Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation
Although it is well accepted that corporate communication has a direct impact on corporate reputation, little is known about the link between firms' social media communication strategies and the formation of firms' reputations in an online environment. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by studying the impact of social media communication strategies on firms' reputations. The setting for our study is the hotel industry. The results offer insights regarding the challenges of developing online communication strategies that affect corporate reputation.
Authors :: Paola Barbara Floreddu, Fransesca Cabiddu, Roberto Evaristo
Topics :: Sales & Marketing
Tags :: Public relations, Social platforms, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation" written by Paola Barbara Floreddu, Fransesca Cabiddu, Roberto Evaristo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Communication Reputations facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Public relations, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Communication Reputations, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Communication Reputations 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Communication Reputations
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 Communication Reputations
Strengths Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Communication Reputations in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Communication Reputations has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Communication Reputations to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Communication Reputations 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Communication Reputations 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Communication Reputations in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Communication Reputations is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Communication Reputations in the sector have low bargaining power. Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Communication Reputations to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Communication Reputations
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Communication Reputations does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Communication Reputations is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Communication Reputations is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Communication Reputations 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 Communication Reputations is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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.
Analytics focus
– Communication Reputations 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 Paola Barbara Floreddu, Fransesca Cabiddu, Roberto Evaristo 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.
Weaknesses Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Communication Reputations is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Communication Reputations supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Communication Reputations vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation, is just above the industry average. Communication Reputations 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Communication Reputations is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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, Communication Reputations 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Communication Reputations 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation, in the dynamic environment Communication Reputations has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Communication Reputations has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Communication Reputations 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 - Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Communication Reputations 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Communication Reputations 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Communication Reputations is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Communication Reputations needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Communication Reputations to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation | 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Communication Reputations 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Communication Reputations 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 Communication Reputations 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Communication Reputations 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Communication Reputations 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.
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. Communication Reputations can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Communication Reputations 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Communication Reputations 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Communication Reputations 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Communication Reputations has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Communication Reputations to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation case study. Communication Reputations can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Communication Reputations to increase its market reach. Communication Reputations 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Communication Reputations 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, Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Communication Reputations can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Communication Reputations operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Communication Reputations 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 Communication Reputations to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Communication Reputations is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Communication Reputations
– 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 Communication Reputations.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Communication Reputations 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Communication Reputations 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Communication Reputations 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation, Communication Reputations 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Communication Reputations has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Communication Reputations 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.
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 Communication Reputations business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Communication Reputations can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Communication Reputations needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Communication Reputations 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation 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 Communication Reputations needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.