Case Study Description of Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy
The assistant brand manager for Procter & Gamble's Scope brand in Canada has been working since May with the brand manager to refine the brand's market position. They are concerned about whether they have chosen the correct target for the brand, and what their fall advertising for Scope should communicate. A focus group session has been planned for the next two weeks. They are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to uncover key consumer insights but want to ensure that they are asking the right questions. They have to make specific decisions regarding the fall advertising campaign no later than the beginning of August and want to ensure that the new advertisements are as successful as possible. This case can be used in a second-year advertising or research methods elective, or as part of the advertising module in a first-year course.
Swot Analysis of "Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy" written by John S. Hulland, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Advertising Scope facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Advertising Scope, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Advertising Scope 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Advertising Scope
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 Advertising Scope
Strengths Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Advertising Scope in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Advertising Scope digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Advertising Scope 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Advertising Scope 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Advertising Scope is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Advertising Scope 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
– Advertising Scope is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Advertising Scope is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Advertising Scope 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 Advertising Scope in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Advertising Scope in the sector have low bargaining power. Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Advertising Scope to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Advertising Scope 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 Advertising Scope is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Advertising Scope has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Advertising Scope 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Advertising Scope is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Advertising Scope 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 S. Hulland, Ken Mark 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.
Weaknesses Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Advertising Scope has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Advertising Scope 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Advertising Scope is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Advertising Scope needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Advertising Scope to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Advertising Scope 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Advertising Scope 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Advertising Scope 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. Advertising Scope 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Advertising Scope is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Advertising Scope products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Advertising Scope needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy, it seems that the employees of Advertising Scope 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy, in the dynamic environment Advertising Scope has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Advertising Scope has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy, 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.
Opportunities Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy | 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Advertising Scope 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Advertising Scope can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Advertising Scope operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Advertising Scope 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Advertising Scope 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 Advertising Scope in the consumer business. Now Advertising Scope can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Advertising Scope 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Advertising Scope to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Advertising Scope 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Advertising Scope is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Advertising Scope 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Advertising Scope to increase its market reach. Advertising Scope 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Advertising Scope 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.
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. Advertising Scope can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Advertising Scope 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, Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Advertising Scope has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Advertising Scope 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 Advertising Scope business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Advertising Scope 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy .
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.
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 Advertising Scope.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Advertising Scope with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Advertising Scope
– 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 Advertising Scope.
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. Advertising Scope can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Advertising Scope 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Advertising Scope 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.
Environmental challenges
– Advertising Scope 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. Advertising Scope can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Advertising Scope 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Procter & Gamble Canada: Developing Scope Advertising Copy 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 Advertising Scope needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
