Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap
In an initiative to develop its herbal soap offering and create a repositioning strategy for its soap products, one of the front-runners in the Indian skincare market explored the perception of the brand image, using survey data to compare its own image with those of two of its strongest competitors. The challenge for this brand was to reposition itself and build its equity after taking into consideration the perceptual results of the study and the existing positioning of soap brands. Authors S. Ramesh Kumar, Venkata Seshagiri Rao and Narayana Trinadh Kotturu are affiliated with Indian Institute of Management.
Swot Analysis of "Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap" written by S. Ramesh Kumar, Venkata Seshagiri Rao, Narayana Trinadh Kotturu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Soap Herbal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Soap Herbal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Soap Herbal 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Soap Herbal
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 Soap Herbal
Strengths Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Soap Herbal in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Soap Herbal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Soap Herbal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Soap Herbal 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Soap Herbal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Soap Herbal 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Soap Herbal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Soap Herbal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Soap Herbal 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 Soap Herbal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Soap Herbal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Soap Herbal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Soap Herbal 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 Soap Herbal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Soap Herbal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Soap Herbal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Soap Herbal 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Soap Herbal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap, it seems that the employees of Soap Herbal 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Soap Herbal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, S. Ramesh Kumar, Venkata Seshagiri Rao, Narayana Trinadh Kotturu suggests that, Soap Herbal 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Soap Herbal has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap HBR case study mentions - Soap Herbal 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Soap Herbal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Soap Herbal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Soap Herbal 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Soap Herbal, firm in the HBR case study Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Soap Herbal 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Soap Herbal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Soap Herbal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Soap Herbal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap | 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Soap Herbal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Soap Herbal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap case study. Soap Herbal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Soap Herbal 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. Soap Herbal 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Soap Herbal can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Soap Herbal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Soap Herbal in the consumer business. Now Soap Herbal 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 Soap Herbal 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 Soap Herbal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Soap Herbal 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Soap Herbal 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Soap Herbal 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Soap Herbal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Soap Herbal 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Soap Herbal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Soap Herbal 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Soap Herbal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Soap Herbal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Threats Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Soap Herbal 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap .
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. Soap Herbal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Soap Herbal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Soap Herbal 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.
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 Soap Herbal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Soap Herbal 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Soap Herbal 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 Soap Herbal
– 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 Soap Herbal.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Soap Herbal 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Soap Herbal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Soap Herbal 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Soap Herbal is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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 Himalaya Drug Company: Repositioning an Herbal Soap 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 Soap Herbal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
