Porsche: Harnessing Social Media SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Porsche: Harnessing Social Media
The marketing director of an advertising agency is considering marketing options to present to Porsche Canada. The goal is to generate sales of Porsche vehicles in Canada by using social media to highlight the fact that Porsches can be driven in winter conditions. The objective of this program, which includes a variety of social media tools and messages, augments Porsche Car Canada's traditional marketing campaign of billboards, event sponsorships and print ads in premium publications. The marketing director faces resource constraints: he has only a three-person marketing team and the limited marketing budget means the program can likely focus on only three distinctive social media vehicles. In addition, much of Porsche's social media efforts are run out of the United States. The marketing director needs to work within these constraints to build a social media campaign with a Canadian focus.
Swot Analysis of "Porsche: Harnessing Social Media" written by Dante Pirouz, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Porsche Media facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Technology and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Porsche: Harnessing Social Media casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Porsche: Harnessing Social Media
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Porsche Media, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Porsche Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Porsche Media
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 Porsche Media
Strengths Porsche: Harnessing Social Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Porsche Media in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Porsche Media 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Porsche Media digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Porsche Media 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Porsche Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche Media in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Porsche Media 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 Porsche Media is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Porsche Media has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Porsche: Harnessing Social Media firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Porsche Media to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Porsche Media to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Porsche Media is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Porsche Media 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 Porsche Media in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Porsche Media in the sector have low bargaining power. Porsche: Harnessing Social Media has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Porsche Media to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Porsche Media 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, Ken Mark 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Porsche: Harnessing Social Media are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche Media has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Porsche Media 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 - Porsche: Harnessing Social Media should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Porsche Media 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, Porsche Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media, it seems that the employees of Porsche Media 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Porsche: Harnessing Social Media HBR case study mentions - Porsche Media 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Dante Pirouz, Ken Mark suggests that, Porsche Media is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High 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 Porsche Media supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Porsche: Harnessing Social Media, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Porsche Media vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Porsche Media, firm in the HBR case study Porsche: Harnessing Social Media needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Porsche Media is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Porsche: Harnessing Social Media, in the dynamic environment Porsche Media has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Porsche Media has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Porsche: Harnessing Social Media | 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Porsche Media 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, Porsche: Harnessing Social Media, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Porsche Media has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Porsche Media to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Porsche: Harnessing Social Media case study. Porsche Media can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Porsche Media can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Porsche Media operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Porsche Media can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Porsche Media 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Porsche Media to increase its market reach. Porsche Media 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Porsche Media 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Porsche Media 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 Porsche Media to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Porsche Media can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Porsche Media in the consumer business. Now Porsche Media can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Porsche Media can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Porsche Media 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.
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. Porsche Media 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. Porsche Media 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.
Threats Porsche: Harnessing Social Media External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Porsche: Harnessing Social Media are -
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. Porsche Media 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.
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 Porsche Media with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Porsche Media is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Porsche Media in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Porsche Media.
Increasing wage structure of Porsche Media
– 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 Porsche Media.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Porsche Media 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.
Environmental challenges
– Porsche Media 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. Porsche Media can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Porsche Media business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Porsche Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media .
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.
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. Porsche Media can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche: Harnessing Social Media 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 Porsche Media needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
