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Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market


Kumar was curious to find out whether consumers were really loyal to the brands in the toothpaste category. He was interested in the toothpaste category, and Himalaya had herbal offerings in the retail and prescriptive segments. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in the ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching, due to inertia? Were consumers interested in herbal offerings? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This medley of issues presented yet another opportunity to an academic to conceptualize consumer behaviour, one that was perhaps unique to the Indian context.The concept of product involvement differentiated consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to specific products and services. High-involvement categories required consumers to be involved in extensive buying behavior that led to one or more of the following aspects: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and a greater degree of gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the various alternatives in the category. Low-involvement categories were those that were bought in a routine manner by the consumer, with a degree of personal interest that was lower than that associated with the high-involvement categories. Marketers always had to face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives. The toothpaste category was one such category in the Indian context.

Authors :: S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Emerging markets, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market" written by S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toothpaste Involvement facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toothpaste Involvement, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toothpaste Involvement
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 Toothpaste Involvement




Strengths Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Toothpaste Involvement in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market Harvard Business Review case study are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Toothpaste Involvement in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Toothpaste Involvement is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Toothpaste Involvement digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Training and development

– Toothpaste Involvement has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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.

Analytics focus

– Toothpaste Involvement 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 S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry

– Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Toothpaste Involvement to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Toothpaste Involvement to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Toothpaste Involvement in the sector have low bargaining power. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Toothpaste Involvement to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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.

Organizational Resilience of Toothpaste Involvement

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toothpaste Involvement does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Toothpaste Involvement is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Toothpaste Involvement needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Toothpaste Involvement to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Lack of clear differentiation of Toothpaste Involvement products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Toothpaste Involvement needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Toothpaste Involvement is planning to shift buying processes online.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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 Toothpaste Involvement 's lucrative customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, is just above the industry average. Toothpaste Involvement 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

Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Toothpaste Involvement 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 decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement 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 bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, S. Ramesh Kumar, Nitya Guruvayurappan suggests that, Toothpaste Involvement 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.

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 Toothpaste Involvement supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Toothpaste Involvement vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.




Opportunities Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Toothpaste Involvement is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Toothpaste Involvement has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toothpaste Involvement to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market case study. Toothpaste Involvement can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Buying journey improvements

– Toothpaste Involvement can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Toothpaste Involvement to increase its market reach. Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Toothpaste Involvement 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, Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Toothpaste Involvement to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Toothpaste Involvement 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.

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. Toothpaste Involvement can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Toothpaste Involvement can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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. Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.




Threats Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market are -

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 Toothpaste Involvement in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, Toothpaste Involvement 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Toothpaste Involvement has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toothpaste Involvement 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.

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 Toothpaste Involvement business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Toothpaste Involvement can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing wage structure of Toothpaste Involvement

– 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 Toothpaste Involvement.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Toothpaste Involvement 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.

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 Toothpaste Involvement.

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. Toothpaste Involvement needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Toothpaste Involvement 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Toothpaste Involvement 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging 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 Toothpaste Involvement needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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