Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter
Although most people are consumers of social media, few understand how to leverage it to build a brand-whether it is their own brand or a firm's brand. Just as Wal-Mart customers are not experts at marketing the retailer, consumers of social media are not yet skilled at utilizing it from a business-building perspective. This note is designed to help you think about social media from a brand manager's perspective; specifically, you will: (1) learn how to begin building your own social and professional brand; (2) understand the critical link between insight, strategy, and implementation; and (3) gain an appreciation for the difficulty associated with consistently behaving in concert with your desired brand.
Swot Analysis of "Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter" written by Kimberly A Whitler includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Brand Social facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brand Social, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brand Social 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brand Social
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 Brand Social
Strengths Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brand Social in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Brand Social 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 Kimberly A Whitler 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Brand Social digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Brand Social 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 Brand Social 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Brand Social 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Brand Social 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Brand Social 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 Brand Social in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
High brand equity
– Brand Social has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brand Social to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Brand Social is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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
– Brand Social is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Brand Social has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Brand Social 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.
Learning organization
- Brand Social 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 Brand Social is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Brand Social has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kimberly A Whitler suggests that, Brand Social 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter, it seems that the employees of Brand Social 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter, is just above the industry average. Brand Social 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Brand Social products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Brand Social needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Brand Social 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Brand Social 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter HBR case study mentions - Brand Social 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 Brand Social supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Brand Social vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Brand Social 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Brand Social 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. Brand Social 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.
Opportunities Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter | 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Brand Social 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Brand Social can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Brand Social 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Brand Social can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Brand Social 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. Brand Social 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 Brand Social 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 Brand Social to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Brand Social is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Brand Social has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Brand Social to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter case study. Brand Social can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Brand Social 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Brand Social to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Brand Social 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brand Social 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.
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 Brand Social in the consumer business. Now Brand Social can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Brand Social 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter are -
Increasing wage structure of Brand Social
– 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 Brand Social.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Brand Social has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Brand Social 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 Brand Social 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. Brand Social can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Brand Social 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter .
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. Brand Social 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Brand Social 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Brand Social high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Brand Social 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.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Brand Social 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. Brand Social can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 Brand Social in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter 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 Brand Social needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.