Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.Chris Prangel, a recent MBA graduate, has returned home to West Virginia to manage the marketing operations of the Mountain Man Beer Company, a family-owned business he stands to inherit in five years. Mountain Man brews just one beer, Mountain Man Lager, also known as "West Virginia's beer" and popular among blue-collar workers. Due to changes in beer drinkers' taste preferences, the company is now experiencing declining sales for the first time in its history. In response, Chris wants to launch Mountain Man Light, a "light beer" formulation of Mountain Man Lager, in the hope of attracting younger drinkers to the brand. However, he encounters resistance from senior managers. Mountain Man Lager's brand equity is a key asset for Mountain Man Brewing Company. The question is whether Mountain Man Light will enhance it, detract from it, or irreversibly damage it.
Swot Analysis of "Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light" written by Heide Abelli includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mountain Beer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, Budgeting, Demographics, Financial analysis, Forecasting, Performance measurement, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mountain Beer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mountain Beer
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 Mountain Beer
Strengths Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mountain Beer in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mountain Beer in the sector have low bargaining power. Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mountain Beer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mountain Beer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mountain Beer has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High brand equity
– Mountain Beer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mountain Beer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mountain Beer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Mountain Beer 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 Heide Abelli 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.
Training and development
– Mountain Beer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mountain Beer 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mountain Beer has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mountain Beer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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.
Organizational Resilience of Mountain Beer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mountain Beer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Mountain Beer is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mountain Beer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Mountain Beer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mountain Beer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, in the dynamic environment Mountain Beer has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mountain Beer has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mountain Beer 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. Mountain Beer 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mountain Beer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mountain Beer 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 - Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Beer 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mountain Beer 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mountain Beer has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, it seems that the employees of Mountain Beer 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.
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 Mountain Beer supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mountain Beer vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light | 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mountain Beer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Beer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mountain Beer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mountain Beer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mountain Beer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mountain Beer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light case study. Mountain Beer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Mountain Beer can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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.
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 Mountain Beer in the consumer business. Now Mountain Beer can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mountain Beer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mountain Beer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Beer 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, Mountain Beer 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, Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Mountain Beer can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mountain Beer to increase its market reach. Mountain Beer 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.
Threats Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light are -
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 Mountain Beer.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mountain Beer is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Mountain Beer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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. Mountain Beer 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Mountain Beer 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light, Mountain Beer 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mountain Beer 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mountain Beer 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. Mountain Beer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mountain Beer 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.
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 Mountain Beer in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mountain Beer 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Man Brewing Co.: Bringing the Brand to Light 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 Mountain Beer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.