Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market
Kumar was curious to find out whether consumers were really loyal to the brands in the toothpaste category. He was interested in the toothpaste category, and Himalaya had herbal offerings in the retail and prescriptive segments. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in the ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching, due to inertia? Were consumers interested in herbal offerings? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This medley of issues presented yet another opportunity to an academic to conceptualize consumer behaviour, one that was perhaps unique to the Indian context.The concept of product involvement differentiated consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to specific products and services. High-involvement categories required consumers to be involved in extensive buying behavior that led to one or more of the following aspects: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and a greater degree of gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the various alternatives in the category. Low-involvement categories were those that were bought in a routine manner by the consumer, with a degree of personal interest that was lower than that associated with the high-involvement categories. Marketers always had to face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives. The toothpaste category was one such category in the Indian context.
Swot Analysis of "Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market" written by S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toothpaste Involvement facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toothpaste Involvement, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toothpaste Involvement
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 Toothpaste Involvement
Strengths Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Toothpaste Involvement in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Toothpaste Involvement to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Toothpaste Involvement to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Toothpaste Involvement is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Toothpaste Involvement 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 S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Toothpaste Involvement digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Toothpaste Involvement 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
– Toothpaste Involvement is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Toothpaste Involvement in the sector have low bargaining power. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Toothpaste Involvement to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Organizational Resilience of Toothpaste Involvement
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toothpaste Involvement does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Toothpaste Involvement is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Toothpaste Involvement in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Toothpaste Involvement has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market HBR case study mentions - Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Toothpaste Involvement 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 - Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan suggests that, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Toothpaste Involvement is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Toothpaste Involvement needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Toothpaste Involvement to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Toothpaste Involvement has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, in the dynamic environment Toothpaste Involvement has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Toothpaste Involvement has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, it seems that the employees of Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market | 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Toothpaste Involvement is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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
– Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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. Toothpaste Involvement can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Toothpaste Involvement can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toothpaste Involvement to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study. Toothpaste Involvement can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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. Toothpaste Involvement can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Toothpaste Involvement can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Toothpaste Involvement 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, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Threats Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -
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.
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 Toothpaste Involvement.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, Toothpaste Involvement 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Toothpaste Involvement 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 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.
Increasing wage structure of Toothpaste Involvement
– 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 Toothpaste Involvement.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Toothpaste Involvement has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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 Toothpaste Involvement in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Toothpaste Involvement needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
