ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic
On July 12, 1971, Sport Participation Canada, a not-for-profit company, was established by the Canadian government to encourage Canadians to increase their physical activity levels to fight the "obesity epidemic" that was causing health care costs to soar. One year later, the company was nationalized and renamed ParticipACTION. To spread its message, it relied on humourous ads, especially on TV, to encourage adults and children to exercise more. Despite considerable public support, the organization did not have enough capital to continue its operations without increased government funding and was forced to close in January 2001. The resulting uproar led the government to change its mind, and ParticipACTION was revived in 2007. However, its success with nationwide programs such as Sports Day in Canada and Bring Back Play was not enough to save it from further cuts in 2014. Would turning to social media outlets help to re-energize its campaign to encourage Canadians to adopt a healthier lifestyle? Could the organization attract enough donations from the public and private institutions to make up for the shortfall in government funds? These were the dilemmas facing its board in 2015.
Authors :: Dante Pirouz, Monica C. LaBarge, Karam Putros
Swot Analysis of "ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic" written by Dante Pirouz, Monica C. LaBarge, Karam Putros includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Participaction Canadians facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Participaction Canadians, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Participaction Canadians 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Participaction Canadians
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 Participaction Canadians
Strengths ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Participaction Canadians in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Participaction Canadians is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Participaction Canadians digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Participaction Canadians 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.
Analytics focus
– Participaction Canadians 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 Dante Pirouz, Monica C. LaBarge, Karam Putros 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.
Learning organization
- Participaction Canadians 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 Participaction Canadians is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Participaction Canadians
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Participaction Canadians does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Participaction Canadians 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Participaction Canadians is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Participaction Canadians in the sector have low bargaining power. ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Participaction Canadians to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Participaction Canadians has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Participaction Canadians 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Participaction Canadians in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Participaction Canadians 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Participaction Canadians is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Participaction Canadians needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Participaction Canadians to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Participaction Canadians 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Participaction Canadians is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Participaction Canadians has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic, 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, Participaction Canadians is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Participaction Canadians needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Participaction Canadians 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic, it seems that the employees of Participaction Canadians 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 Participaction Canadians 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic | 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Participaction Canadians 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 Participaction Canadians to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Participaction Canadians can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Participaction Canadians operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Participaction Canadians has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Participaction Canadians to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Participaction Canadians 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Participaction Canadians can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Participaction Canadians is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Participaction Canadians 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.
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. Participaction Canadians 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. Participaction Canadians 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.
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 Participaction Canadians 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Participaction Canadians 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.
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 Participaction Canadians in the consumer business. Now Participaction Canadians can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Participaction Canadians can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Participaction Canadians 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.
Threats ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Participaction Canadians 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.
Increasing wage structure of Participaction Canadians
– 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 Participaction Canadians.
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.
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. Participaction Canadians 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 Participaction Canadians.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Participaction Canadians 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.
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 Participaction Canadians 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 Participaction Canadians with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Participaction Canadians needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Participaction Canadians has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Participaction Canadians 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Participaction Canadians 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Participaction Canadians 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Participaction Canadians is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 ParticipACTION: A Social Marketing Challenge to Halt Canada's Obesity Epidemic 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 Participaction Canadians needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.