Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment
Ina Food Industry Co. Ltd. ("Ina Food") is situated in the city of Ina, Nagano Prefecture, and surrounded by the soaring mountains of the Japanese Alps. Hiroshi Tsukakoshi, Ina Food's 75-year-old chairman, has led the company through an incredible 55 years of continuous revenue and profit growth. The company is a leading manufacturer of powdered agar, a traditional gelatin product derived from seaweed. In the summer of 2012, Tsukakoshi is looking through the windows of his office in Ina City. He is thinking about how he aims for his company to be a corporation that is conscious of the global environment. He feels he has done a good job so far. The business has prospered and does not present any urgent problems. However, he also feels that he should not simply sit back and savor his success. He is facing his retirement and has concerns about the long-term growth of the company. He is thinking it might be the right time to introduce some new marketing strategies for the company. There is also another reason for concern: Japan's deflationary environment, persistent for 20 years now. He is interested in increasing sales volume and profit by raising prices when most other companies are lowering theirs under deflation. In this environment, even keeping prices constant means a relative increase of price. Tsukakoshi believes that, in essence, as long as a company is confident in the competitiveness of its products, there are always methods to raise prices and increase profits. The key is raising the prices of merchandise and services in a way that the customers can accept. Raising prices in a difficult economic climate is a risky decision. Nevertheless, the company is successful in raising the price under deflation. While the Japanese economy faces serious difficulties, the company has obtained successful results thanks to marketing, producing, financing, and allocating resources.
Swot Analysis of "Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment" written by Mitsuru Misawa includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ina Tsukakoshi facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing,
technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ina Tsukakoshi, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ina Tsukakoshi
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ina Tsukakoshi
Strengths Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ina Tsukakoshi in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Ina Tsukakoshi is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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.
Learning organization
- Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Tsukakoshi is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Mitsuru Misawa 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ina Tsukakoshi in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ina Tsukakoshi in the sector have low bargaining power. Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ina Tsukakoshi to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Ina Tsukakoshi has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ina Tsukakoshi to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ina Tsukakoshi to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ina Tsukakoshi has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment, is just above the industry average. Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment HBR case study mentions - Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ina Tsukakoshi is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ina Tsukakoshi products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ina Tsukakoshi needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Tsukakoshi 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ina Tsukakoshi, firm in the HBR case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ina Tsukakoshi is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Tsukakoshi is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ina Tsukakoshi needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ina Tsukakoshi to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment | 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ina Tsukakoshi in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ina Tsukakoshi can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ina Tsukakoshi to increase its market reach. Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ina Tsukakoshi can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ina Tsukakoshi is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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.
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. Ina Tsukakoshi can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Manufacturing automation
– Ina Tsukakoshi can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ina Tsukakoshi has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ina Tsukakoshi to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment case study. Ina Tsukakoshi can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Ina Tsukakoshi can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Tsukakoshi to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ina Tsukakoshi with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ina Tsukakoshi is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ina Tsukakoshi has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ina Tsukakoshi needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ina Tsukakoshi can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ina Tsukakoshi 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment, Ina Tsukakoshi may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ina Tsukakoshi can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Ina Tsukakoshi 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. Ina Tsukakoshi can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Ina Tsukakoshi needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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. Ina Tsukakoshi needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Ina Tsukakoshi business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Food Industry (2): Marketing Strategies in a Deflationary Environment 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 Ina Tsukakoshi needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
