Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A)
As part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, a team of Darden students devises an AdWords campaign for Motorcowboy, an online source of custom footwear that caters to segments as varied as motorcycle police, cross dressers, movie buffs, equestrians, and plus-size individuals. When an initial keyword list yields low traffic, the team must adapt its approach. This three-part case illustrates the segmentation process and the relative merits of paid search over traditional mass media outlets. It also serves to underscore the importance of monitoring and adapting any advertising plan.
Authors :: Paul W. Farris, Robert Maddux, Timothy Harr, Martha Gray
Swot Analysis of "Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A)" written by Paul W. Farris, Robert Maddux, Timothy Harr, Martha Gray includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Motorcowboy Buffs facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, 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, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Motorcowboy Buffs, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Motorcowboy Buffs
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 Motorcowboy Buffs
Strengths Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Motorcowboy Buffs in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Motorcowboy Buffs in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Motorcowboy Buffs to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Motorcowboy Buffs to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy Buffs is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Motorcowboy Buffs in the sector have low bargaining power. Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Motorcowboy Buffs to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Motorcowboy Buffs is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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
– Motorcowboy Buffs has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Motorcowboy Buffs 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
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Paul W. Farris, Robert Maddux, Timothy Harr, Martha Gray 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Motorcowboy Buffs
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Motorcowboy Buffs does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Motorcowboy Buffs digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Motorcowboy Buffs is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A), is just above the industry average. Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Motorcowboy Buffs is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Motorcowboy Buffs needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Motorcowboy Buffs to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A), 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Motorcowboy Buffs 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Paul W. Farris, Robert Maddux, Timothy Harr, Martha Gray suggests that, Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Motorcowboy Buffs 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, Motorcowboy Buffs 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Motorcowboy Buffs 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. Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Motorcowboy Buffs is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) | 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Motorcowboy Buffs has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Motorcowboy Buffs to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) case study. Motorcowboy Buffs can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Motorcowboy Buffs to increase its market reach. Motorcowboy Buffs 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, Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Motorcowboy Buffs 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, Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Motorcowboy Buffs can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Motorcowboy Buffs is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy Buffs to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Motorcowboy Buffs can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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. Motorcowboy Buffs 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. Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Threats Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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 Motorcowboy Buffs.
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. Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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.
Environmental challenges
– Motorcowboy Buffs 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. Motorcowboy Buffs can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) .
Increasing wage structure of Motorcowboy Buffs
– 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 Motorcowboy Buffs.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Motorcowboy Buffs is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Motorcowboy Buffs can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Motorcowboy Buffs 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A), Motorcowboy Buffs may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy: Getting a Foot in the Door (A) 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 Motorcowboy Buffs needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
