Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version
Brinda Patel, director of oral care products for the India division of a consumer home-care product company, develops a data-driven marketing plan for toothbrushes. She believes her plan can support a 20% increase in unit sales based on rising demand for modern oral-care products in India. Her boss, the VP of Marketing, believes her forecast is too conservative and suggests spending more money on promotions to boost sales by 30%. Patel must develop a new plan to meet this higher growth rate by increasing the advertising budget and revising the distribution of the budget across three targeted advertising messages. She must also consider the regional challenges within India between rural and urban consumers and their willingness to adopt a modern approach to dental care. Students must build a projected income statement and consider the effects of increasing the advertising budget and changing the product mix in favor of higher margin toothbrushes.
Swot Analysis of "Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version" written by John A. Quelch, Alisa Zalosh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oral Toothbrushes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Emerging markets, Forecasting, Health, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oral Toothbrushes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oral Toothbrushes 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oral Toothbrushes
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 Oral Toothbrushes
Strengths Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oral Toothbrushes in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Oral Toothbrushes is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Oral Toothbrushes 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 John A. Quelch, Alisa Zalosh 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oral Toothbrushes to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oral Toothbrushes to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Oral Toothbrushes is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oral Toothbrushes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Training and development
– Oral Toothbrushes has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Oral Toothbrushes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Oral Toothbrushes in the sector have low bargaining power. Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oral Toothbrushes to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Oral Toothbrushes has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oral Toothbrushes to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Oral Toothbrushes 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 Oral Toothbrushes is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Oral Toothbrushes is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oral Toothbrushes 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. Oral Toothbrushes 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oral Toothbrushes products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oral Toothbrushes needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Oral Toothbrushes 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 - Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version, in the dynamic environment Oral Toothbrushes has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oral Toothbrushes 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, Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oral Toothbrushes, firm in the HBR case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version, 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.
Opportunities Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version | 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version are -
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 Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Oral Toothbrushes 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.
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. Oral Toothbrushes can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oral Toothbrushes 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, Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oral Toothbrushes to increase its market reach. Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Oral Toothbrushes is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Oral Toothbrushes can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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.
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. Oral Toothbrushes can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oral Toothbrushes 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. Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oral Toothbrushes 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oral Toothbrushes to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version are -
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 Oral Toothbrushes business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oral Toothbrushes with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oral Toothbrushes is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version, Oral Toothbrushes 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 .
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 Oral Toothbrushes.
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 Oral Toothbrushes in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Oral Toothbrushes 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. Oral Toothbrushes can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Increasing wage structure of Oral Toothbrushes
– 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 Oral Toothbrushes.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oral Toothbrushes in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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. Oral Toothbrushes 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India, Spanish Version 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 Oral Toothbrushes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.