Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y
A profitable dot com company? Alloy.com retails clothing to teens by catalog. Alloy uses a Web site to convert prospects and build community. The result is a business with the economics of a direct marketer and the market capitalization of an Internet start-up. The case presents the decision of whether to partner with AOL or to persevere with the current mix of customer acquisition methods.
Swot Analysis of "Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y" written by John Deighton, Gil McWilliams includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Alloy.com Retails facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Entrepreneurship, Internet, IT, Joint ventures, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Alloy.com Retails, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Alloy.com Retails
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 Alloy.com Retails
Strengths Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Alloy.com Retails in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Alloy.com Retails has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Alloy.com Retails to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Alloy.com Retails 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.
Training and development
– Alloy.com Retails has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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.
Analytics focus
– Alloy.com Retails 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 John Deighton, Gil McWilliams 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Alloy.com Retails 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Alloy.com Retails has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Alloy.com Retails is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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
– Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Alloy.com Retails to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Alloy.com Retails to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Alloy.com Retails in the sector have low bargaining power. Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Alloy.com Retails to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com Retails 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Alloy.com Retails is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Alloy.com Retails needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Alloy.com Retails to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Alloy.com Retails 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com Retails has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, it seems that the employees of Alloy.com Retails 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, in the dynamic environment Alloy.com Retails has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Alloy.com Retails has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John Deighton, Gil McWilliams suggests that, Alloy.com Retails 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Alloy.com Retails is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Alloy.com Retails 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, is just above the industry average. Alloy.com Retails 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.
Opportunities Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y | 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Alloy.com Retails can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Alloy.com Retails 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Alloy.com Retails 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, Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Alloy.com Retails can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com Retails has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Alloy.com Retails to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y case study. Alloy.com Retails can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Alloy.com Retails 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Alloy.com Retails 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Alloy.com Retails is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails to increase its market reach. Alloy.com Retails will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Alloy.com Retails can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Alloy.com Retails in the consumer business. Now Alloy.com Retails can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Alloy.com Retails 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. Alloy.com Retails 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.
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.
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 Alloy.com Retails business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Alloy.com Retails 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.
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.
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. Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com Retails 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.
Environmental challenges
– Alloy.com Retails 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. Alloy.com Retails can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Alloy.com Retails 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y, Alloy.com Retails 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Alloy.com Retails 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y .
Increasing wage structure of Alloy.com Retails
– 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 Alloy.com Retails.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 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 Alloy.com Retails needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
