Gd Advertising A (2400) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Advertising
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Gd Advertising A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Gd Advertising A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Gd Advertising A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gd Advertising A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Gd Advertising A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gd Advertising A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Advertising sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gd Advertising A
Strengths of Gd Advertising A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gd Advertising A are -
Organizational Resilience of Gd Advertising A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Gd Advertising A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Gd Advertising A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gd Advertising A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Gd Advertising A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gd Advertising A 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gd Advertising A in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Gd Advertising A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gd Advertising A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gd Advertising A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Gd Advertising A staying ahead in the Advertising industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gd Advertising A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Advertising industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Gd Advertising A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Gd Advertising A is one of the most innovative firm in Advertising sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gd Advertising A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gd Advertising A 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gd Advertising A 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.
Digital Transformation in Advertising industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gd Advertising A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gd Advertising A 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gd Advertising A in Advertising industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Gd Advertising A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gd Advertising A are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Gd Advertising A needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Advertising industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Gd Advertising A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gd Advertising A is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Advertising industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Gd Advertising A 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 Advertising industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Gd Advertising A has high operating costs in the Advertising industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Gd Advertising A lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Advertising industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gd Advertising A 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Gd Advertising A 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Gd Advertising A is one of the leading players in the Advertising industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Advertising industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Gd Advertising A needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gd Advertising A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Advertising industry, but Gd Advertising A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gd Advertising A to focus more on services in the Advertising industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Gd Advertising A 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 Advertising industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gd Advertising A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Gd Advertising A to provide better information regarding Advertising products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Gd Advertising A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Gd Advertising A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gd Advertising A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Gd Advertising A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Gd Advertising A are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Gd Advertising A 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
– Gd Advertising A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Advertising 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.
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. Gd Advertising A can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gd Advertising A 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gd Advertising A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Advertising industry. This can help Gd Advertising A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Gd Advertising A products in the Advertising industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gd Advertising A can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Gd Advertising A 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Gd Advertising A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gd Advertising A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Advertising sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Advertising industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Gd Advertising A in the Advertising industry. Now Gd Advertising A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Gd Advertising A 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gd Advertising A to increase its market reach. Gd Advertising A 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gd Advertising A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Advertising industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Gd Advertising A can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Advertising 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.
Threats Gd Advertising A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Gd Advertising A are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gd Advertising A is facing in Advertising sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gd Advertising A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Advertising industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gd Advertising A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Advertising 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Gd Advertising A 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 Advertising industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gd Advertising A 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 Advertising industry and other sectors.
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 Gd Advertising A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gd Advertising A 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 Advertising industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Advertising industry are lowering. It can presents Gd Advertising A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Advertising sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Gd Advertising A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Advertising sector.
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 Gd Advertising A.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Gd Advertising A 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. Gd Advertising A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Advertising industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Advertising industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A 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 Gd Advertising A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.