swot analysis in a business plan

– Zeeshan Akhtar , head of marketing at Mailmodo

“It's easy to fall into a groupthink because usually, SWOT analysis is conducted by management. What we did differently in this case, given the issue we wanted to tackle, was involve an external consultant as well as internal employees to get more diverse perspectives and creative solutions.”

– Zach Dannett , cofounder at Tumble

“ During a SWOT analysis, delving deep into competitors' operations to uncover their vulnerabilities can be invaluable. For instance, discovering a key competitor struggling with customer service inefficiencies through reviews and market feedback can highlight an opportunity for differentiation.”

– Harrison Tang , CEO of Spokeo

“Set priorities and focus on the most impactful areas first. Allocate resources strategically, prioritizing initiatives that promise the greatest returns.”

Arham Khan , CEO of Pixated

“ In terms of leveraging the results, businesses need to be proactive. Don't just see it as a one-time report - use it as a roadmap. Whether reinforcing strengths, addressing weaknesses or pursuing opportunities, SWOT should influence strategic planning and product roadmaps. Revisit it annually too, as situations evolve. ”

– Kelly Indah , editor-in-chief at Increditools

Ultimately, a SWOT analysis can measure and tackle both big and small challenges, from deciding whether or not to launch a new product to refining your social media strategy.

When conducting your own SWOT analysis, you may face problems like data overload, differing opinions, and actionability. I certainly did. However in my experience, these problems can be solved by:

• Focusing on the most relevant information and filtering out the noise.
• Facilitating discussions to reach an agreement or using a neutral moderator.
• Ensuring each point is specific and actionable, providing clear direction for your strategies.

I will conclude this piece by saying don‘t underestimate the power of taking a step back from time to time to assess where you’ve been, where you‘re at, and where you’re going.

I firmly believe that regularly conducting a SWOT analysis is critical for any entrepreneur looking to grow.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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SWOT analysis: Examples and templates

A SWOT analysis helps you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for a specific project or your overall business plan. It’s used for strategic planning and to stay ahead of market trends. Below, we describe each part of the SWOT framework and show you how to conduct your own.

Whether you’re looking for external opportunities or internal strengths, we’ll walk you through how to perform your own SWOT analysis, with helpful examples along the way. 

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business or even a specific project. It’s most widely used by organizations—from small businesses and non-profits to large enterprises—but a SWOT analysis can be used for personal purposes as well. 

While simple, a SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for helping you identify competitive opportunities for improvement. It helps you improve your team and business while staying ahead of market trends.

What does SWOT stand for?

SWOT is an acronym that stands for: 

Opportunities

When analyzed together, the SWOT framework can paint a larger picture of where you are and how to get to the next step. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these terms and how they can help identify areas of improvement. 

Strengths in SWOT refer to internal initiatives that are performing well. Examining these areas helps you understand what’s already working. You can then use the techniques that you know work—your strengths—in other areas that might need additional support, like improving your team’s efficiency . 

When looking into the strengths of your organization, ask yourself the following questions:

What do we do well? Or, even better: What do we do best?

What’s unique about our organization?

What does our target audience like about our organization?

Which categories or features beat out our competitors?

 Example SWOT strength:

Customer service: Our world-class customer service has an NPS score of 90 as compared to our competitors, who average an NPS score of 70.

Weaknesses in SWOT refer to internal initiatives that are underperforming. It’s a good idea to analyze your strengths before your weaknesses in order to create a baseline for success and failure. Identifying internal weaknesses provides a starting point for improving those projects.

Identify the company’s weaknesses by asking:

Which initiatives are underperforming and why?

What can be improved?

What resources could improve our performance?

How do we rank against our competitors?

Example SWOT weakness:

E-commerce visibility: Our website visibility is low because of a lack of marketing budget , leading to a decrease in mobile app transactions.

Opportunities in SWOT result from your existing strengths and weaknesses, along with any external initiatives that will put you in a stronger competitive position. These could be anything from weaknesses that you’d like to improve or areas that weren’t identified in the first two phases of your analysis. 

Since there are multiple ways to come up with opportunities, it’s helpful to consider these questions before getting started:

What resources can we use to improve weaknesses?

Are there market gaps in our services?

What are our business goals for the year?

What do your competitors offer?

Example SWOT opportunities:

Marketing campaign: To improve brand visibility, we’ll run ad campaigns on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Threats in SWOT are areas with the potential to cause problems. Different from weaknesses, threats are external and ‌out of your control. This can include anything from a global pandemic to a change in the competitive landscape. 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to identify external threats:

What changes in the industry are cause for concern?

What new market trends are on the horizon?

Where are our competitors outperforming us?

Example SWOT threats:

New competitor: With a new e-commerce competitor set to launch within the next month, we could see a decline in customers.

SWOT analysis example

One of the most popular ways to create a SWOT analysis is through a SWOT matrix—a visual representation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The matrix comprises four separate squares that create one larger square. 

A SWOT matrix is great for collecting information and documenting the questions and decision-making process . Not only will it be handy to reference later on, but it’s also great for visualizing any patterns that arise. 

Check out the SWOT matrix below for a simple example. As you can see, each of the quadrants lists out the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

When used correctly and effectively, your matrix can be a great toolkit for evaluating your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. 

How to do a SWOT analysis, with examples 

A SWOT analysis can be conducted in a variety of ways. Some teams like to meet and throw ideas on a whiteboard, while others prefer the structure of a SWOT matrix. However you choose to make your SWOT analysis, getting creative with your planning process allows new ideas to flow and results in more unique solutions. 

There are a few ways to ensure that your SWOT analysis is thorough and done correctly. Let’s take a closer look at some tips to help you get started.

Tip 1: Consider internal factors 

Often, strengths and weaknesses stem from internal processes. These tend to be easier to solve since you have more control over the outcome. When you come across internal factors, you can start implementing improvements in a couple of different ways.

Meet with department stakeholders to form a business plan around how to improve your current situation.

Research and implement new tools, such as a project management tool , that can help streamline these processes for you. 

Take immediate action on anything that can be changed in 24 hours or less. If you don’t have the capacity, consider delegating these items to others with deadlines. 

The way you go about solving internal factors will depend on the type of problem. If it’s more complex, you might need to use a combination of the above or a more thorough problem management process.

Tip 2: Evaluate external factors

External factors stem from processes outside of your control. This includes competitors, market trends, and anything else that’s affecting your organization from the outside in. 

External factors are trickier to solve, as you can’t directly control the outcome. What you can do is pivot your own processes in a way that mitigates negative external factors. 

You can work to solve these issues by:

Competing with market trends

Forecasting market trends before they happen

Improving adaptability to improve your reaction time

Track competitors using reporting tools that automatically update you as soon as changes occur 

While you won’t be able to control an external environment, you can control how your organization reacts to it. 

Let’s say, for instance, that you’re looking to compete with a market trend. For example, a competitor introduced a new product to the market that’s outperforming your own. While you can’t take that product away, you can work to launch an even better product or marketing campaign to mitigate any decline in sales. 

Tip 3: Hold a brainstorming session

Brainstorming new and innovative ideas can help to spur creativity and inspire action. To host a high impact brainstorming session, you’ll want to: 

Invite team members from various departments. That way, ideas from each part of the company are represented. 

Be intentional about the number of team members you invite, since too many participants could lead to a lack of focus or participation. The sweet spot for a productive brainstorming session is around 10 teammates. 

Use different brainstorming techniques that appeal to different work types.

Set a clear intention for the session.

Tip 4: Get creative

In order to generate creative ideas, you have to first invite them. That means creating fun ways to come up with opportunities. Try randomly selecting anonymous ideas, talking through obviously bad examples, or playing team building games to psych up the team.

Tip 5: Prioritize opportunities

Now, rank the opportunities. This can be done as a team or with a smaller group of leaders. Talk through each idea and rank it on a scale of one through 10. Once you’ve agreed on your top ideas based on team capabilities, competencies, and overall impact, it’s easier to implement them.

Tip 6: Take action

It’s all too easy to feel finished at this stage —but the actual work is just beginning. After your SWOT analysis, you’ll have a list of prioritized opportunities. Now is the time to turn them into strengths. Use a structured system such as a business case , project plan, or implementation plan to outline what needs to get done—and how you plan to do it.

SWOT analysis template

A SWOT analysis template is often presented in a grid format, divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant represents one of the four elements. 

Use this free SWOT analysis template to jump-start your team’s strategic planning.

Identify the strengths that contribute to achieving your objectives. These are internal characteristics that give you an advantage. Some examples could be a strong brand reputation, an innovative culture, or an experienced management team.

Next, focus on weaknesses. These are internal factors that could serve as obstacles to achieving your objectives. Common examples might include a lack of financial resources, high operational costs, or outdated technology. 

Move on to the opportunities. These are external conditions that could be helpful in achieving your goals. For example, you might be looking at emerging markets, increased demand, or favorable shifts in regulations.

Lastly, let's address threats. These are external conditions that could negatively impact your objectives. Examples include increased competition or potential economic downturns.

Why is a SWOT analysis important?

A SWOT analysis can help you improve processes and plan for growth. While similar to a competitive analysis , it differs because it evaluates both internal and external factors. Analyzing key areas around these opportunities and threats will equip you with the insights needed to set your team up for success.

A SWOT analysis isn’t only useful for organizations. With a personal SWOT analysis, you can examine areas of your life that could benefit from improvement, from your leadership style to your communication skills. These are the benefits of using a SWOT analysis in any scenario. 

1. Identifies areas of opportunity

One of the biggest benefits of conducting an analysis is to determine opportunities for growth. It’s a great starting point for startups and teams that know they want to improve but aren’t exactly sure how to get started. 

Opportunities can come from many different avenues, like external factors such as diversifying your products for competitive advantage or internal factors like improving your team’s workflow . Either way, capitalizing on opportunities is an excellent way to grow as a team.

2. Identifies areas that could be improved

Identifying weaknesses and threats during a SWOT analysis can pave the way for a better business strategy.

Ultimately, learning from your mistakes is the best way to excel. Once you find areas to streamline, you can work with team members to brainstorm an action plan . This will let you use what you already know works and build on your company’s strengths.

3. Identifies areas that could be at risk

Whether you have a risk register in place or not, it’s always crucial to identify risks before they become a cause for concern. A SWOT analysis can help you stay on top of actionable items that may play a part in your risk decision-making process. 

It may be beneficial to pair your SWOT analysis with a PEST analysis, which examines external solutions such as political, economic, social, and technological factors—all of which can help you identify and plan for project risks .

When should you use a SWOT analysis?

You won’t always need an in-depth SWOT analysis. It’s most useful for large, general overviews of situations, scenarios, or your business.

A SWOT analysis is most helpful:

Before you implement a large change—including as part of a larger change management plan

When you launch a new company initiative

If you’d like to identify opportunities for growth and improvement

Any time you want a full overview of your business performance

If you need to identify business performance from different perspectives

SWOT analyses are general for a reason—so they can be applied to almost any scenario, project, or business. 

SWOT analysis: Pros and cons

Although SWOT is a useful strategic planning tool for businesses and individuals alike, it does have limitations. Here’s what you can expect.

The simplicity of SWOT analysis makes it a go-to tool for many. Because it is simple, it takes the mystery out of strategic planning and lets people think critically about their situations without feeling overwhelmed. 

For instance, a small bakery looking to expand its operations can use SWOT analysis to easily understand its current standing. Identifying strengths like a loyal customer base, weaknesses such as limited seating space, opportunities like a rising trend in artisanal baked goods, and threats from larger chain bakeries nearby can all be accomplished without any specialized knowledge or technical expertise.

Versatility

Its versatile nature allows SWOT analysis to be used across various domains. Whether it’s a business strategizing for the future or an individual planning their career path, SWOT analysis lends itself well. 

For example, a tech start-up in the competitive Silicon Valley landscape could employ SWOT to navigate its pathway to profitability. Strengths might include a highly skilled development team; weaknesses could be a lack of brand recognition; opportunities might lie in emerging markets; and threats could include established tech giants. 

Meaningful analysis

SWOT excels in identifying external factors that could impact performance. It nudges organizations to look beyond the present and anticipate potential future scenarios. 

A retail company, for example, could use SWOT analysis to identify opportunities in e-commerce and threats from changing consumer behavior or new competitors entering the market. By doing so, the company can strategize on how to leverage online platforms to boost sales and counteract threats by enhancing the customer experience or adopting new technologies.

Subjectivity and bias

The subjective nature of SWOT analysis may lead to biases. It relies heavily on individual perceptions, which can sometimes overlook crucial data or misinterpret information, leading to skewed conclusions. 

For example, a manufacturing company might undervalue the threat of new entrants in the market due to an overconfidence bias among the management. This subjectivity might lead to a lack of preparation for competitive pricing strategies, ultimately affecting the company's market share.

Lack of prioritization

SWOT analysis lays out issues but falls short on prioritizing them. Organizations might struggle to identify which elements deserve immediate attention and resources. 

For instance, a healthcare provider identifying numerous opportunities for expansion into new services may become overwhelmed with the choices. Without a clear way to rank these opportunities, resources could be spread too thinly or given to projects that do not have as much of an impact, leading to less-than-ideal outcomes.

Static analysis

Since SWOT analysis captures a snapshot at a particular moment, it may miss the evolving nature of challenges and opportunities, possibly leading to outdated strategies. An example could be a traditional retail business that performs a SWOT analysis and decides to focus on expanding physical stores, overlooking the growing trend of e-commerce. As online shopping continues to evolve and gain popularity, the static analysis might lead to investment in areas with diminishing returns while missing out on the booming e-commerce market trend.

