Case Study Description of Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation
In April 2015, the Dharampal Satyapal Group introduced a new hard-boiled candy in three states in India. The candy, named Pulse, had a distinctive raw-mango flavour and a spicy, tangy taste. It quickly became popular. Within two years, Pulse candy surpassed 3 billion in sales and became the leader in the hard-boiled candy segment, beating leading national and international brands. The company achieved all of this with a small advertising budget and very little promotion; rather, the candy's success was largely a result of word-of-mouth and interest on social media. Demand exceeded supply, and competitors were beginning to launch similar and poorly imitated products. How could the group sustain the sales momentum of Pulse? Should it extend the Pulse brand to other formats and flavours and into other product categories? Should it take the candy to overseas markets, and if so, which ones? Ritu Mehta is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.
Swot Analysis of "Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation" written by Ritu Mehta, Mayank More includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pulse Candy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, International business, Manufacturing, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pulse Candy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pulse Candy
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 Pulse Candy
Strengths Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pulse Candy in Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pulse Candy digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pulse Candy 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pulse Candy 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.
Organizational Resilience of Pulse Candy
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pulse Candy does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pulse Candy has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pulse Candy 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pulse Candy in the sector have low bargaining power. Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pulse Candy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pulse Candy to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pulse Candy to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Pulse Candy is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Pulse Candy has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pulse Candy to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation - 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pulse Candy 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. Pulse Candy 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pulse Candy 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 - Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pulse Candy 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ritu Mehta, Mayank More suggests that, Pulse Candy 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation, it seems that the employees of Pulse Candy 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pulse Candy 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pulse Candy is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pulse Candy products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pulse Candy needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pulse Candy 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.
Opportunities Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation | 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pulse Candy to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Pulse Candy 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.
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 Pulse Candy 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.
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. Pulse Candy can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Pulse Candy in the consumer business. Now Pulse Candy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pulse Candy can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing 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. Pulse Candy 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. Pulse Candy 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pulse Candy 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pulse Candy is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pulse Candy to increase its market reach. Pulse Candy 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Pulse Candy 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
– Pulse Candy can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pulse Candy 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.
Threats Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pulse Candy has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pulse Candy 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.
Environmental challenges
– Pulse Candy 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. Pulse Candy can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pulse Candy with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pulse Candy is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pulse Candy 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pulse Candy 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.
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 Pulse Candy.
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 Pulse Candy in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pulse Candy 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pulse Candy 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pulse Candy 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Pulse Candy 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy: Sustaining the Brand Differentiation 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 Pulse Candy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.