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David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age


This case replaces UVA-M-0837. It can be used in a variety of marketing and strategy classes to understand how (1) at a macro level, a shift in consumer and environmental factors can impact firm strategy and (2) at a micro level, an e-mail-based marketing campaign designed to address these changes can impact firm-level performance. The case puts the students in the position of CEO Robert Huth as he is preparing for a board meeting. He had taken David's Bridal from a loss in 1996 to sales of over $1 billion by 2011, but he was concerned about future growth. People were waiting longer and longer to get married and, once they decided to, were spending much less than in the past, so the industry had seen year-over-year declines since 2007. How would David's Bridal establish its brand in the minds of a new generation of brides who shopped, purchased, and decided differently than had brides in past generations?

Authors :: Kimberly A Whitler, Paul W. Farris, Sylvie Thompson

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Social platforms, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age" written by Kimberly A Whitler, Paul W. Farris, Sylvie Thompson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that David's Bridal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the David's Bridal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of David's Bridal
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 David's Bridal




Strengths David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of David's Bridal in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age Harvard Business Review case study are -

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High brand equity

– David's Bridal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled David's Bridal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Diverse revenue streams

– David's Bridal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Learning organization

- David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– David's Bridal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. David's Bridal 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of David's Bridal in the sector have low bargaining power. David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps David's Bridal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of David's Bridal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the David's Bridal are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– David's Bridal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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.






Weaknesses David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age are -

Need for greater diversity

– David's Bridal 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age, in the dynamic environment David's Bridal has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. David's Bridal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, David's Bridal 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age HBR case study mentions - David's Bridal 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, David's Bridal 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. David's Bridal 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of David's Bridal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. David's Bridal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help David's Bridal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of David's Bridal, firm in the HBR case study David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as David's Bridal is planning to shift buying processes online.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age, 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, David's Bridal 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kimberly A Whitler, Paul W. Farris, Sylvie Thompson suggests that, David's Bridal 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.




Opportunities David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age | 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age are -

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, David's Bridal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that David's Bridal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

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. David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help David's Bridal to increase its market reach. David's Bridal 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.

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 David's Bridal in the consumer business. Now David's Bridal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

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 David's Bridal 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, David's Bridal 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– David's Bridal 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.

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. David's Bridal 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. David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Loyalty marketing

– David's Bridal 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

– David's Bridal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of David's Bridal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help David's Bridal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age case study. David's Bridal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.




Threats David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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. David's Bridal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents David's Bridal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing wage structure of David's Bridal

– 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 David's Bridal.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– David's Bridal 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.

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. David's Bridal 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 dependence on third party suppliers

– David's Bridal 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 David's Bridal demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Environmental challenges

– David's Bridal 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. David's Bridal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

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 David's Bridal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that David's Bridal is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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. David's Bridal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Regulatory challenges

– David's Bridal 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– David's Bridal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, David's Bridal 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age 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 David's Bridal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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