SWOT analysis FAQ

What are the five elements of swot analysis.

Traditionally, SWOT stands for its four main elements: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. However, a fifth essential element often overlooked is "actionable strategies." Originally developed by Albert Humphrey, SWOT is more than just a list—it's a planning tool designed to generate actionable strategies for making informed business decisions. This fifth element serves to tie the other four together, enabling departments like human resources and marketing to turn analysis into actionable plans.

What should a SWOT analysis include?

A comprehensive SWOT analysis should focus on the internal and external factors that affect your organization. Internally, consider your strong brand and product line as your strengths, and maybe your supply chain weaknesses. Externally, you'll want to look at market share, partnerships, and new technologies that could either pose opportunities or threats. You should also account for demographics, as it helps in market targeting and segmentation.

How do you write a good SWOT analysis?

Writing an effective SWOT analysis begins with research. Start by identifying your strengths, like a strong brand, and your weaknesses, like a small human resources department. Following that, look outward to find opportunities, possibly in technological advancement, and threats, like fluctuations in market share. Many businesses find it helpful to use a free SWOT analysis template to structure this information. A good SWOT analysis doesn't just list these elements; it integrates them to provide a clear roadmap for making business decisions.

What are four examples of threats in SWOT analysis?

New technologies: Rapid technological advancement can make your product or service obsolete.

Supply chain disruptions: Whether due to natural disasters or geopolitical tensions, an unstable supply chain can seriously jeopardize your operations.

Emerging competitors: New players entering the market can erode your market share and offer alternative solutions to your customer base.

Regulatory changes: New laws or regulations can add costs and complexity to your business, affecting your competitiveness.

How do you use a SWOT analysis?

Once you've completed a SWOT analysis, use the results as a decision-making aid. It can help prioritize actions, develop strategic plans that play to your strengths, improve weaknesses, seize opportunities, and counteract threats. It’s a useful tool for setting objectives and creating a roadmap for achieving them.

Plan for growth with a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis can be an effective technique for identifying key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Understanding where you are now can be the most impactful way to determine where you want to go next. 

Don’t forget, a bit of creativity and collaboration can go a long way. Encourage your team to think outside of the box with 100+ team motivational quotes .

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How to do a SWOT Analysis in 7 Steps (with Examples & Template)

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that an organization can use to thoroughly evaluate a business or product. SWOT is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

It allows businesses to evaluate their company’s competitive advantage and the flaws of its current business model and create strategies to capitalize on or reduce these observations.

In this article, we’ll discuss the key steps on how to do a SWOT analysis and give several brief examples highlighting the strategy being utilized in different situations.

How To do a SWOT Analysis?

One of the best things about performing a SWOT analysis is that it can be learned quite quickly and mastered with just a few attempts. Even though each framework is individualized, here are the basic steps involved in building a standard SWOT analysis .

Step 1: Determine Your Objective

Before embarking on a SWOT, it is vital to define your objectives. This could include things such as developing a comprehensive schematic of the business model and organization as well as the interactions between the various components, determining the competitive advantage and weaknesses of a new product before its rollout, or determining the feasibility of a new policy.

Step 2: Gather the Necessary Resources

During this stage, it is crucial to determine the resources that would be necessary for you to carry out the exercise, note which of these are accessible, gather these materials, verify the authenticity and reliability of this data, and what limitations you face in terms of data gathering and accuracy. It is also important to ensure that this data is gathered from different sources, perspectives, and levels of the organization to enable you to create a holistic SWOT analysis.

Step 3: Craft a List of Inferences Using the Data

After obtaining data from a wide range of sources, analyze these facts into helpful information and use them to form evidence-based observ–ations. For example, a business that has maintained a strong growth trajectory and a healthy balance sheet over the years can be said to have positive fiscal indicators.

This stage should be akin to a brainstorming session, with members from different divisions within the organization as well as external parties, being allowed to contribute significantly. At this stage, the focus is more on getting as many points as possible, rather than the relevancy or credibility of these inferences.

Step 4: Compile This Information Into the Relevant Sections

After making several key points such as the one above, each of these inferences should be arranged in the relevant sections (namely strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) using the general principles outlined in the article.

Step 5: Refine These Ideas

Here, the ideas which have been obtained are further refined and can be prioritized according to relevance and importance. Points that are less credible or only minimally important can as well be discarded, allowing you to craft a more concise schematic.

Step 6: Draw the SWOT Analysis Table

The final step is crafting a swot analysis table. This involves creating a matrix and dividing it into four sections. The internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) are listed above, with the strengths on the left and the weaknesses on the right. On the other hand, the external factors (opportunities and threats) are listed below, with opportunities on the left and threats on the right. Simply list your key points under the appropriate sections to complete the SWOT analysis.

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Step 7: Craft Your Strategy

This is not technically a part of the SWOT analysis technique; however, it is important to remember that the entire point of creating this analytic framework was to carry out a strategic management plan. This means that the business will set out a series of plans to meet the objectives which it has previously outlined, as well as create some reliable metrics or milestones which enable it to measure its progress toward achieving these goals.

SWOT Analysis Examples

To better understand how a SWOT analysis is created, let’s take a look at some examples of SWOT analysis. We’ll analyze three examples, the multinational activewear brand Nike , a hypothetical mom-and-pop diner called Joe’s Brooklyn Burgers, and another hypothetical scenario involving a new product rollout.

Large Company SWOT Analysis — Nike SWOT Analysis

From their iconic “swoosh” logo to their equally iconic range of footwear, Nike, Inc. is one of the most easily recognizable activewear brands in the world. While probably best known for its range of iconic footwear, most notably the Air Jordan brand of sneakers, Nike, Inc. is also a leading brand in other sports gear, such as activewear, sports equipment, and wearable fitness tech.

The Nike business model is famous for finding the perfect balance between fashion and functionality when it comes to their products, making them quite popular among both athletes and non-athletes alike. Let’s take a look through this Nike SWOT analysis , which was designed by our platform to figure out how the brand came to dominate the sportswear market.

• Solid brand equity: The brand has one of the most recognizable identities in the business world. Also, it commands solid brand equity (the commercial value of the public’s perception of its products or services). This is because the brand has cultivated a reputation associated with innovation, quality, and social justice;
• Low-cost manufacturing is a key part of its business model: Nike has invested heavily in low-cost manufacturing by outsourcing its manufacturing process to countries that have a favorable wage structure and investing in innovative technologies. This keeps costs low and profit margins high;
• Innovative marketing strategies: Through the smart use of celebrity endorsements, iconic marketing campaigns, effective use of social media, and iconic imagery like the Nike “swoosh” logo, the brand has aligned itself with positive associations such as innovation, stylishness, maximum performance, winning, and self-empowerment;
• Increasing direct-to-consumer sales: Nike has increased direct-to-consumer sales by cutting ties with its major retailers and investing in e-commerce. This increases its profit margin, brand visibility, and control over its image;
• Impressive R&D department: The company is well known for outspending its closest competitors in this area. It has introduced some of the most iconic developments in competitive sportswear, making it a favorite for many top athletes.
• Controversial labor practices: Several reports published in the late 1990s indicated that the low-cost manufacturing strategy used by Nike may have involved unethical labor practices such as poor working conditions, long working hours, and abysmal pay;
• The brand is too dependent on its U.S. market: Nike is seen as a global brand, but careful analysis shows a significant portion of its revenue comes from the U.S. market. This leaves the company vulnerable to market shocks or economic downturns within the U.S. market;
• Worrying about financial indicators: While Nike is still by far the most valuable sports apparel company in the world, recent worrying financial trends have been brought to the spotlight. One of them is the steadily increasing long-term debt profile of the company. It is also worrisome that the company’s profit margins have steadily declined over the past few years;
• Unfavorable relationship with retailers: Using third-party retailers exposes the company to some of the disadvantages associated with this strategy, such as lower profit margins, as well as less control over their branding, and the risk of counterfeit merchandise;
• Reduced quality control: One of the disadvantages of outsourcing your manufacturing process is that you have reduced control over the quality of your products. Outsourcing can also increase the risk of the market being flooded with counterfeit Nike products.

Opportunities

• Investing in new markets: Nike still has room to expand its role as a global market by making inroads into new markets, such as increasing their presence in Europe, Africa, and Asian markets outside of China;
• Diversify their product range: Another area the brand could look into is investing in sports technology, such as wearable sports gear like smartwatches and other forms of digital sports technology. They could also invest in promoting their other sports products besides footwear;
• Invest in new technologies: This includes examples such as anti-counterfeiting technology, green energy, and more efficient sportswear technology.
• Counterfeit Nike products: Counterfeit products reduce the trust customers have in brand quality and create a negative brand image. This is especially important for Nike because the brand is one of the most counterfeited in the world, with footwear being one of the most commonly faked products;
• Competition from other brands: Nike is significantly ahead of other sporting wear companies such as Adidas, Reebok, Under Armour, and Puma. However, some of these companies, such as Adidas, command a significant market share and pull in revenue that is indeed threatening Nike’s continued dominance of the industry;
• High-profile patent disputes: As one of the market leaders in terms of research and development, Nike fiercely protects its intellectual property, such as patents. Therefore, it was certainly newsworthy when the company got into a series of legal battles with its nearest competitor Adidas over accusations of patent infringement related to the Nike Flyknit technology;
• International trade tensions: As an international brand, Nike is exposed to the nuances of trade agreements, embargoes, protectionism, as well as trade tensions;
• Its competitors are investing more heavily in advertising: Nike spends more than its closest competitor Adidas on advertising, having spent approximately $3.8 billion on advertising in 2018 (less than 10% of its total revenue), while Adidas spent $3.5 billion (representing roughly 14% of its total revenue) in that same year.

The objective of this SWOT analysis was to identify the competitive advantage of the brand and educate readers on how the corporation came to dominate the world of activewear. This was identified to be its strong brand equity, low-cost manufacturing, heavy investment in innovative technologies, as well as improving direct-to-consumer sales.

Small Business SWOT Analysis — Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers

Next, let’s take a look at a SWOT analysis for a small, independent restaurant called Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers. This will allow us to examine how the SWOT analysis of a small business differs from that of a large multinational corporation.

Our hypothetical business is a small, family-owned diner based in Brooklyn that caters to a number of local customers and offers a unique Brooklyn-themed menu. The business has been operating successfully over several decades but has run into some lean times in recent years. Let’s examine the SWOT analysis of this business to better understand the issues it faces and as well craft a brief outline of how it can reclaim its former glory.

Proximity to customers. One of the advantages of being a locally popular restaurant is that they are closer to their customers, which gives them local dominance as well as an advantage over franchised restaurants that may be located further away.

• They offer a great customer experience: The restaurant offers amazing customer service due to the personalized nature of its services, its familiarity with regular customers as well as its unique branding style, which resonates with locals;
• The restaurant is known for its top-notch cuisine: One advantage the diner enjoys as a small independent restaurant is greater control over its supply chains and, by extension, greater control over the quality of its ingredients and food. This means that the restaurant can offer higher cuisine than fast-food restaurants;
• The establishment has a great reputation: Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers has been a trusted part of the community for over two decades and has built a reputation for itself as a great local destination for top-notch cuisine as well as an enjoyable dining experience. Not only does this help it retain its pool of loyal clientele, but it has also transformed the location into a local hotspot for tourists and NY-themed food enthusiasts;
• Their small size offers them a greater degree of flexibility: Another key advantage enjoyed by the restaurant is the advantage that being a small, independent business offers in terms of flexibility. This allows for quicker decision-making and rapid changes in internal policies to deal with new challenges. It also allows the business to take more risks in the form of pivots and brand adjustments due to a more streamlined decision-making process;
• A strong workplace culture: As we mentioned earlier, Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers is a family-owned establishment. A significant number of employees are either directly related to the owner or close associates, and have worked at the establishment for years. This creates a positive work environment due to their familiarity with each other and experiences working together, which in turn increases efficiency and enhances customer satisfaction.
• Low-profit margin: Despite its popularity and great reputation, due to several factors, including mounting debt, poor financial management, and rising labor costs, the restaurant has been operating on an increasingly thin profit margin. This poses a significant challenge to the growth and continued existence of the business if not properly addressed either through increasing revenue or cutting down costs;
• Lack of professional services: Similar to most small businesses, the diner suffers from a lack of professional expertise in certain areas such as marketing, accounting as well as legal services. Therefore, these services are often carried out by untrained staff, thereby reducing efficiency and driving up costs in terms of both man-hours lost and monetary losses;
• Poor management: Despite the best efforts of its management staff, the diner has been suffering from poor oversight and a range of conflicting internal policies, which have reduced the overall efficiency of the business;
• Lack of professional hiring practices: Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers is a family-owned establishment and thus maintains a rather informal hiring process. While this may create a familiar, friendly, and cozy working environment, it does so at the cost of hiring the best possible staff. This leads to employing personnel who may not be optimally suited for certain roles, as well as makes the process of letting go of staff difficult;
• Higher per unit costs: The business also runs higher per unit costs than larger restaurant franchises that enjoy the advantages of economies of scale as well as bulk purchases. This further drives up operating costs and reduces the profit margins of the business.
• Outsourcing some of its key operations: Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers would do well to outsource several specialized functions within its business operation, such as advertising and marketing, accounting, and legal services. Not only will they enjoy increased efficiency by allowing professionals to handle these tasks, but it also allows both staff and management to focus on tasks for which they are better suited;
• Further expansion and scaling: Even though the business is quite successful locally, there is still much potential for expansion. It can capitalize on its popularity and positive reputation to build similarly themed restaurants and other iconic locations both within and outside the state;
• Diversification: Currently, the restaurant operates using a limited menu. While this is adequate for most local clientele, expanding the menu may attract more customers as well, this allows the restaurant to diversify and keep up with changing customer preferences;
• Expanding into online food delivery: Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers does not currently operate an online food delivery service. Creating such a service will increase its reach, further expanding its customer base and, by extension, revenue;
• Investing in a strong social media presence: Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers has not yet invested in the power of social media as a marketing tool as well as a customer channel which will allow them to reach out to a much broader and more diverse customer base.
• Changing government health regulations: Certain local legislation introduced by the state government has made it harder and more expensive for the business to source certain ingredients. This has driven up costs, further restricted their menu, and reduced their profit margin;
• Increasing competition from other dining establishments: The business has been facing increasing competition from both fast-food franchises and independent restaurants. This is a significant challenge to their local dominance and has eaten into their market share and, by extension, revenue;
• Lack of adequate access to capital: Small businesses such as Bob’s Brooklyn Burgers have a harder time accessing capital than larger franchises and businesses. This makes it harder for them to expand and also puts them in a more difficult situation during times of significant reductions in revenue, such as a global pandemic.

