Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
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.
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, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
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 -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– Toothpaste Involvement is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
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.
Learning organization
- Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
High brand equity
– Toothpaste Involvement has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Toothpaste Involvement to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Toothpaste Involvement has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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 -
Need for greater diversity
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Toothpaste Involvement 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 - Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market, it seems that the employees of Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market HBR case study mentions - Toothpaste Involvement 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 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 -
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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Toothpaste Involvement in the consumer business. Now Toothpaste Involvement can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
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. Toothpaste Involvement can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Toothpaste Involvement 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 Toothpaste Involvement to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Toothpaste Involvement can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Toothpaste Involvement operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Toothpaste Involvement 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. Toothpaste Involvement can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Toothpaste Involvement 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 Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste: Category and Brand Involvement in an Emerging Market .
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Toothpaste Involvement 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.
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.
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.
