CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash
The co-founder of CardSwap.ca sat at his desk in the Toronto office from which he managed the company. CardSwap was an online service that provided consumers with the opportunity to convert unwanted gift cards into hard cash. The co-founder felt convinced that his small Canadian company created great value for its customers. After all there were around a billion dollars of unwanted gift cards entering circulation every year. People who owned these unwanted gift cards would surely want to use the CardSwap service. CardSwap could offer a strong value proposition to consumers while ensuring a healthy return through commissions on every transaction. Problems remained however CardSwap was a relatively small company and had no access to the multi-million dollar advertising budgets that might be needed to get a message out to consumers through an extensive multi-media strategy. How much should the company be willing to spend to acquire a customer? How best could this new company use its limited resources to communicate to customers the benefits that CardSwap had to offer?
Swot Analysis of "CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash" written by Neil Bendle, Michael Taylor includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cardswap Unwanted facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cardswap Unwanted, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cardswap Unwanted 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cardswap Unwanted
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 Cardswap Unwanted
Strengths CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cardswap Unwanted in CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Cardswap Unwanted 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 Neil Bendle, Michael Taylor 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.
Organizational Resilience of Cardswap Unwanted
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cardswap Unwanted does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cardswap Unwanted in the sector have low bargaining power. CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cardswap Unwanted to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Cardswap Unwanted 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 Cardswap Unwanted in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Cardswap Unwanted is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cardswap Unwanted has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cardswap Unwanted 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash - 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
– Cardswap Unwanted has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cardswap Unwanted to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cardswap Unwanted 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cardswap Unwanted digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cardswap Unwanted 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
– Cardswap Unwanted is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Cardswap Unwanted products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cardswap Unwanted needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 Cardswap Unwanted has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cardswap Unwanted, firm in the HBR case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash, it seems that the employees of Cardswap Unwanted 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cardswap Unwanted is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash HBR case study mentions - Cardswap Unwanted 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Neil Bendle, Michael Taylor suggests that, Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash, in the dynamic environment Cardswap Unwanted has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cardswap Unwanted has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash | 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash are -
Buying journey improvements
– Cardswap Unwanted can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cardswap Unwanted to increase its market reach. Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cardswap Unwanted can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cardswap Unwanted 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 Cardswap Unwanted to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cardswap Unwanted has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cardswap Unwanted to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash case study. Cardswap Unwanted can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cardswap Unwanted 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.
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. Cardswap Unwanted can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cardswap Unwanted is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cardswap Unwanted can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cardswap Unwanted operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cardswap Unwanted 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.
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. Cardswap Unwanted 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. Cardswap Unwanted 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash, Cardswap Unwanted 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cardswap Unwanted is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Cardswap Unwanted
– 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 Cardswap Unwanted.
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 Cardswap Unwanted.
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. Cardswap Unwanted needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Cardswap Unwanted 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cardswap Unwanted with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Cardswap Unwanted can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cardswap Unwanted 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash .
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 Cardswap Unwanted in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 CardSwap: Converting Unwanted Gift Cards into Cash 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 Cardswap Unwanted needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.