The objective of this SWOT analysis was to determine the issues plaguing the diner and help it design a strategy to improve its current business model. To achieve this, a matching and converting strategy will be used. This means that we will attempt to combine the strengths and opportunities of the business while converting the weaknesses and threats into positive indicators, or at least reducing their negative effects.

First of all, the company can outsource the various professional services listed above in order to enable it to focus on the parts of the business operation where it has a significant advantage over its competitors. This includes providing a top-notch customer experience as well as cooking top-quality meals.

Another option they could look into is utilizing the reach of social media as an avenue to build a strong online food delivery service. The fact that many of their customers are local and live relatively close to the establishment also makes this feasible. This also has the added advantage of diversifying their revenue stream .

Lastly, the company can focus on using its reputation for providing great meals as a focal point for expanding into new territories and new markets.

Product Rollout SWOT Analysis — The Turbo 2000 Product Rollout

Now that we have discussed how to perform a SWOT analysis on both large and small companies, let’s focus on the last example in this article: How to perform a SWOT analysis on a hypothetical product launch.

For this example, we will perform a SWOT analysis on the rollout of a hypothetical high-end gas stove known as the Turbo Burner 2000. This example will highlight the competitive advantage of the product as well as the challenges it may face during its launch.

• The product is coming from a well-trusted brand: One of the advantages enjoyed by the Turbo Burner 2000 is that the product comes from a well-respected company with strong brand equity and a reputation for making top-notch cooking appliances. This will boost consumer confidence and encourage more people to purchase the product;
• It makes use of revolutionary cooking ware technology: The product incorporates revolutionary gas stove technology and has been found to increase thermal efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. This helps cut down costs in the long run, shorten cooking time, reduce emissions, and enhance customer satisfaction with the entire process;
• Targeted branding and marketing: The company has created a niche for itself and is the go-to brand for high-end cooking appliances and equipment. They cater to a range of customers who may require such products, including professional chefs, restaurants, and middle- to upper-class cooking enthusiasts. 

Catering to a narrow niche allows them to better target their branding efforts and increase their profit margin by focusing resources on their key market, which reduces their customer acquisition cost. It also creates an impression of exclusivity, which only serves to further drive up the image of the company as a luxury brand;

• Improved product design and ergonomics: The new product has a more ergonomic design than its predecessor and is very user-friendly. It is made from lighter materials, making it more portable as well as compact. There are also more useful functions, such as a sleeker self-lighting feature, color-coded indicator lights, and a more sensitive temperature control;
• Backed by a company in a strong financial position: The parent company of the product is currently enjoying a strong financial position, which helps them to financially support the launch of the new product in terms of marketing and advertising;
• Very successful first model: The first model (the Turbo Burner 1000) was a massive success within the cooking industry and likely encouraged many buyers to upgrade to the newer model.
• The product is quite expensive: The Turbo Burner 2000 is quite costly for a gas stove, and this is likely going to scare off most buyers except professionals and cooking enthusiasts;
• It is seen as a luxury good: Even though gas stoves are used by people of all economic backgrounds, the price of the product, its marketing strategy, as well as the reputation of its parent brand has given it the image of a luxury product. This may alienate some buyers from utilizing the product, as well as runs the risk of creating a negative association with the brand;
• It is marketed to a narrow niche: While there are several advantages that come with targeting your product at a narrow portion of the market, there are also some drawbacks as well. First of all, it reduces your reach and may alienate a range of potential customers, leading to less actualized revenue. It also increases your vulnerability to rapid changes in market conditions and consumer sentiment, as your income is significantly less diversified;
• Costly R&D and marketing: The Turbo Burner 2000 is a top-notch product and required significant investment in R&D to design. Also, although the company caters to a much narrower niche than most competitors, its Customer Acquisition Costs are much higher.
• Expand its market share by offering cheaper versions: The brand could seek to diversify its business model by offering a range of cheaper alternatives to the standard model. This opens up the business to new customers and by extension increases its potential revenue. It also reduces their vulnerability to sudden shifts in market sentiment;
• Focusing on further innovation: The parent brand has a strong reputation for being an innovative powerhouse in the industry and can capitalize on the strong R&D department it has built to create more innovative technologies and improve on existing designs. This will help keep it a step ahead of its competitors and also increase the reputation of the brand as an innovator within the industry;
• Investing in sustainability: The fossil fuel industry has been under pressure in recent years and, by extension, materials and equipment are driven by fossil fuels. Investing in technologies and technologies that increase the eco-friendliness of the product is a great way to boost positive consumer associations with the brand;
• Increased supply chain efficiencies: By investing in improving the efficiency of its supply chain, the company can further drive down the cost of individual units of the product, increasing sales and also improving its profit margin as well.
• Supply chain disruptions: Significant disruptions to the supply chain of the product may lead to a wide variety of issues such as increased cost per unit as well as reduced production capacity. Overall, this may negatively affect the price or availability of the product and by extension its introduction into the market;
• Changing consumer sentiment: With more consumer interest in climate change and sustainable technologies, the fossil fuel industry and other industries which are dependent on it have attracted much criticism. For example, there has been increasing concern among consumers concerning the long-term health effects of cooking gas and its links to a range of chronic illnesses;
• Changing macroeconomics: Rapid changes in macroeconomics such as recessions and rapid rises in inflation weaken the purchasing power of buyers. This may affect the ability of a lot of individuals to purchase consumer goods such as high-end gas stoves;
• The success of the initial rollout. The widespread success of the first model may discourage buyers from upgrading to the newer product, even with the improved specifications.

Performing a SWOT analysis may be one of the most important activities that any business can carry out within its lifetime. Whether this is done regularly or just as a one-time evaluation, understanding how to get the best out of the technique is key to fully utilizing the benefits and understanding the limitations of the technique.

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What Is SWOT Analysis?

Understanding swot analysis, how to do a swot analysis.

• Common Mistakes

The Bottom Line

• Fundamental Analysis

How to Perform a SWOT Analysis

These frameworks are essential to fundamentally analyzing companies

Ariel Courage is an experienced editor, researcher, and former fact-checker. She has performed editing and fact-checking work for several leading finance publications, including The Motley Fool and Passport to Wall Street.

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential. A SWOT analysis is designed to facilitate a realistic, fact-based, data-driven look at the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, initiatives, or within its industry.

Key Takeaways

• SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that provides assessment tools.
• Identifying core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats leads to fact-based analysis, fresh perspectives, and new ideas.
• A SWOT analysis pulls information from internal sources (strengths or weaknesses of the specific company) and external forces that may have uncontrollable impacts on decisions (opportunities and threats).
• SWOT analysis works best when diverse groups or voices within an organization can provide realistic data points rather than prescribed messaging.
• The findings of a SWOT analysis are often synthesized to support a single objective or decision that a company is facing.

SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing the performance, competition, risk, and potential of a business, as well as part of a business such as a product line or division, an industry, or other entity.

Using internal and external data , the technique can guide businesses toward strategies more likely to be successful, and away from those in which they have been, or are likely to be, less successful. Independent SWOT analysts, investors, or competitors can also guide them on whether a company, product line, or industry might be strong or weak and why.

SWOT analysis was first used to analyze businesses. Now, it's often used by governments, nonprofits, and individuals, including investors and entrepreneurs. There is seemingly limitless applications to the SWOT analysis.

Components of SWOT Analysis

Investopedia / Julie Bang

Every SWOT analysis will include the following four categories. Though the elements and discoveries within these categories will vary from company to company, a SWOT analysis is not complete without each of these elements:

Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition : a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on. For example, a hedge fund may have developed a proprietary trading strategy that returns market-beating results. It must then decide how to use those results to attract new investors.

Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital.

Opportunities

Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage. For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car manufacturer can export its cars into a new market, increasing sales and market share .

Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield. Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply, and so on.

Analysts present a SWOT analysis as a square segmented into four quadrants, each dedicated to an element of SWOT. This visual arrangement provides a quick overview of the company’s position. Although all the points under a particular heading may not be of equal importance, they all should represent key insights into the balance of opportunities and threats, advantages and disadvantages, and so forth.

The SWOT table is often laid out with the internal factors on the top row and the external factors on the bottom row. In addition, the items on the left side of the table are more positive/favorable aspects, while the items on the right are more concerning/negative elements.

A SWOT analysis can be broken into several steps with actionable items before and after analyzing the four components. In general, a SWOT analysis will involve the following steps.

Step 1: Determine Your Objective

A SWOT analysis can be broad, though more value will likely be generated if the analysis is pointed directly at an objective. For example, the objective of a SWOT analysis may focused only on whether or not to perform a new product rollout . With an objective in mind, a company will have guidance on what they hope to achieve at the end of the process. In this example, the SWOT analysis should help determine whether or not the product should be introduced.

Step 2: Gather Resources

Every SWOT analysis will vary, and a company may need different data sets to support pulling together different SWOT analysis tables. A company should begin by understanding what information it has access to, what data limitations it faces, and how reliable its external data sources are.

In addition to data, a company should understand the right combination of personnel to have involved in the analysis. Some staff may be more connected with external forces, while various staff within the manufacturing or sales departments may have a better grasp of what is going on internally. Having a broad set of perspectives is also more likely to yield diverse, value-adding contributions.

Step 3: Compile Ideas

For each of the four components of the SWOT analysis, the group of people assigned to performing the analysis should begin listing ideas within each category. Examples of questions to ask or consider for each group are in the table below.

Internal Factors

What occurs within the company serves as a great source of information for the strengths and weaknesses categories of the SWOT analysis. Examples of internal factors include financial and human resources , tangible and intangible (brand name) assets, and operational efficiencies.

Potential questions to list internal factors are:

• (Strength) What are we doing well?
• (Strength) What is our strongest asset?
• (Weakness) What are our detractors?
• (Weakness) What are our lowest-performing product lines?

External Factors

What happens outside of the company is equally as important to the success of a company as internal factors. External influences, such as monetary policies , market changes, and access to suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses.

Potential questions to list external factors are:

• (Opportunity) What trends are evident in the marketplace?
• (Opportunity) What demographics are we not targeting?
• (Threat) How many competitors exist, and what is their market share?
• (Threat) Are there new regulations that potentially could harm our operations or products?

Companies may consider performing this step as a "white-boarding" or "sticky note" session. The idea is there is no right or wrong answer; all participants should be encouraged to share whatever thoughts they have. These ideas can later be discarded; in the meantime, the goal should be to come up with as many items as possible to invoke creativity and inspiration in others.

Step 4: Refine Findings

With the list of ideas within each category, it is now time to clean-up the ideas. By refining the thoughts that everyone had, a company can focus on only the best ideas or largest risks to the company. This stage may require substantial debate among analysis participants, including bringing in upper management to help rank priorities.

Step 5: Develop the Strategy

Armed with the ranked list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it is time to convert the SWOT analysis into a strategic plan. Members of the analysis team take the bulleted list of items within each category and create a synthesized plan that provides guidance on the original objective.

For example, the company debating whether to release a new product may have identified that it is the market leader for its existing product and there is the opportunity to expand to new markets. However, increased material costs, strained distribution lines, the need for additional staff, and unpredictable product demand may outweigh the strengths and opportunities. The analysis team develops the strategy to revisit the decision in six months in hopes of costs declining and market demand becoming more transparent.

Use a SWOT analysis to identify challenges affecting your business and opportunities that can enhance it. However, note that it is one of many techniques, not a prescription.

Common Mistakes When Preparing SWOT Analysis

When preparing a SWOT analysis, several common mistakes can undermine its effectiveness. Let's take a look at some ways your SWOT analysis may go awry.

One easy error to make when preparing a SWOT analysis is failing to be objective and honest in the assessment. Companies often tend to overemphasize their strengths while downplaying weaknesses, resulting in an overly optimistic and unrealistic analysis. This bias can lead to missed opportunities for improvement and leave the organization vulnerable to unforeseen threats. As difficult as it may be to be honest in your analysis, the validity of underlying assumptions is the cornerstone of how useful the SWOT analysis will be.

Another significant mistake is conducting the analysis in isolation, without input from diverse key stakeholders . You should try get to input from employees at various levels, customers, suppliers, and industry experts. Each may have a unique view of your company, and each may come up with different items to be listed in each quadrant based on how they specifically interact with the company.

