Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion
In March 2013, Susan Plagemann, vice president and publisher of Vogue - widely regarded as the world's most influential fashion magazine, and publishing conglomerate CondA? Nast's marquee title - is seeking answers to two questions. First, how she can best approach the intensely competitive advertising market in which some competitors in recent times have had two to three times the page growth that Vogue has had? Second, how should she utilize the growing importance of digital channels that may increase pressure on traditional revenues sources but also fuel new ecommerce partnerships and other opportunities? Can Vogue, as both the fashion industry and the magazine's readers have become so accustomed to, stay one step ahead?
Authors :: Anita Elberse, Joseph Ferrer, Elizabeth Gough, Victoria Katsarou
Swot Analysis of "Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion" written by Anita Elberse, Joseph Ferrer, Elizabeth Gough, Victoria Katsarou includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vogue Fashion facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vogue Fashion, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vogue Fashion
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 Vogue Fashion
Strengths Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vogue Fashion in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Vogue Fashion has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vogue Fashion to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vogue Fashion to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue Fashion in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Vogue Fashion has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vogue Fashion to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vogue Fashion 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Vogue Fashion is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Vogue Fashion 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 Anita Elberse, Joseph Ferrer, Elizabeth Gough, Victoria Katsarou 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vogue Fashion in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vogue Fashion is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Vogue Fashion has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vogue Fashion is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, is just above the industry average. Vogue Fashion 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue Fashion 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anita Elberse, Joseph Ferrer, Elizabeth Gough, Victoria Katsarou suggests that, Vogue Fashion 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Vogue Fashion 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.
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 Vogue Fashion supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Vogue Fashion vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vogue Fashion is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Vogue Fashion is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Vogue Fashion needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Vogue Fashion to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, it seems that the employees of Vogue Fashion 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Vogue Fashion 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.
Opportunities Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion | 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion are -
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. Vogue Fashion can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Vogue Fashion 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.
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. Vogue Fashion can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Vogue Fashion 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Vogue Fashion 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vogue Fashion 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vogue Fashion is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vogue Fashion 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vogue Fashion 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, Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vogue Fashion has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vogue Fashion to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion case study. Vogue Fashion can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Vogue Fashion 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. Vogue Fashion 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Vogue Fashion can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vogue Fashion to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Vogue Fashion
– 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 Vogue Fashion.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vogue Fashion is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Vogue Fashion.
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 Vogue Fashion business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Vogue Fashion 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. Vogue Fashion can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vogue Fashion has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vogue Fashion 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Vogue Fashion 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.
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. Vogue Fashion can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Vogue Fashion with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Vogue Fashion needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Vogue Fashion in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion 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 Vogue Fashion needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.