Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers
Heather Day, a marketing director and brand manager, must evaluate her options for Progressive Insurance's next Snapshot product advertising campaign. Working on a limited budget, Day must select between employing television ads featuring the popular character known as Flo and continuing with the launch of advertising campaigns already in use, such as "Rate Sucker." The case places Progressive's proposed advertising campaign into a broader historical context and asks how the Snapshot product both fits into the company's current business model and affects its channel strategy. Students are presented with a myriad of exhibits that help make this authentic marketing scenario come to life.
Authors :: Paul W. Farris, Sylvie Thompson, Thomas Steenburgh
Swot Analysis of "Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers" written by Paul W. Farris, Sylvie Thompson, Thomas Steenburgh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Snapshot Progressive facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Snapshot Progressive, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Snapshot Progressive 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Snapshot Progressive
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 Snapshot Progressive
Strengths Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Snapshot Progressive in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Snapshot Progressive is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Snapshot Progressive has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Snapshot Progressive 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Snapshot Progressive is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Snapshot Progressive to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Snapshot Progressive to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Snapshot Progressive 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Snapshot Progressive 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 Snapshot Progressive in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Snapshot Progressive 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Snapshot Progressive is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Snapshot Progressive is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Snapshot Progressive has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Snapshot Progressive 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Snapshot Progressive is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Snapshot Progressive 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Snapshot Progressive 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 - Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Snapshot Progressive 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Snapshot Progressive, firm in the HBR case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, in the dynamic environment Snapshot Progressive has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Snapshot Progressive has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Snapshot Progressive 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, it seems that the employees of Snapshot Progressive 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers HBR case study mentions - Snapshot Progressive 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Snapshot Progressive supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Snapshot Progressive vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers | 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Snapshot Progressive 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Snapshot Progressive 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Snapshot Progressive 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Snapshot Progressive to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Snapshot Progressive has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Snapshot Progressive to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers case study. Snapshot Progressive can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Snapshot Progressive 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, Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Snapshot Progressive can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Snapshot Progressive operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Snapshot Progressive 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 Snapshot Progressive 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 Snapshot Progressive to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Snapshot Progressive can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Snapshot Progressive is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Snapshot Progressive 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. Snapshot Progressive can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Snapshot Progressive 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.
Threats Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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. Snapshot Progressive can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Snapshot Progressive 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.
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. Snapshot Progressive 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 Snapshot Progressive with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Snapshot Progressive 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers, Snapshot Progressive 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 .
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, Snapshot Progressive 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers .
Regulatory challenges
– Snapshot Progressive 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Snapshot Progressive 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.
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 Snapshot Progressive business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Snapshot Progressive.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Progressive Insurance: Making Pay As You Drive a Snap for Consumers 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 Snapshot Progressive needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.