Yet another common pitfall is neglecting to prioritize or weight the factors identified in the SWOT analysis. Not all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are equally important or impactful. Failing to distinguish between major and minor factors can lead to misallocation of resources and misguided strategic decisions. It can be easy for the important items to be buried if too many non-material items are identified.

Another frequent error is treating the SWOT analysis as a one-time exercise. You should be prepared to do a SWOT analysis periodically, The business environment is constantly changing, and a SWOT analysis should be regularly updated to remain relevant. In addition, the analysis itself is just the beginning; its true value lies in using the findings to develop and implement strategic actions. You can then check future SWOT analysis to make sure the company is addressing the major points.

Benefits of SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis won't solve every major question a company has. However, there's a number of benefits to a SWOT analysis that make strategic decision-making easier.

• A SWOT analysis makes complex problems more manageable. There may be an overwhelming amount of data to analyze and relevant points to consider when making a complex decision. In general, a SWOT analysis that has been prepared by paring down all ideas and ranking bullets by importance will aggregate a large, potentially overwhelming problem into a more digestible report.
• A SWOT analysis requires external considerations. Too often, a company may be tempted to only consider internal factors when making decisions. However, there are often items out of the company's control that may influence the outcome of a business decision. A SWOT analysis covers both the internal factors a company can manage and the external factors that may be more difficult to control.
• A SWOT analysis can be applied to almost every business question. The analysis can relate to an organization, team, or individual. It can also analyze a full product line , changes to brand, geographical expansion, or an acquisition. The SWOT analysis is a versatile tool that has many applications.
• A SWOT analysis leverages different data sources. A company will likely use internal information for strengths and weaknesses. The company will also need to gather external information relating to broad markets, competitors, or macroeconomic forces for opportunities and threats. Instead of relying on a single, potentially biased source, a good SWOT analysis compiles various angles.
• A SWOT analysis may not be overly costly to prepare. Some SWOT reports do not need to be overly technical; therefore, many different staff members can contribute to its preparation without training or external consulting.

SWOT Analysis Example

Let's perform a SWOT analysis together by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Tesla.

• Strengths: Tesla has a strong position in the EV market because of its strong brand recognition as an industry pioneer. The company's advanced battery technology allows for superior range in its vehicles. Tesla's extensive Supercharger network also provides a significant advantage in terms of charging infrastructure.
• Weaknesses: Tesla has struggled with production capacity limitations, often failing to meet demand and delivery targets. Quality control issues have also been a recurring problem from time to time. Tesla's vehicles are generally priced higher than those of competitors, which may limit market penetration in more price-sensitive regions.
• Opportunities: Tesla stands to benefit from the growing global demand for electric vehicles. The company has opportunities to expand beyond automotive into related fields such as energy storage and solar power, leveraging its battery expertise. The development of autonomous driving technology also presents another significant growth avenue, as Tesla has already begun implementing self-driving cars. Additionally, Tesla has the potential to tap into large, emerging markets like China and India where EV adoption could accelerate where it hasn't already.
• Threats: The competitive landscape for Tesla is intensifying as traditional automakers and new entrants invest heavily in electric vehicle technology. This increased competition could erode Tesla's market share and profit margins. Economic factors such as economic downturns could impact sales of Tesla's primarily luxury-oriented vehicles. The company also faces risks related to supply chain disruptions, particularly for critical materials used in battery production where it may already have manufacturing constraints.

What Are the 4 Steps of SWOT Analysis?

The four steps of SWOT analysis comprise the acronym SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These four aspects can be broken into two analytical steps. First, a company assesses its internal capabilities and determines its strengths and weaknesses. Then, a company looks outward and evaluates external factors that impact its business. These external factors may create opportunities or threaten existing operations.

How Do You Write a Good SWOT Analysis?

Creating a SWOT analysis involves identifying and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. It is recommended to first create a list of questions to answer for each element. The questions serve as a guide for completing the SWOT analysis and creating a balanced list. The SWOT framework can be constructed in list format, as free text, or, most commonly, as a 4-cell table, with quadrants dedicated to each element. Strengths and weaknesses are listed first, followed by opportunities and threats.

Why Is SWOT Analysis Used?

A SWOT analysis is used to strategically identify areas of improvement or competitive advantages for a company. In addition to analyzing thing that a company does well, SWOT analysis takes a look at more detrimental, negative elements of a business. Using this information, a company can make smarter decisions to preserve what it does well, capitalize on its strengths, mitigate risk regarding weaknesses, and plan for events that may adversely affect the company in the future.

What Are the Limitations of SWOT Analysis?

While SWOT analysis is a powerful tool, it does have some limitations. It can sometimes oversimplify complex situations and is susceptible to the subjectivity and bias of participants. The analysis also doesn't provide specific guidance on how to address identified issues and can lead to analysis paralysis if not followed by concrete action.

A SWOT analysis is a great way to guide business-strategy meetings. It's powerful to have everyone in the room discuss the company's core strengths and weaknesses, define the opportunities and threats, and brainstorm ideas. Oftentimes, the SWOT analysis you envision before the session changes throughout to reflect factors you were unaware of and would never have captured if not for the group’s input.

A company can use a SWOT for overall business strategy sessions or for a specific segment such as marketing, production, or sales. This way, you can see how the overall strategy developed from the SWOT analysis will filter down to the segments below before committing to it. You can also work in reverse with a segment-specific SWOT analysis that feeds into an overall SWOT analysis.

Although a useful planning tool, SWOT has limitations. It is one of several business planning techniques to consider and should not be used alone. Also, each point listed within the categories is not prioritized the same. SWOT does not account for the differences in weight. Therefore, a deeper analysis is needed, using another planning technique.

Business News Daily. " SWOT Analysis: What It Is and When to Use It ."

Tesla. " Supercharger ."

Reuters. " Tesla Quarterly Deliveries Decline for the First Time in Nearly Four Years ."

Tesla. " Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability ."

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How to Perform a SWOT Analysis for a Business

By Kate Eby | April 26, 2023

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A SWOT analysis helps you identify areas of strengths and weaknesses in your business and take advantage of opportunities and mitigate threats. Leaders perform a SWOT analysis before starting a project or implementing a strategy.

With help from our experts, we’ll teach you about a SWOT analysis , provide examples from three different industries , and highlight common mistakes to avoid. We also include a downloadable SWOT analysis starter kit to help you get started.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis

To perform a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis, assemble a matrix and take an objective look at your business. Write down your observations, summarize your findings, and plan your next steps together with your team.

“A SWOT analysis is designed to shed light on four separate aspects of your business and help in strategy formation and project planning. In order to perform this analysis comprehensively, each factor must be examined in equal measure,” explains Max Wesman , the Founder of GoodHire. 

We’ve outlined the steps necessary for completing a SWOT analysis:

• Assemble Your Team Include a diverse group in your analysis to get the best results. Ask for input from people on different teams and at varying employee tiers and demographics to get an objective look at your business. “Plan a half-day strategy session with your team and have each member come ready to present their own SWOT analysis of a particular product or opportunity. You’ll be surprised by the range of new ideas it generates. And you can use the exercise to formulate an aggregate SWOT that you all buyinto together,” suggests Jack Colletti , the Founder of Colletti Labs.
• Set Up Your Matrix Use a template, whiteboard, shared online workspace, or paper and pen to create a matrix. For free template ideas and downloads, check out our collections of SWOT templates available in PowerPoint , Microsoft Word , Google Docs , and Google Slides formats.

• Strengths: To identify your strengths, ask yourself what you’re doing well and what your customers and employees like about your business. 
• Weaknesses: To identify weaknesses, look at places where you have fallen short of projections. Read reviews of your business and pay attention to critical customer feedback. 
• Opportunities: To identify opportunities, start with your long- and short-term goals. Ask yourself if there are new products or services you can add to your lineup to set you apart, any gaps in the market you can fill, or any areas that could benefit from a different allocation of resources.
• Threats: To identify threats to your business, keep an eye on your competition, upcoming legislative changes, and financial records and projections. Pay attention to the potential for negative media and social media coverage due to your business practices, as well.  
• Organize and Summarize As a group, rank items by how actionable they are or by their impact. “Be sure that you don’t make your list too long to manage,” suggests Rossi. Choose the top five or six responses for each quadrant to help focus the discussion and analysis.
• Plan Your Next Steps Create action items and a plan for moving forward. Depending on the results of your analysis, this will likely mean some combination of bolstering your strengths, shoring up your weaknesses, taking advantage of opportunities, and mitigating threats.
• Store the Analysis for Easy Reference It is a good idea to perform a SWOT analysis regularly — depending on your business size, you might repeat the practice annually or quarterly. Before performing a new SWOT analysis, review the previous one and see where you’ve made improvements. “Routinely revisiting your SWOT analysis ensures that your evaluation is accurate and up-to-date with the current state of the market,” says Wesman.

SWOT Analysis Starter Kit

Download the SWOT Analysis Starter Kit

We’ve created this starter kit to give you the necessary tools to think through and conduct a SWOT analysis for your business. You’ll find SWOT templates in multiple formats, a checklist of actions to take and questions to ask, and a presentation template. All of these templates are fully customizable and can be adapted for personal decision-making. Download each template individually or as a complete kit.

Included in this download, you’ll find:

• A blank animated SWOT analysis template for PowerPoint to help create an engaging SWOT presentation.
• A blank horizontal, landscape-oriented SWOT analysis template for Microsoft Word to create an eye-catching display or a handout with plenty of room for text.
• A blank simple, portrait-oriented SWOT matrix template for Microsoft Word and Google Docs for easy brainstorming and sharing.
• A blank custom photo SWOT matrix template for PowerPoint and Google Slides to create a dynamic, personalized presentation of your analysis.
• A SWOT analysis checklist for Microsoft Word so that each step of your analysis goes off without a hitch.
• A common SWOT analysis examples checklist for Microsoft Word to reference and copy from when completing your SWOT template.
• A group SWOT analysis presentation for PowerPoint to help facilitate a group SWOT analysis meeting.

SWOT Analysis Examples

A SWOT analysis can help a wide variety of businesses identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We’ve collected some SWOT analysis examples that demonstrate how they’re used in construction, technology, and retail industries.

Construction Company SWOT Analysis Example for Google Docs

Download the Simple Colorful Construction Company SWOT Template for Google Docs Download the Simple Colorful Construction Company SWOT Template for Google Docs with Sample Data

This simple but colorful SWOT template includes example data for a construction company concerned about its growth. In the sample, the company has identified the experience of their staff as a strength, as well as their growth as a business over the last 15 years. They know they need to be more open to adopting new technology, and they acknowledge they have no marketing budget and only attract new clients by word-of-mouth. They use this info to focus their opportunities on leveraging their existing staff to train new teams, and creating a specific budget for marketing. Finally, they have identified the rising costs of labor and the chance of public backlash to a project they are working on as threats to their business.

Technology Company SWOT Analysis Example for PowerPoint

Download the Blank Animated Technology SWOT Analysis for PowerPoint Download the Animated Technology SWOT Analysis Template for PowerPoint with Sample Data

This animated SWOT analysis template is excellent for showing off your SWOT findings in a meeting or presentation setting. It includes animations to reveal each quadrant of your matrix as you speak. This template includes sample data for a large technology company that has recognized its worldwide presence and growing customer base as strengths, and the requirements of localization and employee retention as weaknesses. The organization is looking ahead to the opportunities presented by decreased labor costs in emerging markets, but also paying attention to the threat of cybersecurity and potential backlash in their home country due to their outsourcing of labor and manufacturing.

Retail Company SWOT Analysis Example for Microsoft Word

Download the Blank Horizontal Retail SWOT Template for Microsoft Word Download the Horizontal Retail SWOT Template for Microsoft Word with Sample Data

This horizontal-oriented SWOT template includes example data for a retail store. In the sample version of the template, the store has outlined its strengths but also noted concerns about the rising costs of rent and the abundance of big-box stores and included those in the threats section. They have identified opportunities as participation in local events and the possibility of a second storefront. The store also recognized that it could improve its social media efforts and the difficulty in competing with larger, online retailers.

What Is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic assessment tool that weighs strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to aid in decision-making. A SWOT analysis can help guide you to better-informed conclusions that are more likely to produce long-term benefits.

Invented by Albert Humphrey at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, the SWOT analysis framework has been adopted by businesses and individual decision-makers worldwide. Humphrey’s framework prioritizes the analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses; the related TOWS analysis model flips this on its head and focuses on external opportunities and threats. Another external analysis model, the PEST (political, economic, social, and technological) framework, focuses entirely on external factors, namely political, economical, sociocultural, and technological.

“The SWOT analysis is an excellent framework not only for diagnosing issues in your business, but also for identifying strategic opportunities within it. For example, a SWOT analysis can be applied to the launch of a new product, a business partnership under consideration, or a key hire or promotion. While the SWOT is not meant to be an all-inclusive, fully exhaustive analysis, it does provide a solid basis for discussion, much like a resume or CV contributes to the hiring process,” explains Colleti of Colletti Labs.

Strength in a SWOT Analysis

The strengths section of a SWOT analysis highlights what you do well. These can include your sales and market presence, hiring and retention practices, and products and services, among others. It can also list what you are good at personally.

