Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business
Fenix Group's business spans from general merchandise retailing to Italian fashion. The diversity stems from the management's multiniche marketing strategy. Looks at the journeys of two entrepreneurs who started out with a tiny garment trading company and, in the span of 30 years, expanded into a multinational network of manufacturing and retailing with $230 million annual turnover. How did Fenix identify and tap into niches in different markets? What does it take to be successful in niche markets? Also analyzes Fenix's strategy and discusses the critical success factors of its multiniche marketing strategy.
Swot Analysis of "Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business" written by Bennett Yim, Monica Wong includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fenix Multiniche facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Networking, Strategy execution and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fenix Multiniche, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fenix Multiniche 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fenix Multiniche
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 Fenix Multiniche
Strengths Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fenix Multiniche in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fenix Multiniche to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fenix Multiniche to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fenix Multiniche 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Fenix Multiniche
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fenix Multiniche does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fenix Multiniche is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Fenix Multiniche has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fenix Multiniche to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fenix Multiniche is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fenix Multiniche in the sector have low bargaining power. Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fenix Multiniche to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Fenix Multiniche is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fenix Multiniche 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fenix Multiniche 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fenix Multiniche has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Weaknesses Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix Multiniche 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fenix Multiniche products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fenix Multiniche needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fenix Multiniche 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fenix Multiniche is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fenix Multiniche, firm in the HBR case study Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fenix Multiniche 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Bennett Yim, Monica Wong suggests that, Fenix Multiniche 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix Multiniche has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fenix Multiniche 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fenix Multiniche 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.
Opportunities Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business | 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fenix Multiniche is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Fenix Multiniche 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fenix Multiniche 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fenix Multiniche 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Fenix Multiniche to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fenix Multiniche 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, Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fenix Multiniche 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.
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. Fenix Multiniche 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. Fenix Multiniche 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fenix Multiniche has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fenix Multiniche to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business case study. Fenix Multiniche can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Fenix Multiniche 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.
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. Fenix Multiniche can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fenix Multiniche can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Fenix Multiniche can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business are -
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. Fenix Multiniche 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fenix Multiniche is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Fenix Multiniche business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fenix Multiniche 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fenix Multiniche 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fenix Multiniche 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.
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 Fenix Multiniche in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Fenix Multiniche
– 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 Fenix Multiniche.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fenix Multiniche with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Fenix Multiniche needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Fenix Multiniche.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix: Diversified Niche Marketing in the Lifestyle Business 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 Fenix Multiniche needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.