Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies
More than 40% of U.S. consumers participate in the $300 billion conscious consumer market (CCM). In the past decade, the growth of the CCM has not gone unnoticed by startups and established multinational corporations. Yet what differentiates success and failure of such forays is not fully understood. By using multi-case study design, this article explores how a range of firms have approached entry into the CCM. It develops a CCM Entry Strategies Matrix that suggests alternate market entry strategies dependent on the scope of the marketplace and the values of the target consumer segment.
Swot Analysis of "Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies" written by Boyd Cohen, Pablo Munoz includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ccm Entry facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Mergers & acquisitions, Public relations, Risk management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ccm Entry, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ccm Entry 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ccm Entry
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ccm Entry
Strengths Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ccm Entry in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Ccm Entry is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ccm Entry 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Ccm Entry 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 Ccm Entry in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ccm Entry in the sector have low bargaining power. Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ccm Entry to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Ccm Entry
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ccm Entry does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Ccm Entry 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 Boyd Cohen, Pablo Munoz 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ccm Entry digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ccm Entry 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.
High brand equity
– Ccm Entry has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ccm Entry to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ccm Entry 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.
Training and development
– Ccm Entry has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ccm Entry in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ccm Entry is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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.
Weaknesses Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ccm Entry is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Ccm Entry needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ccm Entry to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ccm Entry 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ccm Entry 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies, it seems that the employees of Ccm Entry don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies, is just above the industry average. Ccm Entry 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ccm Entry 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. Ccm Entry 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Ccm Entry has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ccm Entry 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ccm Entry is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ccm Entry, firm in the HBR case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Opportunities Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies | 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies are -
Buying journey improvements
– Ccm Entry can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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.
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. Ccm Entry can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ccm Entry 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ccm Entry to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ccm Entry in the consumer business. Now Ccm Entry can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Ccm Entry 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ccm Entry 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ccm Entry can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ccm Entry 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. Ccm Entry 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ccm Entry to increase its market reach. Ccm Entry 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ccm Entry 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 Ccm Entry to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ccm Entry 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ccm Entry can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ccm Entry operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ccm Entry in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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. Ccm Entry 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ccm Entry 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ccm Entry is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ccm Entry can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ccm Entry 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 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. Ccm Entry needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ccm Entry with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Ccm Entry in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ccm Entry 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ccm Entry 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 Ccm Entry.
Increasing wage structure of Ccm Entry
– 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 Ccm Entry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Entering Conscious Consumer Markets: Toward a New Generation of Sustainability Strategies 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 Ccm Entry needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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