Some additional examples of strengths you might list in a SWOT analysis include:

• Customer Satisfaction: Satisfied customers are returning customers. Returning customers keep your business solvent. Having a large number of regular customers is a great strength.
• Effective Branding: The right branding makes a business memorable. A well-designed logo or a fun, topical ad campaign can bring in sales and create positive associations with your brand.
• Employee Satisfaction and Retention: Hiring quality talent and retaining them for the long term is a wonderful strength. Loyal employees are more likely to enjoy their work and work harder because of it.
• Expertise: Business leaders often have expertise in their field that translates to a better product or service. Possessing more expertise than your competitors is a noteworthy strength.
• Filling a Niche: Identifying and filling a niche in the market is an excellent strength. Many businesses thrive because they are able to tap into the needs of their market and provide it for their customers.
• Leadership: Great leadership is a great strength. Leaders who inspire and support their teammates foster a happier and more cohesive workplace.
• Longevity: The longer your business has been around, the longer you have had to cultivate a positive reputation in your community. Businesses often celebrate their anniversaries and promote the time they have spent operating in the community. Longevity helps assure customers that you have expertise in your niche.
• Meeting and Exceeding Goals: Setting and achieving realistic goals is a sign of a well-run business.
• Product and Service Offerings: Unique or popular product and service offerings help a business carve out a niche and find their customer base, making them an obvious strength.
• Sales: Consistently high sales are desirable for any business and, therefore, a major strength. Robust sales can also lead to many other strengths, as well.

Identifying strengths impartially can be challenging. Use this list of questions to help pinpoint your strengths:

• How has your company grown? 
• What do your customers like about you in reviews? 
• What do your employees like about working for you?
• What does your company do that is unique? 
• What offerings or company philosophies set you apart? 
• What looks different about your business from one, five, and ten years ago?

Weakness in a SWOT Analysis

Weaknesses in a SWOT analysis are business aspects that are underperforming. These could be low sales, unpopular services, limitations, negative reviews, or others. Consider your weaknesses carefully, as you can often turn them into opportunities.

Here’s a list of common weaknesses businesses might find in a SWOT analysis:

• Employee Satisfaction: Employees who are unhappy with their jobs are less engaged and less productive. Consider your employees’ satisfaction, as retention can easily become a weakness of the business.
• Inefficient Budget and Resource Allocation: Many businesses have enough but do not allocate them efficiently. This weakness can be easily addressed by implementing better project prioritization practices.
• Negative Customer Reviews: Look at what your customers are saying in their reviews. Note the comments that show up frequently, and remember that customers will only typically leave very positive or very negative reviews. Use negative reviews as a tool to identify the areas where your business can improve.
• Not Reading Trends: Your products and services can quickly become obsolete if you are not in the habit of reading and forecasting trends. 
• Poor Branding: Consider branding carefully. It should be consistent, representative of your company, and recognizable across all mediums.
• Poor Leadership: Solid leadership is critical to the success of a business. As such, leadership that doesn’t perform well should be addressed immediately.
• Product or Service Offerings: Product or service offerings can be a weakness if they are not unique to your business or better than similar offerings from your competitors.
• Resource Limitations: Resources might include money, people, or materials. If you do not have the resources needed to meet demand, shore up this weakness.
• Rigidity: Being unable or unwilling to change with the times is a weakness found in many organizations. Change can be scary, but it is often required to move forward and stay relevant.
• Unrealistic Sales Projections: When sales are lower than projected, it can throw off budgets and plans for the business’s future, leading to missed opportunities and overinvestment in failing product lines.

Business owners often struggle to identify their weaknesses impartially. To help identify weaknesses, ask yourself the following questions, and be honest with your answers:

• What do your customers think you can improve on? 
• What part of your business do customers commonly identify as troublesome?
• What are your biggest challenges? 
• Where have you fallen short in your goals over time? Were those goals realistic?
• What are your competitors doing better than you? 
• What are your competitors doing that you wish you were doing better?
• When was the last time you performed a competitive analysis ? 
• What do your employees think of their leaders and your business?

Opportunities in a SWOT Analysis

In a SWOT analysis, opportunities refer to situations that offer a chance to improve or expand. These can be factors such as a gap in the market, new products or services, or positive media coverage.

Some examples of opportunities to note in your SWOT analysis are:

• New Products and Services: When you add new products or services to your offerings, you have an opportunity to expand your product line and grow your business.
• Social Media Engagement: Social media provides an organic way to interact with existing and potential customers in a casual setting.
• Viral Advertising: Many businesses find success after creating popular media on the internet. Viral advertising has the potential to expose your company to potential customers who might otherwise not find you.
• Competition Gaps: Pay attention to your competition. When they switch gears or leave the market, you might be able to fill the gap they leave behind.
• Surplus Budget Reallocation: Sometimes a business finds it has a budget surplus. Extra money is an opportunity to shore up weak spots or take advantage of new opportunities.
• Partnerships: Partnering with other businesses or causes can bring you the exposure you could not have found alone. Fundraising and profit sharing offer beneficial ways to build some community support and help a good cause.
• Social and Cultural Opportunities: In addition to partnering with other businesses, research events and causes within your community that could help grow your business. Participating in social and cultural events can help boost your community standing.
• Hiring Consultants: You cannot be an expert in everything, so consider hiring an experienced authority to handle the tricky stuff or to teach you how to handle it.
• Training and Education: Continuing training and education of your staff (and yourself) can lead to countless future opportunities.
• Expansion: One of the most common, and most desirable, opportunities for a business is the chance to open new locations or expand into new markets.

To identify opportunities present in your business, ask the following questions: 

• Which social media platforms have shown the most growth in followers and engagement?
• Are there areas of local or cultural impact we can highlight in our messaging?
• Is there any kind of gap in the market we can capitalize on?
• Is there a budget surplus in a department that can be allocated elsewhere?
• Are there other companies or organizations we can partner with for shared impact?
• What are our long- and short-term goals for the business? 
• How can we best achieve our goals with our current resources?

Threat in a SWOT Analysis

Threats in a SWOT analysis refer to events or circumstances that pose a risk to your business’s growth or commercial success. These can include competitors, new regulations, negative media or social media coverage, and customer and employee satisfaction.

Opportunities and threats are sometimes considered two sides of the same coin, as many opportunities invite risk if you do not meet them with a solid plan. Opportunities are chances to capitalize on a possibility, but they can often be safely ignored. On the other hand, if you ignore threats for long enough, they often lead to disastrous consequences. Threats vary by industry and location. 

We’ve collected some examples of common threats that could appear in a SWOT analysis:

• Competition: Your competition is always a threat. Other businesses occupying the same market space can dilute sales or push you out altogether. Monitor your competition’s offerings so that you can adjust as needed and stay relevant.
• Customer Satisfaction: Many factors can affect customer satisfaction, but as your clients become less satisfied, they are less likely to patronize your business. Keep an eye on reviews, social media, and customer surveys for insights into your customers’ experiences.
• Employee Satisfaction: Without experienced and motivated staff, it is impossible to operate efficiently. Keep employees satisfied by providing competitive wages, opportunities for growth, and positive reinforcement of their achievements.
• Environmental: Prepare a plan for major weather or environmental events, even if you don’t operate your business where they are common. If possible, carry insurance for fires, floods, and earthquakes so that your work is interrupted as little as possible if one occurs.
• Equipment and Building Maintenance: Delaying expensive repairs and maintenance on your buildings or equipment that are not immediately critical can be tempting. However, putting them off too long can lead to even more expensive repairs and possible closures at a later date when things break down or fail.
• Media Coverage: The adage “no such thing as bad press” is not always true. Negative media coverage can cost you customers and sales. Positive media coverage can run the risk of bringing on more customers than you have the capacity to handle, which can lead to frustration and a loss of customers in kind.
• Regulations: New regulations that interfere with or inhibit your business get passed all the time. Keep abreast of any pending changes, and be sure that you have contingency plans in place.
• Setting Financial Goals: Your business forecasts should be realistic and based on similar market numbers or real numbers you have achieved in the past. You cannot set achievable plans for your business's future if you are not making accurate projections in the present.
• Social Media Coverage: Like regular media coverage, social media can make or break your business. Many companies find success and followings on social media organically. However, some fail to appeal to the average user and can even find themselves publicly ridiculed in this forum instead.
• Supply Chain Delays: Supply chain delays can affect lead times, manufacturing schedules, and the availability of materials. They can be difficult to predict, so consider building in extra time or creating contingency plans.

Identifying threats can feel overwhelming and pessimistic, but they are vital for business planning. Ask yourself the following questions to shine light on potential threats in your SWOT analysis:

• Are there any new major competitors in the market? 
• What are people saying about us in reviews and on social media?
• Where are we underperforming? 
• Where are we missing our goals?
• Will any incoming new legislation directly or indirectly affect our business? What kind of potential legislative changes should we keep an eye on?
• Are we keeping up to date on building and equipment maintenance?
• Are our employees satisfied with their jobs?
• Are we maintaining accurate financial records and creating accurate projections?

Internal and External Factors in a SWOT Analysis

In a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses are considered internal factors, and opportunities and threats are considered external factors. Internal factors are usually a result of decisions the company has made. External factors often come from a wider environment.

Internal factors tend to be easier to address since they come from decisions made within the company. External factors depend greatly on factors outside of a business and can be harder to identify and track. As a result, most organizations find it easier to bolster strengths and shore up weaknesses than to take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats.

Tips for Writing a SWOT Analysis

To write a SWOT analysis for your business, take an objective look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Keep it organized and concise, and create a specific and actionable list. 

We’ve outlined these and other tips:

• Be Concise: Stick to the most profound or critical five or six elements in each quadrant to keep the analysis relevant and actionable.
• Be Honest and Impartial: It’s vital to be honest and impartial about the state of your business. This truth can sometimes be difficult for managers and owners who are too close to it, so consider involving additional stakeholders or employing outside help.
• Be Specific: Use real numbers when talking about sales, goals, and times. Point to specific initiatives that were successful (or not) instead of referring to them broadly. “My early SWOT analyses were too general, and I didn’t have the rigor that’s required to provide a detailed and balanced view of a business or opportunity. If I could go back in time, I would consider more elements of the business, including people, product, marketing, sales, customer service, data management, quality, partners, etc. I would also provide metrics and KPIs for each area discussed to provide a proper data-driven basis for discussion or debate,” Colletti contemplates.
• Do It Regularly: Create a quarterly or annual schedule to perform SWOT analyses regularly. “I wish I had known that a SWOT analysis should be performed at regular intervals,” says Wesman. “Changes in technology, consumer sentiment, and macroeconomic factors can drastically alter a business's prior prospects, which can blindside decision-makers during their most critical moments.”
• Follow Up: Once you analyze your results, make an action plan to take advantage of your strengths and opportunities, as well as to address any shortcomings you have found. Use it to help plan your business strategy going forward. “A SWOT analysis is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of your business’s overall performance,” says Rossi.
• Use Real Data: Use real data from reviews, surveys, and sales to create the analysis. Your SWOT analysis will be more actionable if you include the real numbers associated with each factor.

Mistakes to Avoid when Doing a SWOT Analysis

When performing a SWOT analysis, avoid being vague or too verbose. Be sure to follow up on the findings and create an action plan. 

We’ve outlined these and other potential mistakes to avoid in your SWOT analysis: 

• Being Too Wordy: Your lists should be easy to read and understand without a lot of extra information. Use real numbers and statistics when applicable, and stick to the top five or six items with the most impact in each quadrant.
• Being Too Vague: At the same time, your lists should include all the necessary details to give the reader the full picture.
• Not Being Honest and Objective: It is easy to inflate your strengths and downplay your weaknesses, but that will only hurt your business in the long term. “One common mistake is to downplay the risks and threats in the analysis. As entrepreneurs, we sometimes tend to be overly optimistic or overconfident. We may want to embellish the strengths and opportunities, such as stating ‘our killer technology’ or ‘our amazing sales team.’ Another mistake is to make claims or statements with no real data or analytical support. A proper SWOT requires you to be pragmatic about your strengths, and think really hard about what risks and threats face your business,” explains Colletti.
• Not Creating an Action Plan: One of the biggest mistakes you can make with a SWOT analysis is not using its results to inform your next steps. A SWOT analysis is only useful if you learn from it and let it help you inform your strategy.
• Not Involving a Group: A SWOT analysis performed by a single person will only have a single point of view. For best results, take a more inclusive look at your business from people at all levels.

Benefits of a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis can provide insight into your business’s overall performance, highlight places to improve, and even act as a team-building exercise. 

We’ve outlined these and more benefits of performing a SWOT analysis:

• Develop Action Plans: A SWOT analysis is a great tool for developing an action plan. Use the results to focus on the areas that need work or extra resources and to keep developing the areas that are doing well.
• Do Some Introspection: A SWOT analysis provides a forum to do some real introspection on your business and its practices. “Since many entrepreneurs and business owners can be overly optimistic, a SWOT analysis can help force pragmatism. Leaders need to consider the business from all angles with a heightened sense of rigor,” warns Colletti.
• Get an Objective Overview of the Business: A SWOT analysis can give you an overview of your company’s current performance and its future potential. “You can use these insights to weigh the pros and cons of difficult business decisions. This will help you navigate challenging market environments to your advantage,” says Wesman.
• Help Draft Other Business Documents: A SWOT analysis can serve as the first draft for other business documents, such as project overviews, media releases, and investment reports. “SWOT is a widely known framework, thus providing a common language for communicating the viability of a business or opportunity to leadership, investors, business partners, or board members,” explains Colletti.
• Team Building: When you include a diverse group of employees in business strategy discussions, you increase their buy-in and engagement. They feel more connected to the problem and see themselves as part of the solution. “SWOT is an excellent tool for a strategy session or team-building event , allowing leaders to solicit input and feedback on various aspects of the business,”  Colletti explains.

