Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy
Miranda Cresswell, marketing director, and Greg Marsh, founder and CEO of onefinestay, were grappling with branding and positioning dilemmas. onefinestay offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. onefinestay's brand had been "hacked" together quickly during the company's early years. After five years of rapid growth, Marsh brought Cresswell on board to do a comprehensive analysis of the company's brand and its positioning in the marketplace. Cresswell had spent several months gathering data and insights, and was starting to experiment with use case scenarios that took a crack at segmenting the company's customers. The preliminary results were interesting, but raised more questions than they answered, and Cresswell wondered if this was the best way to segment the market. While segmenting in this way was intriguing, it led to a branding challenge-as a start-up, it was difficult for onefinestay to have the resources to support multiple brand messages in the marketplace and different segments wanted different things from their travel experience. She pondered whether there were other ways to group customers that would allow for a more universal positioning for the brand or whether the company needed to focus on one or two segments to serve. Positioning the fledgling brand was a challenge. Who was the company competing against and how could it carve out a unique value proposition that would appeal to travelers and be differentiated from what was offered by other hospitality options? Was its current moniker "the unhotel" working for or against it? This case includes the topic of luxury.
Swot Analysis of "Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy" written by Jill Avery, Anat Keinan, Liz Kind includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cresswell Onefinestay facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Disruptive innovation, Entrepreneurship, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cresswell Onefinestay, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cresswell Onefinestay
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 Cresswell Onefinestay
Strengths Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cresswell Onefinestay in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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
– Cresswell Onefinestay is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cresswell Onefinestay in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cresswell Onefinestay in the sector have low bargaining power. Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cresswell Onefinestay to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cresswell Onefinestay has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cresswell Onefinestay to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cresswell Onefinestay to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Jill Avery, Anat Keinan, Liz Kind 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
- Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Cresswell Onefinestay is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cresswell Onefinestay digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Weaknesses Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cresswell Onefinestay 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. Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cresswell Onefinestay is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cresswell Onefinestay is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cresswell Onefinestay, firm in the HBR case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy, is just above the industry average. Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Cresswell Onefinestay 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Cresswell Onefinestay has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy | 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cresswell Onefinestay to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cresswell Onefinestay to increase its market reach. Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
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. Cresswell Onefinestay can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cresswell Onefinestay has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cresswell Onefinestay to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy case study. Cresswell Onefinestay can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Cresswell Onefinestay in the consumer business. Now Cresswell Onefinestay can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cresswell Onefinestay can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cresswell Onefinestay can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cresswell Onefinestay operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cresswell Onefinestay is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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.
Threats Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cresswell Onefinestay 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cresswell Onefinestay with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Cresswell Onefinestay is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Cresswell Onefinestay business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Cresswell Onefinestay.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy, Cresswell Onefinestay 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 .
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. Cresswell Onefinestay can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cresswell Onefinestay has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cresswell Onefinestay 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.
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. Cresswell Onefinestay needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy 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 Cresswell Onefinestay needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
