The Market Situation section of your plan includes research and analysis of your target market, competitors, business challenges, and your company’s competitive differentiators. It should contain your best and most clear description of the current state of the marketplace. This section should describe your company’s strengths
and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats you face. This "SWOT" (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) analysis can help you determine the best areas to focus your marketing efforts. A sampling of the kinds of questions the Market Situation section should answer are: This article is part of our “Business Planning Guide“—a curated list of our articles that will help you with the planning process! Conducting a SWOT analysis of your business is a lot more fun than it sounds. It won’t take much time, and doing it forces you to think about your business in a whole new way. The point of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a strong business strategy by making sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace. What is a SWOT analysis?S.W.O.T. is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is an organized list of your business’s greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the company (think: reputation, patents, location). You can change them over time but not without some work. Opportunities and threats are external (think: suppliers, competitors, prices)—they are out there in the market, happening whether you like it or not. You can’t change them. Existing businesses can use a SWOT analysis, at any time, to assess a changing environment and respond proactively. In fact, I recommend conducting a strategy review meeting at least once a year that begins with a SWOT analysis. New businesses should use a SWOT analysis as a part of their planning process. There is no “one size fits all” plan for your business, and thinking about your new business in terms of its unique “SWOTs” will put you on the right track right away, and save you from a lot of headaches later on. Looking to get started right away? Download our free SWOT Analysis template. In this article, I will cover the following:
How to conduct a SWOT analysisTo get the most complete, objective results, a SWOT analysis is best conducted by a group of people with different perspectives and stakes in your company. Management, sales, customer service, and even customers can all contribute valid insight. Moreover, the SWOT analysis process is an opportunity to bring your team together and encourage their participation in and adherence to your company’s resulting strategy. A SWOT analysis is typically conducted using a four-square SWOT analysis template, but you could also just make lists for each category. Use the method that makes it easiest for you to organize and understand the results. I recommend holding a brainstorming session to identify the factors in each of the four categories. Alternatively, you could ask team members to individually complete our free SWOT analysis template, and then meet to discuss and compile the results. As you work through each category, don’t be too concerned about elaborating at first; bullet points may be the best way to begin. Just capture the factors you believe are relevant in each of the four areas. Once you are finished brainstorming, create a final, prioritized version of your SWOT analysis, listing the factors in each category in order of highest priority at the top to lowest priority at the bottom. Questions to ask during a SWOT analysisI’ve compiled some questions below to help you develop each section of your SWOT analysis. There are certainly other questions you could ask; these are just meant to get you started. Strengths (internal, positive factors)Strengths describe the positive attributes, tangible and intangible, internal to your organization. They are within your control.
Weaknesses (internal, negative factors)Weaknesses are aspects of your business that detract from the value you offer or place you at a competitive disadvantage. You need to enhance these areas in order to compete with your best competitor.
Opportunities (external, positive factors)Opportunities are external attractive factors that represent reasons your business is likely to prosper.
Threats (external, negative factors)Threats include external factors beyond your control that could place your strategy, or the business itself, at risk. You have no control over these, but you may benefit by having contingency plans to address them if they should occur.
Examples of a SWOT analysisFor illustration, here’s a brief SWOT example from a hypothetical, medium-sized computer store in the United States: See our SWOT analysis examples article for in-depth examples of SWOT analyses for several different industries and business types or download our free SWOT analysis template. TOWS analysis: Developing strategies from your SWOT analysisOnce you have identified and prioritized your SWOT results, you can use them to develop short-term and long-term strategies for your business. After all, the true value of this exercise is in using the results to maximize the positive influences on your business and minimize the negative ones. But how do you turn your SWOT results into strategies? One way to do this is to consider how your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats overlap with each other. This is sometimes called a TOWS analysis. For example, look at the strengths you identified, and then come up with ways to use those strengths to maximize the opportunities (these are strength-opportunity strategies). Then, look at how those same strengths can be used to minimize the threats you identified (these are strength-threats strategies). Continuing this process, use the opportunities you identified to develop strategies that will minimize the weaknesses (weakness-opportunity strategies) or avoid the threats (weakness-threats strategies). The following table might help you organize the strategies in each area: Once you’ve developed strategies and included them in your strategic plan, be sure to schedule regular review meetings. Use these meetings to talk about why the results of your strategies are different from what you’d planned (because they always will be) and decide what your team will do going forward. Looking for more?See our SWOT analysis examples article for in-depth examples of SWOT analyses for several different industries, or download our free SWOT analysis template. Which of the following is a role of the marketing plan?The marketing plan details the strategy that a company will use to market its products to customers. The plan identifies the target market, the value proposition of the brand or the product, the campaigns to be initiated, and the metrics to be used to assess the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.
What refers to the value of a brand based on the extent of brand loyalty name awareness and perceived quality?Brand equity represents the value of a brand, and comprises a consumer's awareness of a brand, the associations they make with the brand, the way they perceive the quality of its products, and the extent to which consumers show loyalty towards it.
What is the last step in the branding process?In fact, the design is the final stage of the branding process. Building a brand is a long process that starts with the completion of the branding project. It's important to understand that the visuals are just a tool, a device that will communicate the brand values and vision.
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