The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling
After the successful release of the first Hunger Games film in 2012, the film's distributor, Lionsgate, was preparing to release the next movie in the series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Fan expectations had grown after the success of Hunger Games and Lionsgate faced the challenge of keeping moviegoers interested and engaged in another Hunger Games movie. In an era marked by the rising popularity of digital and social media, Lionsgate knew that attracting fans to a sequel meant pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing tactics. Digital brand storytelling is about using digital media in a holistic way to tell a brand story and build excitement for an audience. Brand storytelling seeks to make a connection with the audience by giving them an emotional experience that resonates with them. While Lionsgate was aware that traditional marketing would need to be blended with a digital campaign to bring in moviegoers, it also needed to strike a careful balance between the two and choose the appropriate platforms to tell a cohesive story. Should Lionsgate launch a brand storytelling campaign to appeal to fans? Lionsgate's comparatively small marketing team gathered to brainstorm about how to execute such a campaign and position the film for another big success.
Swot Analysis of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling" written by Mohanbir Sawhney, Pallavi Goodman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lionsgate Hunger facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lionsgate Hunger, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lionsgate Hunger 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lionsgate Hunger
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 Lionsgate Hunger
Strengths The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lionsgate Hunger in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Lionsgate Hunger has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lionsgate Hunger to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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.
Analytics focus
– Lionsgate Hunger 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 Mohanbir Sawhney, Pallavi Goodman 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lionsgate Hunger is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lionsgate Hunger 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lionsgate Hunger in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Lionsgate Hunger
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lionsgate Hunger does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lionsgate Hunger 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Lionsgate Hunger 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 Lionsgate Hunger in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lionsgate Hunger to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lionsgate Hunger to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Lionsgate Hunger has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Weaknesses The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling HBR case study mentions - Lionsgate Hunger 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling, 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lionsgate Hunger is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Lionsgate Hunger products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lionsgate Hunger needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Lionsgate Hunger 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mohanbir Sawhney, Pallavi Goodman suggests that, Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling, in the dynamic environment Lionsgate Hunger has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lionsgate Hunger has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Lionsgate Hunger 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 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 Lionsgate Hunger has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lionsgate Hunger is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling | 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling are -
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. Lionsgate Hunger can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lionsgate Hunger has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lionsgate Hunger to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling case study. Lionsgate Hunger can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lionsgate Hunger can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lionsgate Hunger operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Lionsgate Hunger 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lionsgate Hunger to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Lionsgate Hunger can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lionsgate Hunger to increase its market reach. Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lionsgate Hunger 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 Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lionsgate Hunger 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.
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. Lionsgate Hunger can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Threats The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling are -
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. Lionsgate Hunger needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lionsgate Hunger 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling, Lionsgate Hunger may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lionsgate Hunger with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lionsgate Hunger has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lionsgate Hunger needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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 Lionsgate Hunger 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. Lionsgate Hunger 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.
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. Lionsgate Hunger can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Lionsgate Hunger 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Lionsgate Hunger 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.
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 Lionsgate Hunger.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling 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 Lionsgate Hunger needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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