Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market
India has been an emerging market that is witnessing radical changes in the lifestyles and the spending patterns of customers. There has been a significant change (post-liberalization) in terms of the manner in which consumers look at their self-concept. Exposure to western ways and lifestyles through mass media, availability of discretionary income and the impact of reference group appeals are some of the important aspects that have created interest towards products and services associated with beauty care among consumers. Customers have become used to branded creams and lotions, and several of these offerings are being advertised with strong symbolic appeals associated with enhanced self-concepts. Kaya was a brand in the beauty care category. However, the brand's offerings dealt with medically anchored services intended to enhance the looks of the customers. The brand opened up a new facet of beauty care services that was associated more with up-market and state-of-the-art hospitals, where customers opted for these services under the supervision of doctors who had specialized in cosmetic surgeries/interventions. Would the differentiation between the first-time users of a beauty parlor and the loyal customers of a parlor offer insights that Kaya would find useful? Issues related to services management as well as customer value and customer loyalty were relevant to Kaya's competitive strategies. Although the customers of a beauty parlor could be demographically different from Kaya's customers, the commonality of the benefits related to the beauty services offered were the same. The case is about how a brand that had created a category would find it useful to draw insights on brand loyalty from a related category that does not compete with it directly. Such a dimension of competitive learning is perhaps unique to an emerging market such as India.
Swot Analysis of "Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market" written by Ramesh Kumar, Ande Teja, Syed Hussain includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Beauty Kaya facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beauty Kaya, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beauty Kaya 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beauty Kaya
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 Beauty Kaya
Strengths Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Beauty Kaya in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Beauty Kaya 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 Beauty Kaya in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Beauty Kaya in the sector have low bargaining power. Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beauty Kaya to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Beauty Kaya has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Beauty Kaya to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Beauty Kaya to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Beauty Kaya to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Beauty Kaya 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 Beauty Kaya is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Beauty Kaya is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Beauty Kaya is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Beauty Kaya digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Beauty Kaya 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Beauty Kaya 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
– Beauty Kaya has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Beauty Kaya in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Beauty Kaya 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Beauty Kaya, firm in the HBR case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Beauty Kaya has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Beauty Kaya is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, in the dynamic environment Beauty Kaya has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Beauty Kaya has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Beauty Kaya products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Beauty Kaya needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Beauty Kaya 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Beauty Kaya has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Beauty Kaya 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Beauty Kaya is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Beauty Kaya needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Beauty Kaya to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Beauty Kaya supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Beauty Kaya vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market | 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beauty Kaya is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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.
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 Beauty Kaya 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Beauty Kaya 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Beauty Kaya can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Beauty Kaya has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Beauty Kaya to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market case study. Beauty Kaya can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Beauty Kaya can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beauty Kaya can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beauty Kaya operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Beauty Kaya 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Beauty Kaya to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Beauty Kaya 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Beauty Kaya 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Beauty Kaya 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Beauty Kaya 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Beauty Kaya 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 Beauty Kaya to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beauty Kaya 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market .
Environmental challenges
– Beauty Kaya 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. Beauty Kaya can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 Beauty Kaya.
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 Beauty Kaya in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Beauty Kaya high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Beauty Kaya is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Beauty Kaya 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, Beauty Kaya 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 .
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. Beauty Kaya 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.
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. Beauty Kaya needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Beauty Kaya with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Beauty Kaya business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Beauty Kaya can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Beauty Kaya needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
