Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign
Reports the strategic choices made by Dewar's and briefly describes the implementation of the campaign from its launch in September 1993 through September 1995.
Swot Analysis of "Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign" written by Alvin J. Silk, Lisa R. Klein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dewar's Campaign facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dewar's Campaign, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dewar's Campaign
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 Dewar's Campaign
Strengths Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dewar's Campaign in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dewar's Campaign digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dewar's Campaign 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dewar's Campaign 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.
Learning organization
- Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dewar's Campaign to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dewar's Campaign to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dewar's Campaign in the sector have low bargaining power. Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dewar's Campaign to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dewar's Campaign has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dewar's Campaign 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Dewar's Campaign is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dewar's Campaign is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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.
Weaknesses Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Dewar's Campaign 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dewar's Campaign 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 - Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dewar's Campaign is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign, in the dynamic environment Dewar's Campaign has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dewar's Campaign has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Dewar's Campaign has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Alvin J. Silk, Lisa R. Klein suggests that, Dewar's Campaign 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign, it seems that the employees of Dewar's Campaign 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dewar's Campaign 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign, is just above the industry average. Dewar's Campaign 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.
Opportunities Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign | 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dewar's Campaign 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, Dewar's Campaign 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, Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dewar's Campaign 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dewar's Campaign can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Dewar's Campaign to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign case study. Dewar's Campaign can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Dewar's Campaign 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dewar's Campaign is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Dewar's Campaign can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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. Dewar's Campaign can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dewar's Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dewar's Campaign 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dewar's Campaign 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.
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. Dewar's Campaign can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dewar's Campaign 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dewar's Campaign with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dewar's Campaign is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Dewar's Campaign 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.
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 Dewar's Campaign in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Dewar's Campaign 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. Dewar's Campaign can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 Dewar's Campaign business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign, Dewar's Campaign 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's (B): Preliminary Results of the Repositioning Campaign 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 Dewar's Campaign needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
