Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game
University of California, Berkeley-Haas collectionAlex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh founded Zoosk in 2007 and by 2012, the company had reached over $100 million in revenue. The Zoosk case study provides an overview of the company's short history, paying particular attention to the founding of the company and to its growth. The main case study objective is to teach students how to analyze a startup's go-to-market strategy and to discuss a startup's ability to pivot as one of its drivers of success. Entrepreneurs (and students) often do not realize the myriad of decisions that must be made in order to go to market with their product or service. What are these decisions and how can a startup identify them and organize them? Importantly, a startup's go-to-market strategy is not static, as can be seen in the case of Zoosk. The backdrop of social media and the opening of the Facebook platform make this an especially rich case that offers several opportunities to discuss various options that any startup company has.
Swot Analysis of "Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game" written by Naeem Zafar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Zoosk Startup's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Innovation, International business, Internet, Marketing, Pricing and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zoosk Startup's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zoosk Startup's
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 Zoosk Startup's
Strengths Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zoosk Startup's in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Zoosk Startup's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Zoosk Startup's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Zoosk Startup's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Zoosk Startup's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Zoosk Startup's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Zoosk Startup's 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Zoosk Startup's 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
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Naeem Zafar 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Zoosk Startup's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Zoosk Startup's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Zoosk Startup's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, in the dynamic environment Zoosk Startup's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Zoosk Startup's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zoosk Startup's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Zoosk Startup's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High 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 Zoosk Startup's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Zoosk Startup's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Zoosk Startup's 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Naeem Zafar suggests that, Zoosk Startup's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Zoosk Startup's 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Zoosk Startup's 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.
Opportunities Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Buying journey improvements
– Zoosk Startup's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zoosk Startup's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
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. Zoosk Startup's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Zoosk Startup's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Zoosk Startup's 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. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Zoosk Startup's 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, Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Zoosk Startup's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Zoosk Startup's to increase its market reach. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Zoosk Startup's 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game .
Increasing wage structure of Zoosk Startup's
– 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 Zoosk Startup's.
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 Zoosk Startup's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Zoosk Startup's 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Zoosk Startup's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zoosk Startup's 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.
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 Zoosk Startup's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, Zoosk Startup's 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Zoosk Startup's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Zoosk Startup's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Zoosk Startup's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk Startup's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
