SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Marketing Worldwide (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Marketing Worldwide is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Marketing Worldwide
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Marketing Worldwide can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Marketing Worldwide, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Marketing Worldwide operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Marketing Worldwide can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Marketing Worldwide
2. Improving business portfolio management of Marketing Worldwide
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Marketing Worldwide
Strengths of Marketing Worldwide | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Marketing Worldwide are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Marketing Worldwide is present in almost all the verticals within the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This has provided Marketing Worldwide 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Marketing Worldwide has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Marketing Worldwide staying ahead in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Marketing Worldwide comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Marketing Worldwide has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Marketing Worldwide is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Marketing Worldwide is one of the most innovative firm in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Ability to lead change in Auto & Truck Manufacturers
– Marketing Worldwide is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Marketing Worldwide in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Marketing Worldwide
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Marketing Worldwide does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Marketing Worldwide in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Marketing Worldwide has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Marketing Worldwide to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– Marketing Worldwide is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Marketing Worldwide has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Marketing Worldwide have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Marketing Worldwide | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Marketing Worldwide are -
Skills based hiring in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Marketing Worldwide 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Marketing Worldwide 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Marketing Worldwide has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry over the last five years. Marketing Worldwide 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Marketing Worldwide strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Marketing Worldwide don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Marketing Worldwide 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry using digital technology.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Marketing Worldwide has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Marketing Worldwide is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Marketing Worldwide to provide better information regarding Auto & Truck Manufacturers products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Marketing Worldwide products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Marketing Worldwide needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Marketing Worldwide needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Marketing Worldwide can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Marketing Worldwide is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Marketing Worldwide 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Marketing Worldwide has some of the most successful models in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Marketing Worldwide should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Marketing Worldwide Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Marketing Worldwide are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Marketing Worldwide 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.
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. Marketing Worldwide can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Marketing Worldwide can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Marketing Worldwide in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. Now Marketing Worldwide can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Marketing Worldwide has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Marketing Worldwide to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Marketing Worldwide to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Marketing Worldwide can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
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 Marketing Worldwide 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Marketing Worldwide can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Marketing Worldwide can develop new processes and procedures in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Marketing Worldwide 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Marketing Worldwide External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Marketing Worldwide are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Marketing Worldwide 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Marketing Worldwide 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide is facing in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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 Marketing Worldwide in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide prominent markets.
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. Marketing Worldwide needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Marketing Worldwide has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Marketing Worldwide needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Environmental challenges
– Marketing Worldwide 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. Marketing Worldwide can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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 Marketing Worldwide.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Marketing Worldwide in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. The Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
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 Marketing Worldwide business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Marketing Worldwide Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Marketing Worldwide 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 Marketing Worldwide needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.