Market research
Analysis of company's position
Analysis of a company’s activity is connected with deep understanding of its internal matters and is of more concern to OD specialists (specialists in organizational development), consultants who solve complex problems of organizations – from organizational structure to organizational culture. A look from the side always brings fresh ideas for understanding and solving internal problems. However, the analysis of a company's position and prospects requires taking into account a broader context – the market with all its peculiarities and participants. An effective means of determining a company's development prospects is SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis
SWOT is an abbreviation for four components subject to analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. The first two components characterize the internal peculiarities of an organization, the latter two characterize the general context the organization is in. This procedure is usually applied to companies, though it can also be applied to brands. The objective is to single out key matters, to rank them according to their significance and to determine a general strategy of effective exploitation of strengths, decreasing the impact of weaknesses, taking into account positive and negative aspects of economic, political, legal and psychological situations on the market.
Strengths
It is known that good and bad sides can be found in everything.
The objective of this type of analysis is to detect, differentiate and rank positive aspects. In spite of the internal character of the problems discussed at this stage, strengths are estimated in comparison with the competitors’ profile. It is not enough to simply single out the strengths - it is necessary to find necessary resources to realize them. There are absolute advantages, such as appearing on the market first, low production costs, private raw materials base. But there are also advantages which are not that obvious – satisfaction of clients/buyers, no poor memories in consumers’ minds after a company’s errors and accidental product defects.
Weaknesses
It is also known that consumers find weaknesses quickly and eagerly; advantages are taken for granted and do not attract much attention.
You should be able to see and, moreover, admit your weaknesses. The key aspect in determining weaknesses is the history of company development or brand development. While the strengths focus on the future, the weaknesses are connected with errors in the past. Understanding of weak sides is often enough to eliminate them. But to effectively eliminate drawbacks we need measures requiring sources which should also be determined as a result of SWOT analysis.
Opportunities and Threats
External circumstances determine areas of efforts made to realize strengths and overcoming weaknesses. These circumstances also have a positive or negative character and therefore are divided into Opportunities and Threats.
External factors also differ in scale. The effects of the macroenvironment can be seen on several global levels: demographic/economic, technological, political/legal and social/cultural. Microenvironmental factors are closer connected with a company’s activity. They are consumers, competitors, distribution channels and suppliers. In every case concerning a particular company, the list of these impacts forms a unique hierarchy opening clear opportunities of an organization’s development. Open advantages indicate strategically significant growth areas. The realization of external threats gives more safety of undertaken steps.
The"2õ2" matrix built from the four elements of SWOT analysis allows us to match every element to others and find the necessary balance among them. The result of the analysis is ranking and singling out most probable prospects, determining the reasonability of the steps for successful company development, and forming a common marketing strategy.
| E-mail:rprg@rprg.ru |
|
Site by - WebCait.Ru | ||||||||||||