Case Study Description of Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls
This case features Old Spice's efforts to reposition Glacial Falls after sales stagnated in the United States. The challenges in this case are twofold. First, it sets the stage for deciding whether and how to reposition a brand after a period of significant stagnation. This entails a targeting dilemma about whether to keep existing customers or take the risk of losing them to go after a new target. Second, this case examines whether the company should make a sensory change in the product (i.e., the scent) or whether it should undertake a cognitive change in the positioning of the product instead.
Swot Analysis of "Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls" written by Derek D. Rucker, David Dubois includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Glacial Falls facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Glacial Falls, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Glacial Falls
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Glacial Falls
Strengths Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Glacial Falls in Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Glacial Falls 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Glacial Falls 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 Glacial Falls is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Glacial Falls in the sector have low bargaining power. Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Glacial Falls to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Glacial Falls digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Glacial Falls 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
– Glacial Falls has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Glacial Falls 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.
Analytics focus
– Glacial Falls 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 Derek D. Rucker, David Dubois 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Glacial Falls 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Glacial Falls to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Glacial Falls to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Glacial Falls 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 Glacial Falls in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Glacial Falls in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Glacial Falls has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Glacial Falls is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Glacial Falls needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Glacial Falls to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Glacial Falls 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Glacial Falls 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. Glacial Falls 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Glacial Falls is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Glacial Falls needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls, is just above the industry average. Glacial Falls needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Glacial Falls is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Glacial Falls 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls HBR case study mentions - Glacial Falls 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.
Opportunities Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls | 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Glacial Falls can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Glacial Falls can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Glacial Falls can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Glacial Falls operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Glacial Falls can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Glacial Falls can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Glacial Falls 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Glacial Falls is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Glacial Falls 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 Glacial Falls to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Glacial Falls 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Glacial Falls can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Glacial Falls 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. Glacial Falls 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Glacial Falls to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls are -
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. Glacial Falls needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Glacial Falls 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. Glacial Falls can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Glacial Falls demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Glacial Falls 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Glacial Falls in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Glacial Falls
– 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 Glacial Falls.
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 Glacial Falls in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Glacial Falls can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Glacial Falls 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Glacial Falls with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Glacial Falls is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Old Spice: Revitalizing Glacial Falls 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 Glacial Falls needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.