On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe

European municipalities, eager to increase the use of environmentally friendly forms of public transportation, offered bicycle sharing programs as adjuncts to their public transportation systems. This case focuses on the bicycle sharing systems in three mid-sized European cities: Mainz, Germany, Lille, France and Antwerp, Belgium. The case describes the market segments within each city and lays out the marketing mix variables-the 4Ps (product, price, place and promotion)-to allow students to compare and contrast the cities' opportunities and challenges. The protagonist in each city is charged with using the marketing mix to help his or her city reach its goals: in Mainz, to reach breakeven; in Lille, to increase bicycle usage from 2% to 10% and in Antwerp, to persuade drivers to commute by bicycle instead of by car. Case number 2030

Authors :: Nathalie Laidler-Kylander, Steven Strauss, Laura Winig

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Policy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe" written by Nathalie Laidler-Kylander, Steven Strauss, Laura Winig includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bicycle Antwerp facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Policy and Sales & Marketing.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bicycle Antwerp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bicycle Antwerp 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bicycle Antwerp
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 Bicycle Antwerp

---

Strengths On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Bicycle Antwerp in On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe Harvard Business Review case study are -

High brand equity

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Bicycle Antwerp in the sector have low bargaining power. On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bicycle Antwerp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Bicycle Antwerp 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Training and development

– Bicycle Antwerp has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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.

Organizational Resilience of Bicycle Antwerp

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bicycle Antwerp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Bicycle Antwerp 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

– On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bicycle Antwerp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bicycle Antwerp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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.

Analytics focus

– Bicycle Antwerp 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 Nathalie Laidler-Kylander, Steven Strauss, Laura Winig 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

– Bicycle Antwerp 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Bicycle Antwerp 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.

---

---

Weaknesses On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bicycle Antwerp is planning to shift buying processes online.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe, 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 Bicycle Antwerp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Bicycle Antwerp 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 harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bicycle Antwerp is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe, is just above the industry average. Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe, it seems that the employees of Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe HBR case study mentions - Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Bicycle Antwerp 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 - On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Bicycle Antwerp 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.

---

Opportunities On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe | 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe are -

Loyalty marketing

– Bicycle Antwerp 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.

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 Bicycle Antwerp 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.

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 Bicycle Antwerp in the consumer business. Now Bicycle Antwerp can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Developing new processes and practices

– Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bicycle Antwerp 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 Bicycle Antwerp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bicycle Antwerp can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Bicycle Antwerp 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bicycle Antwerp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

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. Bicycle Antwerp can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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. Bicycle Antwerp can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bicycle Antwerp 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.

---

Threats On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe are -

Environmental challenges

– Bicycle Antwerp 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. Bicycle Antwerp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Bicycle Antwerp 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 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. Bicycle Antwerp 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

– Bicycle Antwerp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bicycle Antwerp 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.

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. Bicycle Antwerp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Bicycle Antwerp in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Regulatory challenges

– Bicycle Antwerp 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.

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. Bicycle Antwerp 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

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 Bicycle Antwerp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Bicycle Antwerp 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.

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.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 On Your Bike! Using Marketing Mix to Drive Successful Bicycle Sharing Programs in Europe 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 Bicycle Antwerp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---