Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement
By the spring of 2013, Michael Kinstlick and Angus MacDonald had been running a microdistillery for less than a year. Coppersea, located in New York's Hudson Valley, produced handcrafted spirits using a unique process based on techniques little-used over the past 300 years. The founders had coined the term Heritage-Methods distilling to describe their process. Although Coppersea was still working to develop a stable and consistent production process, it was already receiving attention for the fruits of its experimental runs. Jack Daniels (no relation to Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey), CEO of Wilson Daniels, a family-owned sales and marketing company, had contacted Kinstlick about a possible distribution partnership. This case covers the emergence of the microdistillery movement and, specifically, the founding of Coppersea, its handcrafted approach to spirits, and its focus on authenticity. While a partnership with Wilson Daniels appeared to offer a solution to the extremely complex world of alcohol distribution in the United States, the case considers whether Coppersea was truly able to shift priorities and make the commitments that a partnership would require. It also raises questions as to whether such a distribution agreement would affect the appeal of authenticity.
Swot Analysis of "Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement" written by Glenn Carroll, Davina Drabkin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Coppersea Microdistillery facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Manufacturing, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Coppersea Microdistillery, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Coppersea Microdistillery
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 Coppersea Microdistillery
Strengths Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Coppersea Microdistillery in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Coppersea Microdistillery is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Coppersea Microdistillery
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Coppersea Microdistillery does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Coppersea Microdistillery digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Coppersea Microdistillery is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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.
High brand equity
– Coppersea Microdistillery has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Coppersea Microdistillery to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Coppersea Microdistillery is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea Microdistillery in the sector have low bargaining power. Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Coppersea Microdistillery to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Coppersea Microdistillery has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Weaknesses Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Coppersea Microdistillery is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Coppersea Microdistillery is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Coppersea Microdistillery needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Coppersea Microdistillery to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea Microdistillery 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement, it seems that the employees of Coppersea Microdistillery 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Glenn Carroll, Davina Drabkin suggests that, Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement, in the dynamic environment Coppersea Microdistillery has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Coppersea Microdistillery has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea Microdistillery has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Coppersea Microdistillery, firm in the HBR case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Coppersea Microdistillery is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement | 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement are -
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. Coppersea Microdistillery can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Coppersea Microdistillery can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
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 Coppersea Microdistillery in the consumer business. Now Coppersea Microdistillery can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Coppersea Microdistillery can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Coppersea Microdistillery operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Coppersea Microdistillery 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. Coppersea Microdistillery 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. Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Coppersea Microdistillery can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea Microdistillery to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Threats Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Coppersea Microdistillery has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement, Coppersea Microdistillery 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
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 Coppersea Microdistillery business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Coppersea Microdistillery 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. Coppersea Microdistillery can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
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. Coppersea Microdistillery needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Coppersea Microdistillery 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement .
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. Coppersea Microdistillery can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Coppersea Microdistillery
– 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 Coppersea Microdistillery.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Coppersea Microdistillery 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.
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 Coppersea Microdistillery.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea: Emergence of the Microdistillery Movement 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 Coppersea Microdistillery needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.