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 - – technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, 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 -
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vogue Fashion is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vogue Fashion in the sector have low bargaining power. Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vogue Fashion to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Vogue Fashion is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Vogue Fashion
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vogue Fashion 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 Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vogue Fashion has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vogue Fashion 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 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 -
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.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion HBR case study mentions - Vogue Fashion 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 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, in the dynamic environment Vogue Fashion has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Vogue Fashion has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Vogue Fashion 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.
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 -
Manufacturing automation
– Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vogue Fashion can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vogue Fashion operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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.
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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vogue Fashion can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Vogue Fashion 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. 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vogue Fashion to increase its market reach. Vogue Fashion 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.
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 Vogue Fashion in the consumer business. Now Vogue Fashion can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vogue Fashion 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.
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 -
Regulatory challenges
– Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vogue Fashion 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vogue: Defining the Culture of Fashion, Vogue Fashion 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 .
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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.
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.
