France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall
This case describes a major food fraud scandal that resulted in a much-publicized product recall. The episode was dubbed "Horsegate" by the national and international press. In early 2013, a scandal broke out in Ireland and the UK when horsemeat was found in frozen prepared meals sold as containing 100% beef. Findus Nordic, the company involved in the scandal, sold the same products in France. The press launched an investigation, and there were numerous media reports. A French company, Picard Surgeles, was found to have two products tainted with horsemeat. Both companies had to recall their products. Politicians got involved and carefully followed the crisis. Organizations in the supply chain implicated in the scandal struggled to defend themselves and blamed each other. French consumers reacted, and sales of frozen meat products dropped sharply. Findus Nordic and Picard Surgeles's brands were the most heavily impacted in France. This case focuses on Picard Surgeles, an integrated food processor that sells its store brand (private label) products in a company-owned chain of retail stores. The company needs help, and brand managers and marketing communications specialists must assess the situation and make recommendations to address the aftermath of the food fraud/product recall.
Authors :: Normand Turgeon, JoAnne LaBrecque, Philippe Lefevre
Swot Analysis of "France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall" written by Normand Turgeon, JoAnne LaBrecque, Philippe Lefevre includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Scandal Picard facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Ethics, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Scandal Picard, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Scandal Picard 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Scandal Picard
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 Scandal Picard
Strengths France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Scandal Picard in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Scandal Picard is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Scandal Picard 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Scandal Picard has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Scandal Picard 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Scandal Picard is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Scandal Picard to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Scandal Picard to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Scandal Picard 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Scandal Picard in the sector have low bargaining power. France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Scandal Picard to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Scandal Picard in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Scandal Picard has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Scandal Picard to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Scandal Picard is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Scandal Picard 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.
Weaknesses France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Scandal Picard is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Scandal Picard 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, Normand Turgeon, JoAnne LaBrecque, Philippe Lefevre suggests that, Scandal Picard 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall HBR case study mentions - Scandal Picard 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Scandal Picard 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Scandal Picard supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Scandal Picard vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Scandal Picard 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Scandal Picard products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Scandal Picard needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Scandal Picard, firm in the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 Scandal Picard 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall | 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Scandal Picard 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Scandal Picard to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Scandal Picard to increase its market reach. Scandal Picard 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.
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. Scandal Picard 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. Scandal Picard 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Scandal Picard 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.
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. Scandal Picard can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Scandal Picard 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 Scandal Picard to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Scandal Picard can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Scandal Picard 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, France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Scandal Picard 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 Scandal Picard has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Scandal Picard to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall case study. Scandal Picard can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Scandal Picard in the consumer business. Now Scandal Picard can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Scandal Picard can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Scandal Picard to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Threats France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall are -
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 Scandal Picard.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, Scandal Picard 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 .
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. Scandal Picard can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Scandal Picard needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Scandal Picard has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Scandal Picard 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Scandal Picard 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall .
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. Scandal Picard 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Scandal Picard 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Scandal Picard 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Scandal Picard 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.
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 Scandal Picard business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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 Scandal Picard needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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