Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data
In October 2015, Squatty Potty's chief executive officer (CEO) launched the first viral video campaign in the U.S. company's history. In terms of cost, it represented the largest single marketing promotion ever for the company's home remedy for constipation-a foot stool that made going to the bathroom more ergonomic. Further raising the stakes of his decision, the CEO's three business partners had reservations and objections. The partners worried that an irreverent viral video could be expensive, ineffective, and even offensive to the target markets. For the good of the business, the strength of the partnership, and the efficacy of future marketing efforts, it was critical that the CEO be able to provide credible proof of the campaign's efficacy. In addition, his ability to critically assess the strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes of the campaign would provide precious insight to shape future promotion campaigns, both online and offline. John Dinsmore is affiliated with Wright State University.
Swot Analysis of "Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data" written by John Dinsmore includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Squatty Campaign facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Squatty Campaign, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Squatty Campaign 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Squatty Campaign
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 Squatty Campaign
Strengths Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Squatty Campaign in Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Squatty Campaign digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Squatty Campaign 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Squatty Campaign is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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.
High brand equity
– Squatty Campaign has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Squatty Campaign to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Squatty Campaign has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Analytics focus
– Squatty Campaign 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 John Dinsmore 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.
Organizational Resilience of Squatty Campaign
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Squatty Campaign does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Squatty Campaign to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Squatty Campaign to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Squatty Campaign in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Squatty Campaign 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 Squatty Campaign in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Squatty Campaign 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Squatty Campaign in the sector have low bargaining power. Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Squatty Campaign to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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.
Weaknesses Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John Dinsmore suggests that, Squatty Campaign 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Squatty Campaign products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Squatty Campaign needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Squatty Campaign 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 - Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Squatty Campaign, firm in the HBR case study Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Squatty Campaign 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data HBR case study mentions - Squatty Campaign takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Squatty Campaign is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Squatty Campaign 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Squatty Campaign 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Campaign 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data, in the dynamic environment Squatty Campaign has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Squatty Campaign has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data | 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Squatty Campaign has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Squatty Campaign to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data case study. Squatty Campaign can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Squatty Campaign 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Squatty Campaign 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, Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Squatty Campaign 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. Squatty Campaign 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Squatty Campaign can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Squatty Campaign 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Squatty Campaign can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Squatty Campaign 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Squatty Campaign to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Squatty Campaign to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Squatty Campaign in the consumer business. Now Squatty Campaign can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Squatty Campaign to increase its market reach. Squatty Campaign 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 Squatty Campaign 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Squatty Campaign 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.
Threats Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Squatty Campaign 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Squatty Campaign with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Squatty Campaign 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.
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. Squatty Campaign needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Squatty Campaign 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Squatty Campaign 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Squatty Campaign high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Squatty Campaign is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Squatty Campaign in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Squatty Campaign.
Environmental challenges
– Squatty Campaign 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. Squatty Campaign can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Squatty Campaign can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Potty: Assessing Digital Marketing Campaign Data 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 Squatty Campaign needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.