Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement
In November 2013, GoldieBlox was accused of copyright infringement. It used the Beastie Boys song "Girls" in one of its advertisements promoting new toys for girls without permission. The company's reaction to file a lawsuit against the band was not well received and perhaps a little hasty.In the wake of the crisis, the chief executive officer of GoldieBlox Toy Company and her team had some decisions to make regarding how to handle the lawsuit they filed against the Beastie Boys that then backfired. The hostile environment was not conducive to the image of the company and the negative media was of concern to GoldieBox and its employees.
Swot Analysis of "Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement" written by Zahra Ladha Jiwani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Goldieblox Beastie facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Intellectual property and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Goldieblox Beastie, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Goldieblox Beastie
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 Goldieblox Beastie
Strengths Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Goldieblox Beastie in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Goldieblox Beastie has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Learning organization
- Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox Beastie is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Goldieblox Beastie is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Goldieblox Beastie has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Goldieblox Beastie to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Goldieblox Beastie
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Goldieblox Beastie does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Goldieblox Beastie to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Goldieblox Beastie to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Goldieblox Beastie has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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
– Goldieblox Beastie is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Goldieblox Beastie in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Zahra Ladha Jiwani 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
Need for greater diversity
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Goldieblox Beastie is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Goldieblox Beastie, firm in the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, is just above the industry average. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, in the dynamic environment Goldieblox Beastie has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Goldieblox Beastie has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Goldieblox Beastie 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Zahra Ladha Jiwani suggests that, Goldieblox Beastie 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox Beastie has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Goldieblox Beastie is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Goldieblox Beastie needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Goldieblox Beastie to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Opportunities Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Goldieblox Beastie can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Goldieblox Beastie operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Goldieblox Beastie to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
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 Goldieblox Beastie in the consumer business. Now Goldieblox Beastie can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Goldieblox Beastie to increase its market reach. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Goldieblox Beastie 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, Goldieblox Beastie 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, Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
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. Goldieblox Beastie 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. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Goldieblox Beastie can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Developing new processes and practices
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Goldieblox Beastie can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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.
Threats Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
Environmental challenges
– Goldieblox Beastie 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. Goldieblox Beastie can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
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 Goldieblox Beastie in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Goldieblox Beastie with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, Goldieblox Beastie 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 .
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 Goldieblox Beastie business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Goldieblox Beastie has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Goldieblox Beastie 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 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. Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox Beastie 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.
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.
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 Goldieblox Beastie.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox Beastie needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.