Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes
Jeff and Debra Moore are the founders of Just Us!, a fair trade coffee cooperative, retailer and wholesaler. Just Us!'s mission is to actively promote fair trade and its benefits for producers in developing countries. The Moores have maintained a strong commitment to educating consumers while building strong brand identity and upholding constant growth. To support the main distribution channel in grocery stores, management opened four cafA?s (two each in Wolfville and Halifax) and distributed products on university campuses. Just Us!'s overall sales continued to grow, but sales were leveling off. In addition, the prevailing economic climate in Canada and increasing competition were worrying the founders. Recently, the Moores hired a new marketing director who was required to incorporate unique knowledge of fair trade practices, ethical purchasing and social entrepreneurship, combine it with typical growth-driven marketing decisions and ultimately propose a marketing plan that would consolidate coffee shop operations.
Authors :: Sara Loudyi, Julia Sagebien, Normand Turgeon, Ian McKillop
Swot Analysis of "Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes" written by Sara Loudyi, Julia Sagebien, Normand Turgeon, Ian McKillop includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Moores Fair facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Moores Fair, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Moores Fair 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Moores Fair
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Moores Fair
Strengths Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Moores Fair in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Moores Fair 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 Moores Fair is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Moores Fair is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Moores Fair in the sector have low bargaining power. Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Moores Fair to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Moores Fair to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Moores Fair to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Moores Fair 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Moores Fair digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Moores Fair 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.
Analytics focus
– Moores Fair 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 Sara Loudyi, Julia Sagebien, Normand Turgeon, Ian McKillop 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 Moores Fair
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Moores Fair does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Moores Fair in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Moores Fair is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Moores Fair is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Moores Fair has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Moores Fair to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Moores Fair 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Moores Fair is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Moores Fair has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Moores Fair 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sara Loudyi, Julia Sagebien, Normand Turgeon, Ian McKillop suggests that, Moores Fair 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Moores Fair is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Moores Fair needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Moores Fair to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes, in the dynamic environment Moores Fair has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Moores Fair has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Moores Fair 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Moores Fair is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes HBR case study mentions - Moores Fair 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Moores Fair products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Moores Fair needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes | 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Moores Fair 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Moores Fair can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Moores Fair 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Moores Fair 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Moores Fair can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Moores Fair can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Moores Fair operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Moores Fair 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. Moores Fair 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Moores Fair can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Moores Fair has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Moores Fair to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes case study. Moores Fair can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Moores Fair 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, Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Moores Fair 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 Moores Fair to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Moores Fair 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.
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 Moores Fair 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.
Threats Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes are -
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.
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 Moores Fair.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes, Moores Fair may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Moores Fair with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Moores Fair has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Moores Fair needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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. Moores Fair 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.
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 wage structure of Moores Fair
– 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 Moores Fair.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Moores Fair 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes .
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. Moores Fair needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Moores Fair in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Moores Fair can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Moores Fair 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Marketing Planning at Just Us! Cafes 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 Moores Fair needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
