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Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version


This case is accompanied by a Video Short that can be shown in class or included in a digital coursepack. Instructors should consider the timing of making the video available to students, as it may reveal key case details.The president and the marketing vice president are reviewing past Hartmann price promotions in order to decide whether to run one or more promotions in 1981-82.

Authors :: John A. Quelch, Penny Pittman Merliss

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Pricing, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version" written by John A. Quelch, Penny Pittman Merliss includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hartmann Promotions facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hartmann Promotions, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hartmann Promotions 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hartmann Promotions
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 Hartmann Promotions




Strengths Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Hartmann Promotions in Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Hartmann Promotions is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Analytics focus

– Hartmann Promotions 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 John A. Quelch, Penny Pittman Merliss 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

– Hartmann Promotions is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Organizational Resilience of Hartmann Promotions

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hartmann Promotions does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Hartmann Promotions in the sector have low bargaining power. Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hartmann Promotions to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Hartmann Promotions 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry

– Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hartmann Promotions to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hartmann Promotions to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Hartmann Promotions has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hartmann Promotions 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Hartmann Promotions 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Hartmann Promotions 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Hartmann Promotions is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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.



02468Ito Yokado, Spanish Version Note on the Microwave Oven Industry Marks and Spencer Enters China Strategic Planning at Apple Inc. Eastman Kodak Co.: Funtime Film Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version
Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version are -

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Promotions 's lucrative customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Hartmann Promotions products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hartmann Promotions needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version, 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, John A. Quelch, Penny Pittman Merliss suggests that, Hartmann Promotions 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Hartmann Promotions, firm in the HBR case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hartmann Promotions is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Promotions has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hartmann Promotions 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Hartmann Promotions 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version HBR case study mentions - Hartmann Promotions 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Hartmann Promotions 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.




Opportunities Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version | 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hartmann Promotions 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hartmann Promotions 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 Hartmann Promotions to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hartmann Promotions 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, Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version, 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 Hartmann Promotions to increase its market reach. Hartmann Promotions 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Hartmann Promotions can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hartmann Promotions can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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. Hartmann Promotions 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. Hartmann Promotions 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Hartmann Promotions 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, Hartmann Promotions can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Hartmann Promotions can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hartmann Promotions is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Hartmann Promotions 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Hartmann Promotions 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hartmann Promotions to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.




Threats Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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.

Environmental challenges

– Hartmann Promotions 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. Hartmann Promotions can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Hartmann Promotions 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Hartmann Promotions is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Hartmann Promotions 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.

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 Hartmann Promotions business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Hartmann Promotions can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing wage structure of Hartmann Promotions

– 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 Hartmann Promotions.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Hartmann Promotions has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hartmann Promotions 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.

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 Hartmann Promotions.

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. Hartmann Promotions 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.

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 Hartmann Promotions in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version, Hartmann Promotions 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 .




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Luggage Co.: Price Promotion Policy, Spanish Version 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 Hartmann Promotions needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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