Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales
Many successful companies spend substantial time and effort engaging with potential consumers on social media sites. They determine how consumers spend their time online and develop interesting content to increase awareness and enjoyment of the brand-often only to lose those potential customers because the purchase process becomes too difficult once consumers have decided to buy the product. New technology recently introduced by third-party vendors allows companies to offer a sales option directly on social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram. In this article, we present the effects on the consumer decision process created by the 'Buy Now' option across the consideration, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase stages. We compare and contrast three distinct decision models: (1) traditional media only, (2) traditional media and social media with only a communication capability, and (3) traditional media and social media with the added function of immediate purchase. We argue that though the possibility of buying on social media will decrease the number of brands considered and evaluated, the number of purchases and amount of brand advocacy will increase significantly due to the ease of purchase. We conclude with some recommendations on future research.
Swot Analysis of "Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales" written by Joan Lindsey-Mullikin, Norm Borin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Media Purchase facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Sales, Social platforms and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Media Purchase, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Media Purchase 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Media Purchase
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 Media Purchase
Strengths Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Media Purchase in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Media Purchase 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Media Purchase is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Media Purchase in the sector have low bargaining power. Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Media Purchase to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Media Purchase
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Media Purchase does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Media Purchase 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 Joan Lindsey-Mullikin, Norm Borin 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Media Purchase is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Media Purchase has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Media Purchase 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.
Learning organization
- Media Purchase 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 Media Purchase is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Media Purchase is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Strategy & Execution field
– Media Purchase 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 Media Purchase in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Media Purchase is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Media Purchase 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Media Purchase 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, Media Purchase 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. Media Purchase 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Media Purchase 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, Media Purchase 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Media Purchase 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 - Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Media Purchase is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Media Purchase 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Media Purchase products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Media Purchase needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Media Purchase has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales, it seems that the employees of Media Purchase 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.
Opportunities Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales | 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Media Purchase 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, Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Media Purchase 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Media Purchase can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Media Purchase has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Media Purchase to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales case study. Media Purchase can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Media Purchase can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Media Purchase can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Media Purchase 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.
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 Media Purchase 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Media Purchase 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Media Purchase can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Media Purchase operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Media Purchase to increase its market reach. Media Purchase 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Media Purchase is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Media Purchase 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Media Purchase to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Media Purchase with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Media Purchase.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Media Purchase is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales, Media Purchase may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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. Media Purchase 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Media Purchase 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.
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. Media Purchase can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Media Purchase 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.
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.
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 Media Purchase business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Media Purchase 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.
Increasing wage structure of Media Purchase
– 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 Media Purchase.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Why Strategy is Key for Successful Social Media Sales 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 Media Purchase needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.