Intro to SWOT Analysis

According to the article "Benefits and Limitations of a SWOT Analysis," which is NOT a benefit of doing a SWOT analysis?

It can give a company solutions to fix any pressing problems.

According to the article "Benefits and Limitations of a SWOT Analysis," which is NOT a weakness of doing a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is too time-consuming to conduct.

The team at Pat's Pizza uses the following guiding questions to come up with a list of potential action steps.

As a marketer of Pat's Pizza, how could you message these strengths and opportunities to our customers? As a marketer of Pat's Pizza, how could you use these strengths and opportunities to increase customer reach? As a marketer of Pat's Pizza, what changes could you make to get rid of or reduce the weaknesses and threats? As a marketer of Pat's Pizza, how could you minimize these weaknesses and threats in the minds of customers?

Research your business, industry and market

Before you begin the SWOT analysis you need to do some research to understand your business, industry and market. Get a range of perspectives by talking to your staff, business partners and clients. Also conduct some market research and find out about your competitors.

Human Capital

Human capital Pat's Pizza should hire or contract with someone who has marketing experience to drive targeted marketing campaigns. Pat's Pizza should pay for a member of its leadership team to take part-time marketing classes to gain foundational marketing skills.

Tips for a successful SWOT analysis

If you decide a SWOT analysis is the best tool, the following tips will help you get the most out of it: Keep your SWOT short and simple, but remember to include important details. For example, if you think your staff are a strength, include specific details, such as individual staff and their specific skills and experience, as well as why they are a strength and how they can help you meet your business goals. When you finish your SWOT analysis, prioritise the results by listing them in order of the most significant factors that affect your business to the least. Get multiple perspectives on your business for your SWOT analysis. Ask for input from your employees, suppliers, customers and partners. Apply your SWOT analysis to a specific issue, such as a goal you would like to achieve or a problem you need to solve, rather than to your entire business. You can then conduct separate SWOT analyses on individual issues and combine them. Look at where your business is now and think about where it might be in the future, as well as where you would like to be. Consider your competitors and be realistic about how your business compares to them. Think about the factors that are essential to the success of your business, and the things you can offer customers that your competitors can't. This is your competitive advantage. It's useful to keep these in mind when conducting a SWOT analysis. Use goals and objectives from your overall business plan in your SWOT analysis.

List potential threats to your business

List external factors that could be a threat or cause a problem for your business. Examples of threats could include rising unemployment, increasing competition, higher interest rates and the uncertainty of global markets.

List your business's weaknesses

List things in your business that you consider to be weaknesses (i.e. that put your business at a disadvantage to others). Weaknesses could include an absence of new products or clients, staff absenteeism, a lack of intellectual property, declining market share and distance to market. Make sure you address the weaknesses raised in your SWOT analysis. The list of weaknesses can indicate how your business has grown over time. When you review the SWOT analysis after a year, you may notice that your weaknesses have been resolved. While you may find new weaknesses, the fact that the old ones are gone is a sign of progress.

Human Capital

Marketing material should include a picture of the owner and founder of Pat's Pizza since he is well-known in the community. The owner and founder of Pat's Pizza should create partnerships with local businesses to advertise the products and build awareness for the restaurant.

Which of the following is NOT true about SWOT analyses?

SWOT analyses should only be performed when businesses are in decline.

Which two parts of the SWOT analysis indicate characteristics that come from OUTSIDE of a company? (Check all that apply.)

Opportunities Threats

Based on market research, you learn that there is a growing number of people who appreciate coffee in your community. That is best described as a/an _________.

Opportunity

Competitive Advantage

Pat's Pizza could partner with an app, like MealPal or DoorDash, that allows customers to order their meals ahead of time. Pat's Pizza could message to customers that its pre-made slices are always ready to go at lunchtime.

Dietary Preferences

Pat's Pizza might consider offering low-carb, healthier pizza options such as gluten-free crusts, cauliflower crusts, and/or more vegetarian toppings. Pat's Pizza could offer and advertise healthier options such as salads (which it could charge more for than pizza).

Area Growth

Pat's Pizza should consider expanding to a new location to meet the growing population of its community. Pat's Pizza should conduct further market research to determine which areas of the town are growing fastest, then consider those areas to establish a second location.

