Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club
The Regina Auto Racing Club (RARC) had been operating the Kings Park Speedway since 1967. In 2016, the race track and facilities were beginning to show their age and were in need of costly upgrading. Unfortunately, the club had also been suffering from declining attendance over the past five years, and the associated decline in ticket revenue had led to a shrinking race schedule. At the end of the race season in 2016, the club managed to break even financially and had a modest bank account balance. Although RARC was a non-profit organization, the continued financial viability of the club was at risk, and action was required to increase revenue. The club needed to decide among four non-mutually exclusive business strategies. Should it repair and rebuild the facilities to renew the appeal of the venue and attract more spectators? Should it increase its advertising and promotion activities to improve awareness of the club and events? Should it increase the number of race classes and special racing events, or should it introduce non-racing events to the facility to take advantage of other revenue-generating opportunities?
Authors :: Dwight Heinrichs, Chris Street, Michael Taylor
Swot Analysis of "Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club" written by Dwight Heinrichs, Chris Street, Michael Taylor includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Club Racing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices,
wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Club Racing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Club Racing
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 Club Racing
Strengths Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Club Racing in Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Club Racing 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 Dwight Heinrichs, Chris Street, Michael Taylor 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Club Racing digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Club Racing 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Club Racing in the sector have low bargaining power. Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Club Racing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Club Racing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Club Racing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Club Racing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Club Racing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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.
Organizational Resilience of Club Racing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Club Racing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Club Racing 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Club Racing is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Club Racing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Club Racing 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 - Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Club Racing 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. Club Racing 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Dwight Heinrichs, Chris Street, Michael Taylor suggests that, Club Racing 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club, is just above the industry average. Club Racing needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High 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 Club Racing supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Club Racing vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Club Racing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Club Racing 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club, in the dynamic environment Club Racing has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Club Racing has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Club Racing, firm in the HBR case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club | 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Club Racing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Club Racing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Club Racing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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.
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. Club Racing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Club Racing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Club Racing 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Club Racing to increase its market reach. Club Racing 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Club Racing 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, Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Club Racing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Club Racing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Club Racing 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Club Racing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Club Racing 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.
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. Club Racing 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. Club Racing 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.
Threats Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Club Racing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Club Racing in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Club Racing 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club .
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. Club Racing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Club Racing 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. Club Racing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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 Club Racing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Club Racing 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.
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 Club Racing.
Increasing wage structure of Club Racing
– 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 Club Racing.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club, Club Racing 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Club Racing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Club Racing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Racing into the Future: Strategic Marketing for the Regina Auto Racing Club 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 Club Racing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.