TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case)
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.Topics covered include: consumer marketing, market research, new product introduction, and quantitative analysis. TruEarth Healthy Foods, a maker of gourmet pastas, sauces, and meals, wants to build on its successful introduction of fresh whole grain pasta by introducing a similar product concept for pizza. In an increasingly competitive market, TruEarth is focused on beating its competition and wants to act quickly and decisively. The company conducts extensive market research, first using focus groups to test the concept and then following up with take-home trials. Acting as brand managers, students must complete a quantitative analysis of the available data to project the sales volume for pizza and then decide whether to bring the new product to market.
Swot Analysis of "TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case)" written by V. Kasturi Rangan, Sunru Yong includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Truearth Pizza facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Market research and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Truearth Pizza, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Truearth Pizza 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Truearth Pizza
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 Truearth Pizza
Strengths TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Truearth Pizza in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Truearth Pizza is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Truearth Pizza 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 Truearth Pizza is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Truearth Pizza 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 Truearth Pizza in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Truearth Pizza in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Truearth Pizza in the sector have low bargaining power. TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Truearth Pizza to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Truearth Pizza 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 V. Kasturi Rangan, Sunru Yong 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Truearth Pizza to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Truearth Pizza to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Truearth Pizza 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Truearth Pizza 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Truearth Pizza has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Truearth Pizza to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Truearth Pizza digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Truearth Pizza 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.
Training and development
– Truearth Pizza has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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.
Weaknesses TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Truearth Pizza 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Truearth Pizza 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Truearth Pizza 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) HBR case study mentions - Truearth Pizza takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Truearth Pizza is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Truearth Pizza needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Truearth Pizza to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, V. Kasturi Rangan, Sunru Yong suggests that, Truearth Pizza 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Truearth Pizza products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Truearth Pizza needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 Truearth Pizza has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case), in the dynamic environment Truearth Pizza has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Truearth Pizza has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case), is just above the industry average. Truearth Pizza 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Truearth Pizza 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.
Opportunities TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) | 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Truearth Pizza can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Truearth Pizza can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Truearth Pizza 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Truearth Pizza 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Truearth Pizza 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, TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Truearth Pizza is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Truearth Pizza 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 Truearth Pizza to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Truearth Pizza 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Truearth Pizza 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Truearth Pizza can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Truearth Pizza can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Truearth Pizza 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Truearth Pizza can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Truearth Pizza operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Threats TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) are -
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Truearth Pizza business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Truearth Pizza 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Truearth Pizza 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Truearth Pizza 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.
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. Truearth Pizza 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case), Truearth Pizza 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 Truearth Pizza
– 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 Truearth Pizza.
Environmental challenges
– Truearth Pizza 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. Truearth Pizza can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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 Truearth Pizza in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Truearth Pizza can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Truearth Pizza.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction (Brief Case) 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 Truearth Pizza needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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