Physical

Pat's Pizza should consider partnering with Uber Eats or other food-delivery services to increase the number of customers without having to expand the restaurant. Pat's Pizza could look into expanding to an additional location or buying up surrounding property to increase the store size if the business is going well. Pat's Pizza could consider opening a small storefront around the corner for pick-up orders only.

Competitive advantage

Pat's Pizza should develop marketing materials that target people who will be drawn to the lower price point (e.g., students). Pat's Pizza should display its low prices prominently in the storefront and in online marketing campaigns.

Location

Pat's Pizza should develop marketing materials that target professionals and tourists who are likely to be in the downtown area at lunchtime. Pat's Pizza should make sure that its signage and storefront is attractive to passersby by hiring designers to create colorful signs with witty writing that draw in potential customers.

Market trends

Pat's Pizza should emphasize the speed and convenience of buying pizza at Pat's to tap into market trends around eating out. This will encourage potential customers to choose Pat's over other local dining options. Pat's Pizza should conduct further market research to determine which segments of the population are more likely to eat out at restaurants to better target its marketing.

Develop a strategy to address issues in the SWOT

Review your 4 prioritised lists by asking: How can we use our strengths to take advantage of the opportunities identified? How can we use these strengths to overcome the threats identified? What do we need to do to overcome the identified weaknesses in order to take advantage of the opportunities? How will we minimise our weaknesses to overcome the identified threats?

Having skilled management with relevant experience is a benefit to your company. That is best described as a/an ___________.

Strength

Which two parts of the SWOT analysis indicate characteristics of a company that would be helpful to achieving a company's goals? (Check all that apply.)

Strengths Opportunities

Which two parts of the SWOT analysis indicate characteristics that come from INSIDE of a company? (Check all that apply.)

Strengths Weaknesses

Benefits of SWOT analysis

The main advantages of conducting a SWOT analysis is that it has little or no cost - anyone who understands your business can perform a SWOT analysis. You can also use a SWOT analysis when you don't have much time to address a complex situation. This means that you can take steps towards improving your business without the expense of an external consultant or business adviser. Another advantage of a SWOT analysis is that it concentrates on the most important factors affecting your business. Using a SWOT, you can: understand your business better address weaknesses deter threats capitalise on opportunities take advantage of your strengths develop business goals and strategies for achieving them.

List potential opportunities for your business

Think about the possible external opportunities for your business. These are not the same as your internal strengths, and are not necessarily definite - an opportunity for one aspect of your business could be a threat to another (e.g. you may consider introducing a new product to keep up with consumer trends, but your competitors may already have a similar product). Keep this in mind, but for the SWOT analysis, the same item shouldn't be listed as both an opportunity and a threat.

Your area of the country is experiencing an economic recession, so people are less likely to go out and spend money on coffee. That is best described as a/an ___________.

Threat

1. Decide on the objective of your SWOT analysis

To get the most out of your SWOT analysis, you should have a question or objective in mind from the start. For example, you could use a SWOT analysis to help you decide if you should introduce a new product or service, or change your processes.

There is another coffee shop in your community that offers popular events such as local musician nights. That is best described as a/an __________.

Weakness

Which two parts of the SWOT analysis indicate characteristics of a company that could be harmful to achieving a company's goals? (Check all that apply.)

Weaknesses Threats

Limitations of SWOT analysis

When you are conducting a SWOT analysis, you should keep in mind that it is only one stage of the business planning process. For complex issues, you will usually need to conduct more in-depth research and analysis to make decisions. Keep in mind that a SWOT analysis only covers issues that can definitely be considered a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat. Because of this, it's difficult to address uncertain or two-sided factors, such as factors that could either be a strength or a weakness or both, with a SWOT analysis (e.g. you might have a prominent location, but the lease may be expensive). A SWOT analysis may be limited because it: doesn't prioritise issues doesn't provide solutions or offer alternative decisions can generate too many ideas but not help you choose which one is best can produce a lot of information, but not all of it is useful.

To select which action steps are the most important, you might consider the following guiding questions:

Which action steps are the most realistic to pursue given the company's limited resources? Which action steps will best advance the company's marketing goal?

SWOT analysis

a planning tool used to analyze an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

SWOT

is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats