Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative
In January 2010, the head of the Colombian Red Cross approached Oilcorp, owner of the largest regional chain of service stations in the country, requesting its participation in its 100th anniversary celebration with a brand awareness campaign for its social programs. Given that the annual budget had already been approved without this campaign in mind, Oilcorp's CEO assigned the task of raising money to the marketing department. Nevertheless, the campaign backfired when Oilcorp tried to link the social message with selling more gasoline and asking customers to provide their details through its corporate website, to be added to Oilcorp's database. Carlos Cardona-a member of the marketing team at Oilcorp-was worried about the mixed reactions he was receiving. The team merely wanted to be practical, and this seemed the easiest way. However, people close to Carlos thought otherwise. For many, it seemed that the company was taking advantage of a social cause for marketing purposes. They disliked the way in which it was hiding selfish intentions behind helping those most in need. Nor did they understand why Oilcorp asked for personal information on a website in exchange for a donation that the company should give on its own initiative. In addition, Oilcorp's CEO told media the company expected to raise US$50,000 from the campaign, but Carlos was worried about achieving the target when he noticed that just 1,200 users had provided their data via the campaign's website. Because of the regular pattern of gas consumption, it was improbable that customers would buy more gasoline from Oilcorp's service stations through the influence of a social initiative. Consequently, the results of the campaign could be as much as 30% below the Colombian Red Cross's expectations and the promises made by Oilcorp's CEO in the media. Carlos and the marketing team needed to decide what actions to take given that the campaign was not on track to meet expectations.
Swot Analysis of "Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative" written by Juan M. Parra includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oilcorp's Oilcorp facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Joint ventures, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oilcorp's Oilcorp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oilcorp's Oilcorp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Oilcorp's Oilcorp
Strengths Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oilcorp's Oilcorp in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Juan M. Parra 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Organizational Resilience of Oilcorp's Oilcorp
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oilcorp's Oilcorp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Oilcorp's Oilcorp in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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.
Training and development
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Oilcorp's Oilcorp is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Oilcorp's Oilcorp needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oilcorp's Oilcorp to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oilcorp's Oilcorp products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oilcorp's Oilcorp needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oilcorp's Oilcorp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oilcorp's Oilcorp, firm in the HBR case study Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative | 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Oilcorp's Oilcorp is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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.
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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oilcorp's Oilcorp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oilcorp's Oilcorp has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oilcorp's Oilcorp to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative case study. Oilcorp's Oilcorp can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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, Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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, Oilcorp's Oilcorp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oilcorp's Oilcorp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
Threats Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative are -
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. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp
– 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oilcorp's Oilcorp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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.
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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Oilcorp's Oilcorp.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oilcorp's Oilcorp in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oilcorp's Oilcorp is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Oilcorp's Oilcorp 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Marketing Campaign: Mixed Reactions to a CSR Initiative 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 Oilcorp's Oilcorp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
