Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity
The US organic cereal business is fascinating: while most brands of organic breakfast cereals were founded by hippies who wanted to make a difference in the world in the 70s and 80s, many have been taken over by large "traditional' food companies. Attune Foods and its brands Uncle Sam and Erewohn is an exception: it is a small, independent player. Its ambition is to become a leading digestive health brand in the country: not exactly a popular conversation topic at most family dinner tables. Attune faced two challenges: - Develop a way to communicate about digestive health in a consumer-friendly way. - Communicate its differentiation with food giants like General Mills and Kellogg in a compelling way, with way less financial resources. Attune decided to base its strategy on authenticity: a less costly strategy that the company believed would allow it to clearly communicate its message and to differentiate it from the big boys. It applied the concept of authenticity in all aspects of its business (e.g., product definition, production and sourcing, communication). The case describes the company and its competition. The challenge facing Attune at the time of the case was to double the size of the company within four years.
Swot Analysis of "Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity" written by Glenn Carroll, Xavier Lederer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Attune Authenticity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Competitive strategy, Entrepreneurship and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Attune Authenticity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Attune Authenticity
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 Attune Authenticity
Strengths Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Attune Authenticity in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Attune Authenticity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Attune Authenticity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Authenticity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Attune Authenticity in the sector have low bargaining power. Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Attune Authenticity to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Attune Authenticity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Attune Authenticity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Attune Authenticity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Attune Authenticity 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.
Analytics focus
– Attune Authenticity 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 Glenn Carroll, Xavier Lederer 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Attune Authenticity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Attune Authenticity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Authenticity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Attune Authenticity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Glenn Carroll, Xavier Lederer suggests that, Attune Authenticity is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Attune Authenticity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Attune Authenticity 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. Attune Authenticity 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.
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 Attune Authenticity supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Attune Authenticity vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Attune Authenticity 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Attune Authenticity 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Attune Authenticity, firm in the HBR case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Authenticity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity HBR case study mentions - Attune Authenticity 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity, it seems that the employees of Attune Authenticity 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.
Opportunities Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity | 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity are -
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 Attune Authenticity 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Attune Authenticity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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.
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. Attune Authenticity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Attune Authenticity 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Attune Authenticity can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Attune Authenticity can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Attune Authenticity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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. Attune Authenticity can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Attune Authenticity 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Authenticity to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Attune Authenticity 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Attune Authenticity to increase its market reach. Attune Authenticity 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Attune Authenticity 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.
Threats Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Attune Authenticity 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity, Attune Authenticity 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 .
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 Attune Authenticity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Attune Authenticity with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Attune Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity .
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Attune Authenticity is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Attune Authenticity.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Attune Authenticity 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Attune Authenticity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Attune Authenticity 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.
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. Attune Authenticity 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Attune Authenticity 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 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Foods: Challenging the Goliaths with Authenticity 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 Attune Authenticity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