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Small Business Trends

Swot analysis guide: powerful examples and a free template.

Table of Contents

What is a SWOT Analysis

For example, a dip in profit margins for a business can be scrutinized using a SWOT analysis. This tool helps identify internal factors, such as inefficient practices or inflated costs, that might be causing this dip. Using the SWOT pillars – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – one can derive strategies to rectify the problem and enhance profit margins.

A SWOT analysis serves as a cornerstone for strategic planning, enabling businesses to align their goals with internal capabilities and market realities. Strengths and Weaknesses are introspective elements, helping businesses to capitalize on their unique competencies and address internal shortcomings.

Be sure to watch SmartDraw’s insightful video, ‘What is SWOT? Definition, Examples and How to Do a SWOT Analysis.’ It’s a great addition to our comprehensive SWOT Analysis Guide, reinforcing key concepts and showcasing practical examples. This video enhances your understanding and makes the whole process of performing a SWOT analysis more digestible and engaging.

What is the Goal of a SWOT Analysis?

By understanding the internal and external factors that impact the business, organizations can make informed decisions about allocating resources, pursuing growth opportunities, and minimizing risks.

Pros of SWOT Analysis

Cons of swot analysis, breaking down a swot analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

Writing a good SWOT analysis is crucial for small businesses looking to expand quickly and maintain a competitive edge over emerging competitors. It serves as a strategic planning tool that enables businesses to assess their internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.

This could include external environment factors such as pricing, competition, lowered demand, and more. It can also include internal weaknesses that negatively affect the business, such as a lack of budget, small teams, etc.

Opportunities

The threats part of SWOT analyses can also scare off many. Essentially, the goal here is to look at potential threats that could negatively impact your business. Again, this can include internal issues and external threats that you identify.

By methodically examining these elements, a business can develop strategies that leverage their strong points, improve weaknesses, reinforce opportunities, and guard against external threats.

External and Internal Factors

Internal factors.

It is essential to understand your strengths and weaknesses in these areas to make strategic decisions and strengthen your competitive position.

It enables you to make informed financial decisions, such as allocating funds for research and development, marketing campaigns, or infrastructure improvements.

External Factors

External factors can present opportunities or threats to your business. For example, a growing market or favorable economic conditions can create opportunities for expansion and increased demand for your products or services.

Home Depot Example

Home Depot identified several noteworthy strengths, including high-quality customer service, strong brand recognition, and positive supplier relationships. Conversely, its weaknesses were identified as a constrained supply chain, reliance on the U.S. market, and a business model that could be easily replicated.

How do You do a SWOT Analysis?

The following table breaks down the SWOT analysis that follows into simple steps, making it easy to understand and follow. It serves as a concise, clear guide, making the process less overwhelming and more manageable.

Step 1: Gather Data

Financial statements, employee feedback.

Employee feedback is an essential resource for any company looking to conduct an effective SWOT Analysis. This data can provide insight into the issues facing your business, as well as potential solutions that could be beneficial for the company.

Step 2: Brainstorm

As an illustration, let’s consider a hedge fund that has devised an exclusive trading strategy generating exceptional returns that outperform the market. The fund now faces the task of determining the most effective approach to utilize these outcomes in order to appeal to prospective investors and expand its investor base.

Step 3: Analyze Strengths

The next step is analyzing the strength category by asking questions such as what are your main advantages, what resources do you have access to, or what makes your company stand out in the market. Looking at these inquiries objectively will allow you to gain insight into what makes you or your company successful.

Unique Features

Step 4: analyze weaknesses.

Where can decisions be better informed? Allowing yourself and your team time to think about areas that need attention ensures that possible solutions can be discussed further down the line.

Improvements

Decision-making, step 5: identify opportunities.

In order to find potential opportunities for change and growth look toward external factors such as what new technologies are emerging, what regulations are changing, and whether there are gaps in current products or services providing space for improvement. Keeping up with current events opens your mind up to alternative options.

Step 6: Analyze Threats

Step 7: construct an action plan + implement solutions, swot analysis template.

Now that we’ve gone through some examples in different industries, how do you get started on creating a SWOT analysis of your own? Luckily, this kind of analysis is pretty easy to structure. You can create one using your computer or even just divide a piece of paper into four quadrants and start writing.

SWOT Analysis Examples

When trying to come up with a SWOT analysis for your own business, it’s sometimes easier to see what others in your industry are doing. Before conducting a SWOT analysis for your company, you can look at some examples below to get some inspiration.

SWOT Analysis Example: Small Business

Marketing swot analysis, 3. company swot analysis example, swot analysis example for a restaurant.

Food service businesses tend to have their own unique challenges, so identifying potential strategies is often difficult. However, using a Restaurant SWOT analysis example, you can build off it and create a SWOT analysis for your business that’s reflective of the market.

Acting on Your Results

Swot analysis tips.

A strong SWOT analysis is about diving deep into your business and collating all the information in an organized way. The more you’re able to tap into what makes your business unique and what needs to improve, the more actionable your SWOT analysis will be.

Don’t be Afraid

Ask for feedback, be systematic.

Sometimes, the easiest way to fill out a SWOT analysis is to have a system. That can mean going through internal issues across each quadrant first and then moving to external factors. Or you can choose to do two quadrants at a time, such as strengths and opportunities if that is easier.

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Learn business abbreviations and acronyms, the takeaways.

By conducting a thorough SWOT analysis, businesses can gain valuable insights into their current position and make informed decisions to drive success and growth.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Swot analysis: how to strengthen your business plan.

Introduction

Every business, big or small needs a solid plan to succeed. A well-constructed business plan takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of a company and the opportunities and threats present in the marketplace. One of the most useful tools for assessing these factors is the SWOT analysis as it provides a comprehensive overview of a company's current situation and potential for growth. In this article, we will discuss what a SWOT analysis is, why it is important for businesses, who should conduct it, and how to conduct it effectively.

What is a SWOT analysis?

Have you ever wondered how businesses manage to evaluate all the internal and external factors that could affect their success? Welcome to the SWOT analysis. It's a strategic planning tool that helps businesses identify their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Strengths refer to internal factors that give a company an edge over its competitors. Think of a strong brand, loyal customer base, experienced employees, or efficient operations. Weaknesses, on the other hand, are internal factors that put a company at a disadvantage. These could be a weak brand, lack of funding, inexperienced employees, or outdated technology .

But what about external factors that could impact a business's success? That's where Opportunities and Threats come in. Opportunities are external factors that could help a company grow and succeed. This could include a growing market, new trends, technological advancements, or changes in regulations. Threats, on the other hand, are external factors that could harm a company's growth and success. Examples of threats could be economic downturns, increased competition, changes in consumer behavior, or natural disasters.

By conducting a SWOT analysis, businesses can make informed decisions about their strategic initiatives. By focusing their resources on areas with the greatest potential for growth and competitive advantage, businesses can increase their profitability, market share, and long-term success. So, whether you're a business strategist, executive, manager, or consultant, SWOT analysis can provide a fresh perspective on your company's current situation and potential for growth .

Why is a SWOT analysis important for businesses?

A SWOT analysis is essential for developing a business plan that maximizes a company's strengths, minimizes its weaknesses, and takes advantage of opportunities while mitigating threats.

Here are some of the reasons why a SWOT analysis is important for businesses:

• Identifies key areas for improvement By conducting the SWOT analysis, businesses can gain a better understanding of their internal weaknesses and external threats, which enables them to prioritize areas for improvement. They can then focus their resources and efforts on those areas, which can help them become more competitive and improve their overall performance.
• Maximizes the strength of businesses In addition to identifying areas for improvement, SWOT analysis also helps businesses identify their strengths. By leveraging these strengths, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and take advantage of their competitive advantages. This can lead to increased market share, improved profitability, and overall success.
• Mitigates threats SWOT analysis can help businesses identify potential threats to their operations and take proactive measures to mitigate them. This could include diversifying their product or service offerings, investing in risk management strategies, or developing contingency plans to minimize the impact of unforeseen events.
• Takes advantage of potential opportunities In addition to mitigating threats, SWOT analysis can also help businesses identify potential opportunities for growth and success. By capitalizing on these opportunities, businesses can increase their market share, expand their customer base, and improve their overall performance.
• Provides a comprehensive overview Finally, SWOT analysis provides a comprehensive overview of a company's internal and external factors. This can help businesses develop a well-informed business plan that takes into account their current situation and potential for growth. By developing a strategic plan based on the SWOT analysis, businesses can increase their chances of success and achieve their long-term goals.

How to conduct a SWOT analysis?

Now that we know what a SWOT analysis is and why it is important for businesses, let's discuss how to conduct a SWOT analysis effectively. Here are the steps involved:

• Define the objective: The first step in conducting a SWOT analysis is to define the objective. What is the purpose of the analysis? What are the specific goals that the analysis aims to achieve? Defining the objective will help focus the analysis and ensure that it is relevant to the specific needs of the business.
• Gather information: Once you have defined the objective, the next step is to gather information about the business, its industry, and its competitors. This can include things like financial reports, customer feedback, market research, and competitor analysis.
• Identify strengths: What are the things that the business does well? What advantages does it have over its competitors? This can include things like a strong brand, loyal customer base, experienced employees, and efficient operations.
• Identify weaknesses: The next step is to identify the weaknesses of the business. What are the areas that need improvement? What disadvantages does it have compared to its competitors? This can include things like a weak brand, lack of funding, inexperienced employees, and outdated technology.
• Identify opportunities: To identify the opportunities available to the business , you need to address questions such as, What are the trends in the industry? What changes in regulations could benefit the business? What new technologies are emerging? This can include things like a growing market, new trends, technological advancements, and changes in regulations.
• Identify threats: The final step is to identify the threats to the business. What are the economic, social, and environmental factors that could impact the business negatively? What are the risks associated with the current situation and potential growth opportunities? This can include things like economic downturns, increased competition, changes in consumer behavior, and natural disasters.

Once the SWOT analysis is complete, the next step is to use the information to develop a strategic plan that maximizes the strengths of the business, minimizes its weaknesses, takes advantage of opportunities, and mitigates threats.

Who should conduct a SWOT analysis and what are the benefits?

A SWOT analysis can be conducted by anyone involved in the strategic planning process of a business. This can include business strategists , executives, managers, and consultants. Here are some of the benefits of conducting a SWOT analysis:

• Provides a fresh perspective on a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, allowing for a more objective view of the situation.
• Facilitates strategic decision-making that enables businesses to make informed strategic decisions based on their current situation and potential for growth.
• Helps prioritize action items based on their importance and potential impact to the business.
• Encourages collaboration among team members, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis of the situation.
• Enables risk assessment associated with their current situation and potential growth opportunities.
• Improves communication among team members, ensuring that everyone is on the same page regarding the current situation and potential for growth.

This information helps businesses to prioritize their key strategic initiatives, focus their resources on areas with the greatest potential for growth and competitive advantage, and develop a strategic plan that aligns with their goals and objectives. Ultimately, a SWOT analysis helps businesses to make more effective strategic decisions that can lead to increased profitability, market share, and long-term success.

Example of a SWOT analysis

To help illustrate the SWOT analysis process, let's take a look at an example of a SWOT analysis for a company in the fashion industry:

• Strong brand recognition
• Innovative designs
• Loyal customer base
• Experienced and skilled designers and staff
• Efficient production processes
• Limited distribution channels
• Dependence on a few key suppliers
• High production costs
• Lack of international presence
• Limited online presence

Opportunities

• Growing demand for sustainable fashion
• Emerging markets in Asia and South America
• Expansion into e-commerce
• Partnership with influencers and celebrities
• Diversification of product offerings
• Economic downturns and recessions
• Increased competition from established and emerging brands
• Shifting consumer preferences and trends
• Changes in regulations and trade policies
• Disruptive technologies and innovations

Using this SWOT analysis, the company could focus on expanding its distribution channels and international presence, reducing production costs, and investing in sustainable and diverse product offerings.

Q: Is a SWOT analysis only for large businesses? A: No, a SWOT analysis is beneficial for businesses of all sizes, including small businesses.

Q: Can a SWOT analysis be conducted for a specific project or product? A: Yes, a SWOT analysis can be conducted for a specific project or product to evaluate its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Q: How often should a SWOT analysis be conducted? A: It is recommended to conduct a SWOT analysis at least once a year or whenever there are significant changes in the industry, competition, or business environment.

Q: What should I do with the information gathered from a SWOT analysis? A: The information gathered from a SWOT analysis should be used to develop a strategic plan that maximizes strengths, minimizes weaknesses, takes advantage of opportunities, and mitigates threats.

In conclusion, a SWOT analysis is an important tool that can help businesses of all sizes and industries to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By conducting a SWOT analysis, businesses can gain a better understanding of their current situation and potential growth opportunities, enabling them to make informed business decisions and develop effective business strategies. As a strategic leader or business strategist, it is important to conduct a SWOT analysis regularly to stay up-to-date with changes in the industry and competition, and ensure that your business plan is relevant and effective in achieving your business goals.

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How to Do a SWOT Analysis for Better Strategic Planning

6 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

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 analysis
• Questions to ask during a SWOT analysis
• Example of a SWOT analysis
• TOWS analysis: Developing strategies for your SWOT analysis

To 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.

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I’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.

