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 - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
wage bills are increasing, 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 -
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.
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that L'ora Paris 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.
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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled L'ora Paris to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped L'ora Paris to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– L'ora Paris is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– L'ora Paris is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– L'ora Paris 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 L'ora Paris in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– L'ora Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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 -
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as L'ora Paris is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, L'ora Paris 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. L'ora Paris 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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 L'ora Paris has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, in the dynamic environment L'ora Paris has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. L'ora Paris has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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 -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, L'ora Paris 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, Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at L'ora Paris can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 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.
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.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of L'ora Paris has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help L'ora Paris to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris case study. L'ora Paris can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– L'ora Paris 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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– L'ora Paris can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, L'ora Paris is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ombre, Tie-Dye, Splat Hair: Trends or Fads? "Pull" and "Push" Social Media Strategies at L'OrA?al Paris 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects L'ora Paris can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– L'ora Paris 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 L'ora Paris in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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. L'ora Paris 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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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