A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market
Faith-based marketing, or addressing consumers' religious sensibilities with faith-friendly offerings, represents a new wave of growth for companies. While kosher goods and Christian movies are well-known examples of this trend, companies continue to overlook opportunities for growing faith-based segments. Representing the fastest-growing faith-based consumer group in the world, Muslims, in particular, are a largely untapped segment. Forward-looking companies such as NestlA?, Walmart, and McDonald's consider this segment as the next 'one-billion' market, after China and India, and are developing strategies to appeal to the Muslim consumer. We focus on the key to tapping into the sizable Muslim spending power: halal marketing. Contrary to common belief, halal marketing is not confined to dietary goods. Rather, it pertains to a diverse range of offerings from cosmetics to tourism that represents a global market worth $2.1 trillion annually. Modern interpretations of halal echo the claims of organic and fair-trade industries, broadening the appeal of halal to mainstream consumers. Despite the vast opportunities in halal marketing, winning the pocketbooks of Muslim consumers involves cultural, operational, and geopolitical challenges. We provide an overview of this emerging market and offer five lessons for successful halal marketing.
Swot Analysis of "A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market" written by Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Cheryl Nakata includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Halal Faith facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational culture and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Halal Faith, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Halal Faith
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 Halal Faith
Strengths A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Halal Faith in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Halal Faith
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Halal Faith does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Halal Faith 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 Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Cheryl Nakata 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Halal Faith 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
– Halal Faith is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Learning organization
- Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Halal Faith is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Halal Faith has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Halal Faith is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Halal Faith 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Halal Faith digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Halal Faith 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Halal Faith to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Halal Faith to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
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 Halal Faith supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Halal Faith vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Halal Faith has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Halal Faith even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Halal Faith is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Halal Faith 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, Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Cheryl Nakata suggests that, Halal Faith 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Halal Faith 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 - A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, it seems that the employees of Halal Faith 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, Halal Faith is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Halal Faith 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Halal Faith has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, is just above the industry average. Halal Faith needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Halal Faith 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Halal Faith has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Halal Faith to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study. Halal Faith can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Halal Faith 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Halal Faith is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
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. Halal Faith can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Halal Faith 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Halal Faith 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, A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Halal Faith to increase its market reach. Halal Faith 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Halal Faith 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.
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 Halal Faith in the consumer business. Now Halal Faith can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Halal Faith can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
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 Halal Faith business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Halal Faith 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.
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 Halal Faith in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Halal Faith can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Halal Faith.
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. Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Halal Faith is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Halal Faith 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. Halal Faith 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Halal Faith 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.
Increasing wage structure of Halal Faith
– 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 Halal Faith.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 Halal Faith needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