• What do you do well?
• Positive attributes of people , such as knowledge, background, education, credentials, network, reputation, or skills.
• Tangible assets of the company , such as capital, credit, existing customers or distribution channels, patents, or technology.
• What advantages do you have over your competition?
• Do you have strong research and development capabilities? Manufacturing facilities?
• What other positive aspects, internal to your business, add value or offer you a competitive advantage?

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.

• What factors that are within your control detract from your ability to obtain or maintain a competitive edge?
• What areas need improvement to accomplish your objectives or compete with your strongest competitor?
• What does your business lack (for example, expertise or access to skills or technology)?
• Does your business have limited resources?
• Is your business in a poor location?

Opportunities (external, positive factors)

Opportunities are external attractive factors that represent reasons your business is likely to prosper.

• What opportunities exist in your market or the environment that you can benefit from?
• Is the perception of your business positive?
• Has there been recent market growth or have there been other changes in the market the create an opportunity?
• Is the opportunity ongoing, or is there just a window for it? In other words, how critical is your timing?

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.

• Who are your existing or potential competitors?
• What factors beyond your control could place your business at risk?
• Are there challenges created by an unfavorable trend or development that may lead to deteriorating revenues or profits?
• What situations might threaten your marketing efforts?
• Has there been a significant change in supplier prices or the availability of raw materials?
• What about shifts in consumer behavior, the economy, or government regulations that could reduce your sales?
• Has a new product or technology been introduced that makes your products, equipment, or services obsolete?
• Examples of a SWOT analysis

For 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 analysis

Once 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.

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

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Swot analysis: the most overlooked business tool, and how to use it.

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Alisha M Pennington is the owner of  ATvantage Athletic Training  and a business development mentor. 

For those of us who never went to business school but found our way into entrepreneurship, it takes practical experience to determine which tools best serve us in the real world. After 10 years of starting and scaling multiple businesses, I can unequivocally state that SWOT analysis is one of the most efficient tools for quickly auditing a business at any stage and determining necessary next steps.

Having its origins date back to the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, SWOT analysis has been used across corporate planning for decades; however, it is equally applicable for businesses in any industry that are in the infant and scaling stages. It represents an opportunity to objectively approach the planning process in business while also providing accountability within each section so as not to lean too heavily into either strengths and opportunities or weaknesses and threats. For better or worse, it visually offers a snapshot of the current state of a business and market in a simple four-quadrant table.

Admittedly though, the exercise of conducting a SWOT can feel stale and/or incredibly daunting. With new techniques popping up regularly, it can be tempting to step away from the traditional approach and test out an alternative. But it isn’t called “trusty dusty” for no reason­ — it is tried and true! So, how does one go about utilizing this tool in their business? Here are three easy steps:

1. Conduct A Business Brain Dump

To effectively evaluate your business, you must be thorough in what is being considered. Whether you enlist heads of departments or you're a sole proprietor, it is important to look at the primary areas of your business and brain dump your inner workings associated with them. These can include, but are not limited to:

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• Legalities: This includes business entity formation, compliance, contracts/agreements, insurances, trademarks, licenses, governing oversight and contractors versus employees.

• Accounting: This includes taxes, accounting software, accounts payable and receivable, tracking income and expenses, projections, profit margins, budgeting, procedures for payment processing and cash flow.

• Quality control: This includes customer journey, onboarding/hiring procedures, compliance, customer and product reviews, quality improvement, customer service and processes and automation.

• Marketing: This includes current brand and messaging, public relations, website functionality, social media presence, future growth strategy or customer acquisition plan, scalability of current procedures and future marketing opportunities.

2. Categorize Your Responses

Once you have a full list of what's working and what needs work in your business, categorize it into three primary areas: current markets/strategies, current roadblocks/hurdles and future/long-term aspirations.

Within the current markets/strategies, list out what is going well, the areas you're surpassing the competition and what your market knows you for. In the current roadblocks/hurdles, detail those services you're trying to bring to market, any bottlenecks or systems/procedures that are inefficient or areas within your industry or market that pose a threat. Finally, in the future/long-term aspirations, share the information that is currently in R&D, the future direction of the market/industry and aspirational projections of the business.

3. Create Your SWOT

Use a template, write on a whiteboard or use paper and pen to draw the SWOT and then begin filling it in. This will require your business brain dump and your categorized responses.

Strengths are internal areas within your business that are well taken care of. These could be key personnel, particular characteristics or attributes within the business that give it an advantage or even areas that have been well-developed that put the business ahead of the competition. This could be as simple as strong branding or as exemplary as a nameworthy CEO. Scan your business brain dump and look for areas that stand out as "green" or "very good" or that you could easily respond with because they've been addressed for a long time. In the categorized responses, this will primarily be in the current markets/strategies.

Weaknesses are the internal areas within your business that need to be addressed or that prove to be roadblocks. This might be communication strategy or lack of efficient processes and systems. These might be patterns of behavior you know about your business, areas you purposely avoid because they bring up feelings of dread and may have even been avoided for a lack of knowledge or support to execute. When looking at your brain dump, you may have "redlined" these, let out an audible sigh or cringed at the thought of having to address them. And they're likely in the current roadblocks/hurdles areas of the categorized responses.

Opportunities are external areas in the environment or market that allow us to expand and create growth for the business. Sometimes this is a future version of the industry, known technology that is emerging, an offer/service that is actively being developed or partnerships that will elevate the brand. When looking over the business brain dump, these are the areas that really excite the business owner, probably are front of mind and may have additional resources allocated to them. In the categorized responses, they're either in the current markets/strategies or under the longer-term aspirations.

Threats are the external areas in the environment or market that pose danger to the current state or future of the business. These may have already affected the revenue or profit of the business or could be impending competition or a shift in the market creating concern for the current business model. These items keep the business owner awake at night or dreading opening the email/answering the phone. In the brain dump, these are lingering "in between the lines," likely not explicitly stated but known as the cause for reduced profit margins or limited growth.

Use SWOT analysis not just to determine the next steps for your business but to also help prioritize which areas to focus on. Then strategically detail the opportunity available, being careful to minimize threats and take full advantage of strengths. This can be done as consistently as required but is best served as an annual exercise to evaluate the procedural activity of the business year over year.

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BUSINESS STRATEGIES

SWOT analysis: what is it and how to do it for your business

• Cecilia Lazzaro Blasbalg
• Jul 27, 2021

You can be a seasoned company with an established business plan, or be starting out and create a website for your new venture. Either way, identifying and understanding your competitors at each step of the process can lead to building a better business strategy.

This is where a SWOT analysis comes into play. It is a useful tool for making improvements and keeping your marketing goals on track. In this guide, we’ll explain what this method is all about and how to do a SWOT analysis of your own.

What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a strategy used by businesses for measuring and evaluating their overall performance, and that of competitors, in an objective manner. All these factors help business owners make smarter decisions for their company, such as if a venture should grow into a new field or rebrand itself.

The first two parameters, strengths and weaknesses, involve internal factors such as your reputation, team, location and intellectual property. These considerations are not necessarily permanent, and can fluctuate over time. It’s within an organization's own control to keep or change them (which can happen for the better or the worse). So, assuming you want to make a positive change, you’re going to need to put forth the effort and time to see that happen.

Opportunities and threats are related to external influences such as competitors, market trends, and prices of materials. Unfortunately, these are not within an organization’s control, and therefore you are not able to change them. That said, successful businesses and corporations learn how to work with these factors to their advantage, and also adapt their strategies accordingly in order to compete with others in the field.

Why do a SWOT analysis

As mentioned earlier, SWOT analysis is a lengthy process that can help different types of businesses draw conclusions by enabling them to see the bigger picture clearly. Once they have obtained valuable data and insight, only then can businesses formulate a clever and strategic plan accordingly.

Furthermore, a SWOT analysis forces you to examine your business in new and interesting ways vis-à-vis your strengths and weaknesses. This preparedness enables you to not only be ready for any challenges that might impact your business, but also offers a deeper understanding of potential opportunities or threats within your target market .

How to do a SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis should be a collaborative and inclusive process, so before you can really dive in, be sure to assemble your partners, stakeholders and any other decision-makers who will bring their ideas to the table. This way you’ll ensure you hear multiple opinions and diverse outlooks that’ll enrich your overall SWOT discussion ahead.

Below, we’ll walk through the stages of how to do a SWOT analysis for reviewing both your own company and competitors. For each one, grab a white board, sheet of paper, or another note-taking device. On this, create four sections for each company you’ll analyze. Label the sections with these parts: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And remember that when it comes to this type of analysis, leave out the bias. The more honest you are, the better and more useful your results will be.

Steps on how to do a SWOT analysis:

In order to get a better sense of what a complete SWOT analysis might look like, we’ve taken the example of a hypothetical massage therapist who is starting a service business.

Identify your company strengths

Be aware of your weaknesses

Recognize business opportunities

Understand potential threats

Make a business plan

01. Identify your strengths

Strengths are the big things that a particular company is doing well, which gives them a competitive advantage in their industry and benefits their customers. For your own business, identifying your strengths can help you leverage these by making them stronger.

For competitors, consider their strengths a goal to aim for. Ask yourself, How can I do what they do, but better? or, How can I create my own twist on this idea that outsmarts theirs?

Here are a few questions to consider as you begin your SWOT analysis:

What are this company’s competitive advantages in the industry?

What features do they offer that are unique and valuable?

What processes are they excelling in?

What draws customers in?

Are they a market leader? If so, how did they get here?

Is the organization expanding and hiring new employees?

What strong assets does the company have, i.e., intellectual property, stakeholders, buildings, etc.?

02. Be aware of your weaknesses

These are the aspects of an organization that could use some improvement. During this stage of a SWOT analysis, it’s especially important to be honest with yourself. It might be a bit uncomfortable at first, but if you don’t draw attention to a weakness, there won’t be room for you to make it better.

Note that many of the points you analyzed from the strengths above can be addressed in this section as well, but with a reverse meaning. For example, a strength might be “expanding their business and hiring new people,” while a weakness could be “losing employees to competition.” So think about those as options in addition to these kinds of questions:

What could this company do better?

What processes could be improved?

Is this company lacking an established reputation?

What is this company struggling with compared to others in the industry?

What do customers often complain about?

Is the organization losing employees?

What assets is the company lacking, from patents to funding to employee positions and more?

03. Recognize business opportunities

Owning a business is all about seizing the moment. Opportunities are probably the same for yourself and your competition, if not very similar. Recognizing them is the first step, and taking advantage of them before your competition does is the second. Likewise, you should do so at the determined time that makes the most sense for your business, depending on what stage of development you’re in. Here are more questions for doing a SWOT analysis the right way:

What is the latest trend, such as a green initiative to use recycled packaging or working with social media influencers for promotion?

What are some upcoming events to take advantage of, such as a trade show, holiday or recent news release?

Is there a loophole in your market, such as a cheaper supplier or opportunity to eliminate the middleman?

Is there an opportunity to expand to a larger building or better location?

Could the business be sold soon? Or on the other hand, could this business buy smaller, local businesses to expand?

04. Understand potential threats

These are external factors which can put a business in a negative light. And just like opportunities, threats are often similar for both you and your competitors. However, some threats can be individual to an organization, such as a particularly bad PR scandal from an unhappy customer. It’s extremely important to learn how to mitigate these, and prevent them from turning into larger issues in the future.

Although threats come last in the SWOT analysis, it might be a good idea to address them first off paper. Like a small fire, if you don’t act quickly, threats can sometimes cause irreplaceable damage.

Here are examples of potential threats:

Is a customer expressly unhappy with a particular product or service?

Is the market fluctuating, i.e., are prices rising, are consumers purchasing alternatives, etc.?

Are there new government regulations to watch out for?

What is it that they are doing better? Do some market research to find out.

Will new technology become available in the near future that could make this business’s products or services obsolete?

Are consumers no longer expressing interest in these services?

05. Make a business plan

Now that you’ve laid out the most important components affecting the success of your organization and your competition, you have the tools you need to develop a strategy. This plan will guide you to make improvements in your company, and compete on a level playground with your competition.

Consider these five steps in working through your plan:

Get feedback on your own SWOT analysis from your employees and other relevant stakeholders.

Draw out a plan, which involves using your strengths to counteract your weaknesses, as well as finding opportunities through your threats. If you’re just starting a business , write out these components as a part of your business plan , too.

Communicate your ideas to your team members, making sure that everyone is on board and held accountable.

Prioritize your action items, starting with the most important factors first. (Perhaps these are your threats if they are urgent matters.)

Execute your plan with a business proposal . Introduce the plan in the format of listed action items for your team, making sure to assign a designated person for each topic.

As your business continues to grow and evolve, know that this is just a snapshot of a moment in time. Many of these factors are subject to change at a later date. It’s a good idea to come back to this exercise in the future so that you can properly assess where your business stands in your industry and how far along you came.

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How To Write a SWOT Analysis For a Business Plan

An acronym standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT Analysis is designed to help you analyze your company’s capabilities against the realities of your business environment. Doing so allows you to direct your business toward areas where your abilities are the strongest and your opportunities are abundant. It also allows you to develop short and long-term strategies for your business. A well-developed SWOT analysis will:

• capture business opportunities by capitalizing on business strengths
• overcome weaknesses to take advantage of business opportunities
• monitor potentially threatening outside forces while maintaining or developing internal strength response capabilities
• eliminate weaknesses to protect your business from threats

Writing a SWOT Analysis  

When writing your SWOT Analysis, we recommend involving employees with different perspectives and stakes in your company, for example, management, sales, customer service, and customers.

