An Analysis on Analysis – SWOT

A few weeks ago, we gave you a template for creating your perfect marketing plan. That was a brief overview, but there is still a lot of information to cover before you can write a professional marketing plan.

These days, too many companies are jumping straight into a recommendation without proper research. It might seem overly formal, but doing your research and analysis first will help you write recommendations that actually work.

The most basic of these analyses is the SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. True to its name, a SWOT analysis gives you a general idea of your business’ internal strengths and weaknesses and contrasts them against any external opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis is designed to give a high level report of all the general issues facing the company or project, and is useful before diving into more comprehensive analyses of your market and audience.

Strengths

What are some things your organization does well? Look for specific attributes, or experiences that you do better than your competitors. These strengths are also known as competitive advantages.

Examples:

Strong relationship with suppliers

Comprehensive CRM system

High number of users

Weaknesses

What are some things your business struggles with? Be brutally honest here. The better you identify these shortcomings, the sooner your business can correct them.

Examples:

Poor location for retail

Low quality product

No social media presence

Opportunities

Now take a look at what’s happening outside of your company. Are there any events or positive industry changes happening in the present or near future?

Examples:

Favourable exchange rate (for international companies)

Growth in target audience

Little to no competitors in market

Threats

Like opportunities, threats examine any changes that may occur outside of the company, but obviously these refer to negative changes. Often, these threats are closely related to your internal weaknesses.

Examples:

New competitors entering the market

Upcoming government regulations or legislation that may hurt demand

Your technology or the entire industry is becoming obsolete

A SWOT analysis should be accompanied by other analyses (which we will get into later) to give your client or your superiors a better idea of your situation.

An Analysis on Analysis – SWOT