Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art

The case goes back in time to the 'golden age' of Absolut when contemporary artists like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring painted the unusual bottle to the amazement of the global arts community. The nearly accidental collaboration with artists in the glorious years turned the brand into a must-have aspirational drink to be consumed at chic bars and art fairs. Based on the vivid recollections of Vadim Grigorian (INSEAD MBA '00J), the case uncovers the awakening of new paradigm, the brand as acultural agent of contemporary art in consumer society. In his retelling of these events, hitherto unknown, the marketing executive recaptures the essence of Absolut during its hey day from the mid-1980s to 2011 in an exquisitely told and unusual account of cultural engagement.

Authors :: David Dubois, Frederic Godart, Brian Henry, Vadim Grigorian

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art" written by David Dubois, Frederic Godart, Brian Henry, Vadim Grigorian includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Absolut Aspirational facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Absolut Aspirational, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Absolut Aspirational 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Absolut Aspirational
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 Absolut Aspirational

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Strengths Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Absolut Aspirational in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Absolut Aspirational 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 Absolut Aspirational 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 Absolut Aspirational in the sector have low bargaining power. Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Absolut Aspirational to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Diverse revenue streams

– Absolut Aspirational is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Absolut Aspirational 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Absolut Aspirational is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Absolut Aspirational 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

– Absolut Aspirational has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Absolut Aspirational to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Absolut Aspirational digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Absolut Aspirational 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Absolut Aspirational is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Learning organization

- Absolut Aspirational 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 Absolut Aspirational is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Absolut Aspirational in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Strong track record of project management

– Absolut Aspirational is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

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Weaknesses Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art are -

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art, it seems that the employees of Absolut Aspirational 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Absolut Aspirational products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Absolut Aspirational needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Absolut Aspirational is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Absolut Aspirational 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 - Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art, is just above the industry average. Absolut Aspirational 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Absolut Aspirational is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Absolut Aspirational needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Absolut Aspirational to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Absolut Aspirational, firm in the HBR case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art, in the dynamic environment Absolut Aspirational has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Absolut Aspirational has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Absolut Aspirational is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Absolut Aspirational 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art, 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.

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Opportunities Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art | 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art are -

Manufacturing automation

– Absolut Aspirational 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Absolut Aspirational can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Absolut Aspirational operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Absolut Aspirational is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Absolut Aspirational 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Absolut Aspirational 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Absolut Aspirational to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Buying journey improvements

– Absolut Aspirational can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Absolut Aspirational can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.

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 Absolut Aspirational 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Absolut Aspirational has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Absolut Aspirational to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art case study. Absolut Aspirational can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Absolut Aspirational can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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. Absolut Aspirational can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Absolut Aspirational can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Developing new processes and practices

– Absolut Aspirational 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.

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Threats Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art, Absolut Aspirational may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Absolut Aspirational 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.

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Absolut Aspirational 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Absolut Aspirational with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Environmental challenges

– Absolut Aspirational 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. Absolut Aspirational can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

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 Absolut Aspirational in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Absolut Aspirational 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art .

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. Absolut Aspirational can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Absolut Aspirational business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Absolut Aspirational needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Absolut Aspirational.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Building an Aspirational High-End Brand through Cultural Engagement: Absolut Vodka's Love Affair with Art 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 Absolut Aspirational needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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