Swot Analysis of "Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B)" written by Gwendolyn K. Ortmeyer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sale Court's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Ethics, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sale Court's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sale Court's 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sale Court's
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 Sale Court's
Strengths Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sale Court's in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Sale Court's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sale Court's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sale Court's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sale Court's 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Sale Court's 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 Sale Court's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Sale Court's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sale Court's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sale Court's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sale Court's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sale Court's 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sale Court's in the sector have low bargaining power. Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sale Court's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Sale Court's 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 Gwendolyn K. Ortmeyer 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.
Organizational Resilience of Sale Court's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sale Court's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Sale Court's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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.
Learning organization
- Sale Court's 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 Sale Court's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sale Court's is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Sale Court's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sale Court's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sale Court's 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sale Court's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B), is just above the industry average. Sale Court's 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B), in the dynamic environment Sale Court's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sale Court's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Sale Court's 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Sale Court's 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, Gwendolyn K. Ortmeyer suggests that, Sale Court's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sale Court's has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sale Court's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sale Court's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) | 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Sale Court's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sale Court's 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sale Court's 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, Sale Court's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sale Court's 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sale Court's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sale Court's 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, Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sale Court's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sale Court's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) case study. Sale Court's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sale Court's 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 Sale Court's 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, Sale Court's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sale Court's 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 Sale Court's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sale Court's to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sale Court's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Sale Court's 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.
Threats Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sale Court's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Sale Court's
– 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 Sale Court's.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sale Court's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sale Court's 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.
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. Sale Court's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sale Court's 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sale Court's 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.
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 Sale Court's.
Environmental challenges
– Sale Court's 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. Sale Court's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Sale Court's 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.
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.
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 Sale Court's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sale Court's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (B) 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 Sale Court's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.