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 inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, 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 -
Diverse revenue streams
– Scandal Picard is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Scandal Picard 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 Scandal Picard in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
Analytics focus
– Scandal Picard 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 Normand Turgeon, JoAnne LaBrecque, Philippe Lefevre 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.
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.
Training and development
– Scandal Picard has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Scandal Picard 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 France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
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 -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Scandal Picard 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, is just above the industry average. Scandal Picard 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, in the dynamic environment Scandal Picard has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Scandal Picard has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Scandal Picard is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Scandal Picard needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Scandal Picard to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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.
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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Scandal Picard 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.
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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Scandal Picard is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall, it seems that the employees of Scandal Picard 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.
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.
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 -
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.
Loyalty marketing
– Scandal Picard 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.
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.
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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Scandal Picard 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.
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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Scandal Picard is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. France's "Horsegate" Scandal: Marketing Communications Addressing the Aftermath of a Food Fraud/Product Recall 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.
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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Scandal Picard 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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 .
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 Scandal Picard in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Scandal Picard demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Scandal Picard 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. Scandal Picard can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Scandal Picard
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Scandal Picard.
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.
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.
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.
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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