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Du Pont's can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Du Pont's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Du Pont's can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Buying journey improvements
– Du Pont's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Du Pont's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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 Du Pont's in the consumer business. Now Du Pont's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992, Du Pont's 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Du Pont's demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
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. Du Pont's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Du Pont's 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.
Environmental challenges
– Du Pont's 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. Du Pont's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Du Pont's 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Du Pont's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Du Pont's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Regulatory challenges
– Du Pont's 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Du Pont's can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 .
Increasing wage structure of Du Pont's
– 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 Du Pont's.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Du Pont's in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Du Pont's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Du Pont's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont: Corporate Advertising for 1992 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 Du Pont's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.