Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally
Postulates that successful viral marketing campaigns trigger an emotional response in recipients. Working under this premise, examines the effects of viral messages containing the six primary emotions (surprise, joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) on recipients' emotional responses to viral marketing campaigns and subsequent forwarding behavior. According to findings, in order to be effective, viral messages need to contain the element of surprise. By itself, however, surprise is not enough to guarantee message success; therefore, it must be combined with other emotions. The effectiveness of the viral message is also moderated by gender, with disgust-based and fear-based campaigns being more likely to be forwarded by male recipients than female recipients. To ensure forwarding behavior, the message must capture the imagination of the recipient, as well as be clearly targeted. Moreover, achieving fit between a campaign and the featured emotions is important, as this ensures an increased chance of forwarding. In addition to relaying these and other findings, shares and discusses the managerial implications of using different emotions in viral marketing campaigns. Finally, culture is recognized as an influencer.
Authors :: Angela Dobele, Adam Lindgreen, Michael Beverland, Joelle Vanhamme
Swot Analysis of "Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally" written by Angela Dobele, Adam Lindgreen, Michael Beverland, Joelle Vanhamme includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Viral Recipients facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Psychology and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Viral Recipients, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Viral Recipients 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Viral Recipients
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 Viral Recipients
Strengths Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Viral Recipients in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Viral Recipients 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Viral Recipients 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 Viral Recipients in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Viral Recipients is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Viral Recipients is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Viral Recipients in the sector have low bargaining power. Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Viral Recipients to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Viral Recipients has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Viral Recipients is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Viral Recipients 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 Viral Recipients is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Viral Recipients to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Viral Recipients to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Viral Recipients is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Viral Recipients 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally, is just above the industry average. Viral Recipients 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally, it seems that the employees of Viral Recipients 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Viral Recipients is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Viral Recipients 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. Viral Recipients 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Viral Recipients, firm in the HBR case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Angela Dobele, Adam Lindgreen, Michael Beverland, Joelle Vanhamme suggests that, Viral Recipients 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Viral Recipients 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Viral Recipients 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Viral Recipients 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 - Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally HBR case study mentions - Viral Recipients 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.
Opportunities Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally | 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally are -
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. Viral Recipients can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Viral Recipients 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Viral Recipients 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Viral Recipients 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.
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. Viral Recipients can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Viral Recipients 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Viral Recipients 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.
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. Viral Recipients 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. Viral Recipients 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Viral Recipients 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 Viral Recipients to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Viral Recipients 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Viral Recipients to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Viral Recipients can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Viral Recipients operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Viral Recipients 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Viral Recipients has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Viral Recipients to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally case study. Viral Recipients can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Viral Recipients with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Viral Recipients 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. Viral Recipients can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Viral Recipients needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Viral Recipients has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Viral Recipients 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Viral Recipients 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Viral Recipients needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
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 Viral Recipients in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Viral Recipients 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.
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. Viral Recipients can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally, Viral Recipients 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Viral Recipients 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.
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. Viral Recipients 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Why Pass on Viral Messages? Because They Connect Emotionally 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 Viral Recipients needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
