A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market
Faith-based marketing, or addressing consumers' religious sensibilities with faith-friendly offerings, represents a new wave of growth for companies. While kosher goods and Christian movies are well-known examples of this trend, companies continue to overlook opportunities for growing faith-based segments. Representing the fastest-growing faith-based consumer group in the world, Muslims, in particular, are a largely untapped segment. Forward-looking companies such as NestlA?, Walmart, and McDonald's consider this segment as the next 'one-billion' market, after China and India, and are developing strategies to appeal to the Muslim consumer. We focus on the key to tapping into the sizable Muslim spending power: halal marketing. Contrary to common belief, halal marketing is not confined to dietary goods. Rather, it pertains to a diverse range of offerings from cosmetics to tourism that represents a global market worth $2.1 trillion annually. Modern interpretations of halal echo the claims of organic and fair-trade industries, broadening the appeal of halal to mainstream consumers. Despite the vast opportunities in halal marketing, winning the pocketbooks of Muslim consumers involves cultural, operational, and geopolitical challenges. We provide an overview of this emerging market and offer five lessons for successful halal marketing.
Swot Analysis of "A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market" written by Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Cheryl Nakata includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Halal Faith facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational culture and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Halal Faith, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Halal Faith
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 Halal Faith
Strengths A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Halal Faith in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Halal Faith digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Halal Faith 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Halal Faith is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Halal Faith 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 Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Cheryl Nakata 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Halal Faith to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Halal Faith to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Halal Faith has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Halal Faith to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Halal Faith
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Halal Faith does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Halal Faith has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Halal Faith 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Halal Faith is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Halal Faith 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Halal Faith 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, Halal Faith 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, is just above the industry average. Halal Faith 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Halal Faith is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Halal Faith 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, it seems that the employees of Halal Faith 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.
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 Halal Faith supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Halal Faith vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 Halal Faith has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, in the dynamic environment Halal Faith has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Halal Faith has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market | 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
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. Halal Faith 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. Halal Faith 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Halal Faith 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.
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. Halal Faith can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Halal Faith is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Halal Faith 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Halal Faith 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.
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 Halal Faith 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Halal Faith has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Halal Faith to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market case study. Halal Faith can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Halal Faith 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Halal Faith 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, Halal Faith can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Halal Faith operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Halal Faith 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 Halal Faith to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Halal Faith can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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.
Threats A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Halal Faith 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.
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. Halal Faith can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Halal Faith needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Halal Faith 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Halal Faith 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Halal Faith 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market, Halal Faith 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Halal Faith
– 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 Halal Faith.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Halal Faith 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Halal Faith has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Halal Faith 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.
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 Halal Faith.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Halal Faith is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 A New Look at Faith-Based Marketing: The Global Halal Market 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 Halal Faith needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
