Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris
The case focuses on an innovative social media strategy by L'OrA?al Paris to "listen" to consumers, then develop a product to meet consumer needs and market it. First, the company partnered with Google to track emerging styles and determine which (if any) would endure. Then it leveraged social media when deciding how to position, name and launch the product.
Swot Analysis of "Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris" written by Katrina Bens, David Dubois includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that L'ora Paris facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, Market research, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the L'ora Paris, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which L'ora Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of L'ora Paris
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 L'ora Paris
Strengths Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of L'ora Paris in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- L'ora Paris 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 L'ora Paris is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of L'ora Paris in the sector have low bargaining power. Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps L'ora Paris to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the L'ora Paris 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.
Training and development
– L'ora Paris has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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.
Strong track record of project management
– L'ora Paris is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– L'ora Paris has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. L'ora Paris 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.
Analytics focus
– L'ora Paris 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 Katrina Bens, David Dubois 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of L'ora Paris in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– L'ora Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– L'ora Paris is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of L'ora Paris
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that L'ora Paris does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of L'ora Paris, firm in the HBR case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– L'ora Paris has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, is just above the industry average. L'ora Paris 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of L'ora Paris supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left L'ora Paris vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, L'ora Paris has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at L'ora Paris 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris HBR case study mentions - L'ora Paris 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of L'ora Paris products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, L'ora Paris needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, L'ora Paris needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Katrina Bens, David Dubois suggests that, L'ora Paris is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Products dominated business model
– Even though L'ora Paris 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 - Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris | 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris are -
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 L'ora Paris in the consumer business. Now L'ora Paris can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– L'ora Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help L'ora Paris to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help L'ora Paris to increase its market reach. L'ora Paris 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, L'ora Paris 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for L'ora Paris 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.
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. L'ora Paris can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for L'ora Paris 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, L'ora Paris can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that L'ora Paris operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. L'ora Paris 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. L'ora Paris 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for L'ora Paris 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 L'ora Paris to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 L'ora Paris 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
– L'ora Paris 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.
Loyalty marketing
– L'ora Paris 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.
Threats Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris are -
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. L'ora Paris can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– L'ora Paris 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. L'ora Paris can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for L'ora Paris 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– L'ora Paris has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, L'ora Paris 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, L'ora Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris .
Increasing wage structure of L'ora Paris
– 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 L'ora Paris.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that L'ora Paris is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents L'ora Paris with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– L'ora Paris 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.
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. L'ora Paris needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, L'ora Paris 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 .
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 L'ora Paris.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 L'ora Paris needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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