Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?
In 2012 Kate Spade New York's executive management believed that KSNY's brand equity could be further leveraged to benefit from explosive growth in the global luxury accessories market. Tasked to provide input on how to achieve this goal, the marketing team considered both how to expand the demographics of their customer base and how to brand any new products designed to target these new customers. Based in part on the company's own market research and interviews with President and Chief Marketing Officer Mary Beech, this case asks students to consider the course of action that would allow KSNY to preserve its established brand identity while continuing to grow sales among its loyal customer base.
Swot Analysis of "Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?" written by Eva Ascarza, Keith Wilcox includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spade Kate facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spade Kate, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spade Kate 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spade Kate
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 Spade Kate
Strengths Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spade Kate in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 recruit top talent
– Spade Kate is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Spade Kate to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Spade Kate to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Spade Kate in the sector have low bargaining power. Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Spade Kate to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Spade Kate is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Spade Kate has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Spade Kate 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Spade Kate in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Spade Kate 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 Spade Kate in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Spade Kate digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Spade Kate 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.
Analytics focus
– Spade Kate 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 Eva Ascarza, Keith Wilcox 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Spade Kate is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Spade Kate 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.
Weaknesses Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Spade Kate is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Spade Kate is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Spade Kate 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Eva Ascarza, Keith Wilcox suggests that, Spade Kate 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? HBR case study mentions - Spade Kate 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Spade Kate has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?, is just above the industry average. Spade Kate 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Spade Kate, firm in the HBR case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Spade Kate 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Spade Kate 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. Spade Kate 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Spade Kate is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Spade Kate needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Spade Kate to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? | 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? are -
Buying journey improvements
– Spade Kate can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Spade Kate has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Spade Kate to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? case study. Spade Kate can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Spade Kate 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Spade Kate 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.
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 Spade Kate in the consumer business. Now Spade Kate can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Spade Kate 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Spade Kate to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Spade Kate can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spade Kate 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 Spade Kate to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Spade Kate can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Spade Kate operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Spade Kate can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Spade Kate is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Spade Kate 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, Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Spade Kate can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? are -
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 Spade Kate in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?, Spade Kate 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Spade Kate with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Spade Kate 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.
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 Spade Kate business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Spade Kate
– 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 Spade Kate.
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. Spade Kate 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Spade Kate 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spade Kate 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? .
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. Spade Kate needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Spade Kate 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Kate Spade New York: Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand? 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 Spade Kate needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.