Public Relations Comes of Age SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Public Relations Comes of Age
Public relations (PR) is an important component of a firm's integrated marketing communications strategy. Once populated by such passive acts as issuing press releases and responding to press inquiries, the field has "come of age" and developed into an active part of the firm's promotional activities. Today's PR employs such techniques as event sponsorship, stunt marketing, charitable activities, and placement (the paid appearance of a firm's products within entertainment content). This paper defines contemporary PR practices and develops rules for successful implementation of these modern approaches to promotion.
Swot Analysis of "Public Relations Comes of Age" written by David Robinson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pr Firm's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Public Relations Comes of Age case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Public Relations Comes of Age casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Public Relations Comes of Age
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Public Relations Comes of Age case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pr Firm's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pr Firm's 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 Public Relations Comes of Age can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Public Relations Comes of Age case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pr Firm's
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 Pr Firm's
Strengths Public Relations Comes of Age | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pr Firm's in Public Relations Comes of Age Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Pr Firm's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Public Relations Comes of Age firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pr Firm's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pr Firm's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Pr Firm's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pr Firm's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Pr Firm's 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 Pr Firm's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pr Firm's 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 Public Relations Comes of Age HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Pr Firm's 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 David Robinson 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pr Firm's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pr Firm's 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pr Firm's 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.
Learning organization
- Pr Firm's 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 Pr Firm's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Public Relations Comes of Age Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Pr Firm's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Public Relations Comes of Age 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Public Relations Comes of Age 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pr Firm's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Public Relations Comes of Age are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Public Relations Comes of Age | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Public Relations Comes of Age are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pr Firm's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Pr Firm's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pr Firm's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pr Firm's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Public Relations Comes of Age, it seems that the employees of Pr Firm's 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David Robinson suggests that, Pr Firm's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pr Firm's, firm in the HBR case study Public Relations Comes of Age needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Public Relations Comes of Age, in the dynamic environment Pr Firm's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pr Firm's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Pr Firm's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Public Relations Comes of Age, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pr Firm's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pr Firm's 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. Pr Firm's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Public Relations Comes of Age, is just above the industry average. Pr Firm's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Pr Firm's 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pr Firm's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Public Relations Comes of Age can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Public Relations Comes of Age | 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 Public Relations Comes of Age are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pr Firm's 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 Pr Firm's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pr Firm's 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 Public Relations Comes of Age - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pr Firm's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pr Firm's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Pr Firm's in the consumer business. Now Pr Firm's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pr Firm's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pr Firm's 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pr Firm's 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
– Pr Firm's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pr Firm's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pr Firm's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Public Relations Comes of Age case study. Pr Firm's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Pr Firm's 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, Pr Firm's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Public Relations Comes of Age 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pr Firm's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Public Relations Comes of Age 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Pr Firm's 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.
Threats Public Relations Comes of Age External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Public Relations Comes of Age are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pr Firm's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Pr Firm's 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 Pr Firm's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Public Relations Comes of Age, Pr Firm's 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 .
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 Pr Firm's in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Pr Firm's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pr Firm's 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.
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. Pr Firm's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pr Firm's 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pr Firm's 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 Public Relations Comes of Age .
Environmental challenges
– Pr Firm's 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. Pr Firm's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pr Firm's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Public Relations Comes of Age 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 Public Relations Comes of Age 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 Public Relations Comes of Age 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 Public Relations Comes of Age 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 Public Relations Comes of Age 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 Pr Firm's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
