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 - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Beauty Kaya is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
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.
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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Beauty Kaya 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Beauty Kaya has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Beauty Kaya 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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Beauty Kaya 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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 -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Beauty Kaya has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Beauty Kaya even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Beauty Kaya 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market 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 Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beauty Kaya is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, is just above the industry average. Beauty Kaya 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.
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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market HBR case study mentions - Beauty Kaya 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Beauty Kaya 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Beauty Kaya in the consumer business. Now Beauty Kaya can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beauty Kaya 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, Exploring Category Benefits for Brand Building: Kaya and the Beauty Care Market, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Beauty Kaya can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Beauty Kaya can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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 -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Beauty Kaya 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Beauty Kaya 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.
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.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Beauty Kaya has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Beauty Kaya 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. 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.
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.
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.