Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering
Housing.com was a Mumbai-based online real estate listing company that verified the authenticity of every property listing on its website. Despite proving itself as a threat to big players in India's online property portal space, it was struggling in late 2014 to establish itself as a preferred option among brokers. Conflicts of interest between sellers (i.e., brokers, builders, developers, and landowners who listed property online) and buyers (i.e., end-users who searched the website for property) were a matter of concern, with the industry characterized by information asymmetry and a lack of transparency. With the verification of listings, Housing.com was adding value for buyers but also compromising on time and the number of listings on the portal. Property dealers were complaining that the procedure for getting properties listed on the site was long and tedious compared to competitors' sites. How should Housing.com manage traffic and encourage more visitors? What should it do to win over both buyers and sellers? Value-added services - such as verifying property listings - needed to be backed up with an emphasis on listings and an increase in traffic. The biggest dilemma for the chief marketing officer and his team was which customer segment to concentrate on. How could they fill the current gaps in services?
Swot Analysis of "Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering" written by Astha S. Gupta, Kirti Sharma includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Housing.com Listings facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Housing.com Listings, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Housing.com Listings
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 Housing.com Listings
Strengths Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Housing.com Listings in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Housing.com Listings is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Housing.com Listings has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Housing.com Listings 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com Listings in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com Listings is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Housing.com Listings in the sector have low bargaining power. Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Housing.com Listings to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Housing.com Listings is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Housing.com Listings 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.
Analytics focus
– Housing.com Listings 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 Astha S. Gupta, Kirti Sharma 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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.
High brand equity
– Housing.com Listings has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Housing.com Listings to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Housing.com Listings 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Housing.com Listings, firm in the HBR case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Housing.com Listings 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Housing.com Listings is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering HBR case study mentions - Housing.com Listings 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering, is just above the industry average. Housing.com Listings 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Housing.com Listings is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Housing.com Listings needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Housing.com Listings to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Housing.com Listings 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Housing.com Listings products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Housing.com Listings needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Astha S. Gupta, Kirti Sharma suggests that, Housing.com Listings 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering, in the dynamic environment Housing.com Listings has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Housing.com Listings has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering | 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Housing.com Listings is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Housing.com Listings 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, Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Housing.com Listings can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Housing.com Listings operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Housing.com Listings 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Housing.com Listings 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.
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. Housing.com Listings 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. Housing.com Listings 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Housing.com Listings can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com Listings to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Housing.com Listings 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Housing.com Listings has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Housing.com Listings to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering case study. Housing.com Listings can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Housing.com Listings can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com Listings to increase its market reach. Housing.com Listings 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.
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 Housing.com Listings in the consumer business. Now Housing.com Listings can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering are -
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 Housing.com Listings is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Housing.com Listings 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. Housing.com Listings can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Housing.com Listings 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering, Housing.com Listings 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Housing.com Listings 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.
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. Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com Listings 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
– Housing.com Listings 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 Housing.com Listings in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Housing.com Listings with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Housing.com Listings.
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. Housing.com Listings 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering 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 Housing.com Listings needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
