The good, the bad and the ugly of detailed SWOT analysis
If you are an advertising or marketing student, entrepreneur, or business professional, get ready to learn about one of the most basic and functional tools for marketers that is still widely practiced today: SWOT analysis. Like many topics in school that students seem to avoid (learning the quadratic formula in Calculus, reading Brave New World in English, or that extremely uncomfortable topic everyone in health class is embarrassed to learn), detailed SWOT analysis is just something. We will have to face learning and get used to writing, regardless of how advanced our advertising methods are. Detailed SWOT analysis will be around forever and can really help you understand the environment your product or service is getting into and what you have to offer your leads that your competitors have forgotten. So here it is in plain language: the good, the bad, and the ugly of detailed SWOT analysis.
As a professional marketer who has been working in this field, representing a multitude of companies throughout North America for over 15 years, I am continually behind the benefits and effectiveness of developing and using a detailed SWOT analysis. Before starting any new project, whether for myself or for a client, I have included and will continue to include the development of a SWOT analysis. My suggestion is that if you want your marketing initiatives to work like a professionally developed plan, you need to think and act like a professional marketer. In this article I am going to share with you …
o The good thing about developing a proper SWOT analysis “The good thing”
o What is the downside of developing a proper SWOT analysis “The Bad”
o What if the SWOT analysis doesn’t seem to add value to my marketing plan? “The ugly one”
So why do seasoned advertising executives claim that a detailed SWOT analysis of your product / service could open your eyes to an opportunity you’ve never imagined? Let’s put it this way: If you are the owner of a new business and need to sell your business to your future employees, who are ultimately responsible for reselling your business idea, you probably better have a clear sense of what. your business is all about. The vision, mission and core values of your business are very important in determining whether customers see your product / service as a necessity. Is the product category you are in thriving, full of competition, or yesterday’s trend? All of these answers can be yours, breaking down your business in a SWOT analysis.
What’s good about a SWOT? The easiest way to answer this question is in the clearly stated acronym, a SWOT will tell you what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are for your business. Strengths and weaknesses are attributes of your business that are identified internally. What happens within the environment of your own company? Some of the strengths you may have is that you were the first to enter a category (i.e. Red Bull in the energy drinks category), if your company won any awards, which makes you different from your competitors (do you have anything that they don’t. Is it that hard to copy?) Weaknesses could be that you were not “one of the originals” and are bundled with all the other billions of varieties of soap available today; it lacks that “must have” feature. Or maybe your product or service is a seasonal item, so your key sales peak only occurs during a certain quarter of the year, in which case, how does the company survive for the other 3 quarters? Strengths and weaknesses are easy to identify if you really sit down and think about what your company is, what it stands for, and what you offer your customers. Opportunities and threats are externally identified; These are things that occur outside of your business that you cannot control. Going back to the Red Bull example, the fact that the general public was becoming increasingly exhausted and looking for something to “help me” paved the way for Red Bull to really join the public. And perhaps the easiest example of a threat is something most companies seem to be facing today: the dismal state of the economy and the public wary of spending. These four aspects are quick and easy ways to access your business, and with a little thought, you can open your business to opportunities you may not have originally seen.
What’s wrong with a detailed SWOT analysis? Well for the first time, be prepared, this is just one of the billions of SWOT analyzes you will perform on a variety of companies and products. But don’t worry, practice makes perfect. Sometimes the first few SWOTs can take a little time to finalize the formula, but soon it will be as simple as riding a bike.
The ugliness of detailed SWOT analysis is very rare, but it has seen the light of day. Perhaps the product category is so complex that a SWOT doesn’t really answer any immediate questions for your business. Or you’ve finally completed what you thought was an astonishing analysis, only to find that after investing a large amount of money in your “dream project,” you have entered an overly saturated market and your product (without much of a added value) will soon be lost among the masses – ouch! Additionally, some companies confuse their internal strengths with external opportunities, where their SWOT analysis becomes skewed and unhelpful.
So even if you’re frustrated for the first time with what makes an attribute internal or external, the fact that you sometimes need to research your category to get really cool opportunities once you get familiar with this process does exist. a good chance you can start dreaming about SWOT analysis and start applying it to your daily life – one of the best things about a detailed SWOT analysis is that it is a basic structure that really puts your business in perspective for you, your employees and, most importantly, what you have to offer your customers.