Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior
Parvesh Dabuka, Head of Marketing, Paper Boat brand of soft drink was thinking about the success of the niche brand that was positioned on nostalgia and ethnic taste. This thought had two aspects, one that was not uncommon and the other a different manner of looking at brand positioning. As a brand manager of a successful brand, like any other brand manager, he was concerned about sustaining the success of the brand: he had also thought that he should look at the brand positioning of Paper Boat through the lens of consumer behavior aspects. There were a number of questions in his mind: Was the success of Paper Boat because of its ethnic and nostalgic positioning or was it because of the novelty of picking up a different proposition. Both were different aspects. The novelty of brand positioning may wean off after sometime if consumers are not committed to the brand for what it stands for. Given the rapid strides made by the competitors of Paper Boat, would consumers be more interested in the functional benefits of the brand? Do consumers experience the brand (Paper Boat) based on its ingredients? Was Paper Boat associated with consumers at the level of their self-concept? Parvesh knew that he was getting at the positioning of Paper Boat through several aspects of how consumers expressed their behavior and at the same time wondered if a category such as soft drinks generally associated with fun and frolic may appeal to the consumers on anything other than nutritive benefits or fun? Further, if consumers wanted a new association with Paper Boat, how can the brand steer away from its existing associations toward a new set of associations? He seemed to have an endless array of thoughts linked to brand positioning and repositioning. The case study explores several contemporary aspects of consumer behavior in the backdrop of the usual brand positioning efforts.
Swot Analysis of "Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior" written by S. Ramesh Kumar, Mithun Sivagurunathan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Boat Brand facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing,
increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Boat Brand, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Boat Brand
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 Boat Brand
Strengths Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Boat Brand in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Boat Brand is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Boat Brand in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Boat Brand 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 Boat Brand is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Boat Brand is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Boat Brand 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Boat Brand 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 Boat Brand 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 Boat Brand in the sector have low bargaining power. Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Boat Brand to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Boat Brand has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Boat Brand digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Boat Brand 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.
Weaknesses Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Boat Brand 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. Boat Brand 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Boat Brand is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Boat Brand 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Boat Brand 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Boat Brand 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior, it seems that the employees of Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior, is just above the industry average. Boat Brand 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Boat Brand, firm in the HBR case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Boat Brand has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Boat Brand is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Boat Brand needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Boat Brand to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior | 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Boat Brand to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Boat Brand can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Buying journey improvements
– Boat Brand can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Boat Brand to increase its market reach. Boat Brand 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.
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 Boat Brand to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Boat Brand is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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.
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. Boat Brand can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Boat Brand has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Boat Brand to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior case study. Boat Brand can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Boat Brand 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Boat Brand in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Boat Brand in the consumer business. Now Boat Brand can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Boat Brand 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. Boat Brand 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Boat Brand 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, Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Boat Brand has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Boat Brand 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Boat Brand 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 Boat Brand in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Boat Brand needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Boat Brand 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.
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 Boat Brand business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Boat Brand in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Boat Brand 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.
Environmental challenges
– Boat Brand 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. Boat Brand can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Boat Brand 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Boat Brand can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Boat Brand.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Boat Brand 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Sustaining an Ethnic Soft Drink - Paper Boat: Brand Positioning and Consumer Behavior 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 Boat Brand needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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