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ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity


Associated Foods is considering a proposed program barter deal submitted by media consultancy ECM, along with other proposals to improve marketing expenditure productivity. This case allows calculation of the quantitative as well as the qualitative issues.

Authors :: David J. Arnold

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Globalization, Marketing, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity" written by David J. Arnold includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ecm Productivity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity


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




Strengths ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Ecm Productivity in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

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

Learning organization

- Ecm Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– Ecm Productivity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Superior customer experience

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

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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.

Training and development

– Ecm Productivity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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

– ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ecm Productivity to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ecm Productivity to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Strong track record of project management

– Ecm Productivity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment

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

Successful track record of launching new products

– Ecm Productivity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ecm Productivity 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Organizational Resilience of Ecm Productivity

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






Weaknesses ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Ecm Productivity 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ecm Productivity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ecm Productivity 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 bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, David J. Arnold suggests that, Ecm Productivity is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity 's lucrative customers.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Ecm Productivity has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ecm Productivity is planning to shift buying processes online.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Ecm Productivity, firm in the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity, 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Lack of clear differentiation of Ecm Productivity products

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




Opportunities ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -

Loyalty marketing

– Ecm Productivity 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.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ecm Productivity to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ecm Productivity 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ecm Productivity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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, Ecm Productivity 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.

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. Ecm Productivity 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. Ecm Productivity 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ecm Productivity can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ecm Productivity operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

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

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ecm Productivity 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.

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. Ecm Productivity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ecm Productivity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Developing new processes and practices

– Ecm Productivity 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.




Threats ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -

Trade war between China and United States

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

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. Ecm Productivity 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.

Increasing wage structure of Ecm Productivity

– 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 Ecm Productivity.

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.

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

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 Ecm Productivity.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Ecm Productivity is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Ecm Productivity 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Ecm Productivity 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.

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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

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

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Ecm Productivity 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.

Environmental challenges

– Ecm Productivity 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. Ecm Productivity can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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