Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.In January of 2005, Manchester Products Inc., a longtime leader in office furniture that only recently entered into the home furniture market, acquired Paul Logan's Furniture Division (PLFD). The acquisition of PLFD made Manchester an instant market leader in household furniture. A key factor in the value of PLFD has been the name of the company founder -- arguably the premiere name in high-end fashion and accessories, and a true lifestyle brand. However, Manchester has acquired rights to use the Paul Logan brand name for only three years. Jason Adams, VP of Marketing for Manchester, is responsible for designing a plan to transition the brand from the Paul Logan name to Manchester. He must develop the optimal timing and sequencing of the brand transition, assess the implications, and establish the appropriate mix of advertising and promotion programs to support the transition.
Swot Analysis of "Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge" written by John A. Quelch, Heather Beckham includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Manchester Plfd facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Manchester Plfd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Manchester Plfd 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Manchester Plfd
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 Manchester Plfd
Strengths Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Manchester Plfd in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Manchester Plfd in the sector have low bargaining power. Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Manchester Plfd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Manchester Plfd 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 Manchester Plfd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Manchester Plfd in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Manchester Plfd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Manchester Plfd 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
– Manchester Plfd is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Manchester Plfd 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Manchester Plfd is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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.
Organizational Resilience of Manchester Plfd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Manchester Plfd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Manchester Plfd is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Manchester Plfd 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Manchester Plfd 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge, in the dynamic environment Manchester Plfd has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Manchester Plfd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Manchester Plfd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Manchester Plfd 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. Manchester Plfd 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Manchester Plfd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Manchester Plfd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Manchester Plfd to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge, is just above the industry average. Manchester Plfd 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Manchester Plfd 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Manchester Plfd, firm in the HBR case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Manchester Plfd 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 - Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John A. Quelch, Heather Beckham suggests that, Manchester Plfd 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge, it seems that the employees of Manchester Plfd 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.
Opportunities Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge | 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Manchester Plfd 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, Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Manchester Plfd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Plfd 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Manchester Plfd 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Manchester Plfd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Manchester Plfd 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Manchester Plfd 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Manchester Plfd 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.
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. Manchester Plfd 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. Manchester Plfd 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Manchester Plfd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Manchester Plfd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Manchester Plfd 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.
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 Manchester Plfd 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Manchester Plfd can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge are -
Increasing wage structure of Manchester Plfd
– 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 Manchester Plfd.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Manchester Plfd 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.
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 Manchester Plfd.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Manchester Plfd 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Manchester Plfd is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Manchester Plfd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Manchester Plfd 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.
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 Manchester Plfd in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Manchester Plfd 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.
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.
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. Manchester Plfd 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.
Environmental challenges
– Manchester Plfd 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. Manchester Plfd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge 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 Manchester Plfd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.