To write a SWOT Analysis for a business plan, we recommend following these four steps. You can use a four-square SWOT Analysis template, or if more manageable, you can make lists for each category.

Example of a four-square template:

After you’ve gathered the right group of employees together, brainstorm your company’s strengths and weaknesses and its opportunities and threats, first individually and then collectively.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your company and can change over time with work. Examples of internal factors include:

• Company culture
• Company image
• Operational efficiency
• Operational capacity
• Brand awareness
• Market share
• Financial resources
• Organizational structure

Opportunities and threats are external, happening whether you want them to or not, and can’t be changed. Examples of external factors include:

• Societal changes
• Competitors
• Economic environment
• Government regulations
• Market trends

Strengths refer to the positive, tangible and intangible attributes internal to your company that are within your control.

To help you determine what your company’s strengths are, ask yourself:

• What does the company do well?
• The positive attributes of your employees (knowledge, background, education, credentials, network, reputation, or skills)
• The tangible assets of the company (capital, credit, existing customers or distribution channels, patents, or technology)
• What advantages does the company have over our competitors?
• Do we have strong research and development capabilities? What about manufacturing facilities?
• What other positive aspects, internal to the business, add value or offer us a competitive advantage?

Any aspect of your business that detracts from the value you offer or places you at a competitive disadvantage is a weakness. To determine your company’s weaknesses, ask yourself these questions:

• What factors detract from a competitive edge?
• To accomplish my objectives or compete with my strongest competitor, what areas need to improve?
• What does the business lack? Is it expertise? Maybe it’s access to skills or technology?
• Does the company have limited resources?
• Is my business in a poor location?

Opportunities

Opportunities are attractive external factors that denote reasons your business is likely to thrive. To identify your business opportunities, ask yourself:

• What opportunities are there in my market or my environment that I can benefit from?
• Does my business have a positive perception?
• Has my market recently grown, or have there been other changes that have created an opportunity?
• Is this opportunity ongoing or time-limited? How critical is my timing?

Any external factor beyond your control that could place your strategy, or the business itself, at risk is a threat. Although you have no control over threats, you can benefit by having a contingency plan to address them if and when they occur. To identify threats, ask yourself:

• Who are my existing or potential competitors?
• What factors beyond my control could place my business at risk?
• Are there challenges created by an unfavourable trend or development that could lead to declining revenues or profits?
• What situations could threaten my marketing efforts?
• Have supplier prices or the availability of raw materials significantly changed?
• Are there any shifts in consumer behaviour, the economy, or government regulations that could reduce my sales?
• Are any of my products, equipment, or services obsolete due to the introduction of a new product or technology in the market?

Once you’ve brainstormed your lists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, we recommend ranking them through a voting process. At the end of this process, you should have a prioritized list of ideas, with one person, usually the CEO, having the final call on priority.

Divide your strengths into two groups:

• Group 1: Strengths that can help you take advantage of opportunities facing your business.
• Group 2: Strengths that can help you head off potential threats.

Divide your weaknesses into two groups:

• Group 1: Weaknesses that require improvement before you can take advantage of opportunities.
• Group 2: Weaknesses that you need to completely and quickly overhaul and convert into strengths to avert potential threats to your business.

Continually refer to your lists as you make decisions that contribute to your business, including developing strategies and actions for capitalizing on opportunities. Questions that can guide your decision making include:

• Do strengths open any opportunities?
• How can we convert weaknesses to strengths?
• What do we have to do to take advantage of opportunities?
• How can we best neutralize threats?

SWOT Analysis For a Business Plan Conclusion

Once you have finalized your SWOT Analysis and added it to your business plan, don’t just leave it and forget it. A SWOT Analysis is a crucial element in any business plan and should be revisited regularly, at least annually.

Suppose your business is facing significant changes in the marketplace or competitive conditions, experiencing growth problems, or failing to meet goals. In that case, you may want to revisit your SWOT Analysis more frequently.

It should reflect the world around you as it is, not the way it was. It’s an invaluable tool for leveraging your company’s strengths, minimizing threats, taking advantage of available opportunities, strategic planning, and determining company objectives.

At Bsbcon, we are available to provide support and guidance with your company’s SWOT Analysis, ensuring that it reflects the current state of your business and considers all factors needed to ensure your business’s short and long-term goals and successes. Once your SWOT Analysis is complete, we will work with you to incorporate it seamlessly into your business plan.

Each of our business plans are tailor-made (no templates or plugins!) and designed to be easily implementable in practice. We have business plans for bank loans, investors, strategic purposes, immigration, and more.

Contact us today to get started on accomplishing everything you’ve dreamed with consumer-tested, expert panel-approved business plans that outline your steps to success.

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SWOT Analysis

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SWOT analysis using SWOT diagrams or matrices is a key part of any business planning or analysis.

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors and opportunities and threats are external factors. A SWOT diagram analyzes a project or business venture by focusing on each of these factors. It typically consists of four boxes, one for each area, but the exact shape may vary depending on the design.

SWOT diagrams can be especially useful when trying to decide whether or not to embark on a certain venture or strategy by visualizing the pros and cons. By clearly outlining all positives and negatives of a project, SWOT analysis makes it easier to decide whether or not to move forward.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis

• Determine the objective. Decide on a key project or strategy to analyze and place it at the top of the page.
• Create a grid. Draw a large square and then divide it into four smaller squares.
• Label each box. Write the word "Strengths" inside the top left box, "Weaknesses" inside the top right box, "Opportunities" within the bottom left box, and "Threats" inside the bottom right box. These are titles, so they should be distinguished from the rest of the text using either color or font size. SmartDraw offers several SWOT diagram templates designed to make construction quick and easy.
• Add strengths and weaknesses. Add factors that affect the project to the applicable boxes. Components of a SWOT analysis may be qualitative and anecdotal as well as quantitative and empirical in nature. Factors are typically listed in a bullet form.
• Draw conclusions. Analyze the finished SWOT diagram. Be sure to note if the positive outcomes outweigh the negative. If they do, it may be a good decision to carry out the objective. If they do not, adjustments may need to be made, or else the plan should simply be abandoned.

Read our SWOT Analysis tutorial.

The best way to understand SWOT analysis diagrams is to look at some examples of SWOT analysis diagrams.

Click on any of these SWOT analysis diagrams included in SmartDraw and edit them:

Browse SmartDraw's entire collection of SWOT analysis diagram examples and templates

More SWOT Analysis Diagram Information

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Develop your SWOT analysis

You can better understand your businesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats by using a SWOT analysis. Identify what your business is doing well and how you can improve with our SWOT analysis template.

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Why you need a SWOT analysis

Download our swot analysis template, complete your swot analysis, use your swot analysis.

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business.

Developing a SWOT analysis can help you look at your business in a new way and from different directions. It can also help you to:

• create or fine tune your business strategy
• prioritise areas for business growth to achieve your business goals.

Our template can help you develop your SWOT analysis.

SWOT template

You can start the process by gathering a group of employees or advisors who have different perspectives on your business. If you don’t have employees, you can ask family members, business advisors or mentors. The key is to have different points of view.

Using the prompting questions below as a guide, you can conduct a brainstorming session to discuss ideas about each SWOT category. After brainstorming, create a final prioritised list of points in our SWOT analysis template. List the factors in each category from highest to lowest priority.

Consider your strengths

Strengths are internal, positive parts of your business. These are things that are within your control. Ask yourself:

• What do we do well?
• What do we do better than our competition?
• What unique assets do we have internally (such as knowledge, background, network, reputation or skills) and externally (such as customers, patents, technology or capital)?
• What positive aspects of the business give us a competitive advantage?

Consider your weaknesses

Weaknesses are internal, negative factors. These are things that you might need to improve on to be competitive. Ask yourself:

• What and where can we improve?
• What do our competitors do better?
• Where are the gaps in our assets and resources (such as knowledge, cash or equipment)?
• Is the thing that sets us apart from our competition obvious?
• How can we improve business processes?

Consider your opportunities

Opportunities are external, positive factors that may give a competitive advantage and contribute to success. Ask yourself:

• What trends can we use to our advantage to increase use of our product or service?
• Are there any changes or events that might positively impact us (such as consumer behaviour, regulation, policies or new technology)?
• Has anything changed in the market that creates opportunity for us?
• Do the public like us?

Consider your threats

Threats include external factors beyond your control that may put your business at risk. Consider putting in place contingency plans for dealing with them if they occur. Ask yourself:

• What factors beyond our control could place us at risk?
• What potential competitors may enter the market?
• Are our resource and material supplies unstable or insecure?
• Are there any changes or events that might negatively impact us (such as consumer behaviour, regulation, policies or new technology)?

Once you have completed your SWOT analysis, it can be used to develop strategies for achieving your business goals. You can create a plan to continue building on your strengths while improving on your weaknesses. When using your SWOT analysis to create a strategy, ask yourself:

• How can we use our strengths to take advantage of our opportunities?
• How can we use our strengths to minimise our threats?
• What do we need to do to overcome and minimise our identified weaknesses?

Develop a risk management plan to prepare and protect your business.

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SWOT Analysis: 31 Editable Templates & Examples

Written by: Brian Nuckols

A SWOT analysis is a planning and marketing tool that helps businesses identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within an industry. It can appear in a simple table or as a presentation to help develop a marketing strategy or a due diligence report.

In this article, we’ll guide you through all your questions about SWOT analysis, including how to create one to identify your standing in the market. We also provide a list of 31 SWOT analysis templates formatted into multi-slide presentations , single-sheet worksheets , or even infographics .

The best part? You can edit all of these SWOT analysis examples online, share them with your team or download them for free. Pick the SWOT template you like from the list below and start editing your template.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit SWOT analysis templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

Table of Contents

What is a swot analysis, swot analysis: internal and external factors, swot analysis example, how to write a swot analysis, 31 editable swot analysis templates to use, swot analysis faqs.

As we said earlier, a SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique and marketing tool that identifies Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats of a business, project or person. It’s often portrayed in a four-section grid.

The main purpose is to help you focus on key areas that can positively and negatively affect your chances of success by identifying the forces influencing a strategy, action, or initiative and ultimately making more effective decisions.

SWOT analysis can be used internally (within an organization) or externally (outside of an organization) to aid decision-making. It is not limited to external or internal factors, and depending on the type of strategic planning required, you might need to perform a SWOT analysis on one or both of these factors.

The example below shows how to use internal and external factors for a SWOT analysis, as well as how these factors differ from each other.

Internal Factors (Strengths and Weaknesses)

These are characteristics or resources within your company that directly influence its operations, performance or purpose. These are usually within your company’s control so they can be modified, removed or improved if needed.

A SWOT analysis that examines internal factors can look like the following:

• Strengths: Brand reputation, loyal customer base, workflows and processes, talent, property, or technology or software used.
• Weakness : Outdated software, ineffective workflows, skill gaps, miscommunication, or lack of brand awareness.

External Factors (Opportunities and Threats)

External factors are elements, people and situations that are outside of your company’s control and can have an impact on its goals, marketing and operations. Since you have no control over external factors you can only be reactive rather than proactive.

A SWOT analysis using external factors can look like the following:

• Opportunities: Global market expansion, strategic partnerships and alliances, government incentives or better sourcing of materials and services.
• Threats: Changes in consumer behavior, geopolitical tensions affecting operations, or technological disruptions.

Now that we have a good understanding of what a SWOT analysis is and the key factors that can be used to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, let’s take a look at a real-life SWOT analysis example using a top brand like Amazon.

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Despite how simple and effective a SWOT analysis document can be, many people still struggle with writing one. Writing an effective SWOT analysis requires research, critical thinking and clear and concise statements.

To write a good SWOT analysis in business or for projects, follow this step-by-step guide below.

1. Understand the Purpose : Define the main objective of your SWOT analysis. It should be a SMART goal so that when you conduct the analysis, you’re focused on accomplishing a specific agenda.

2. Research and Data Collection: Conduct extensive research beforehand using internal or external sources. These could be reports, market research , customer or employee feedback, survey results, competitor analysis , industry trends, positioning, social equity, etc.

3. Organize Your Data: As you gather your findings, be sure to answer the following questions with detailed and concise answers:

• Additional questions: What do we do well? What unique resources do we have?
• Additional questions: What could we improve? Where do we have fewer resources than competitors?
• Additional questions: What market trends can we take advantage of? Are there any upcoming events that align with our strengths?
• Additional questions: What obstacles do we face? Are there external factors that could hurt our business?

4. Document the Analysis : Evaluate the list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and prioritize them based on their potential impact on the business.

5. Draw Conclusions and Make Recommendations: Summarize the key insights into a SWOT format and create actionable steps to leverage strengths, address weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate threats.

6. Review and Revise the Results: Once you’re done, take the time to revise your SWOT to ensure it accurately reflects your current situation and meets your overall goal.

Template #1: Personal SWOT Analysis

The first template we're going to explore is for a personal SWOT analysis. You can use this editable SWOT analysis template when it’s time to review the state of your career, health or relationships.

On a personal level, you are more likely to succeed when you maximize your potential. You are also better off knowing aspects of life that are more challenging before they become big problems.

The personal SWOT analysis is a good way to get started with diagramming your personal development journey.  Use this SWOT analysis template to map external factors and understand your internal strengths.

Template #2: SWOT Analysis Worksheet

Not sure how to get started with your SWOT analysis? This worksheet template helps you by asking a few of the right questions for each section of the analysis.

You can easily fill this and all our SWOT analysis forms online. Customize them with your brand colors and fonts and print them to fill out separately. This is also perfect for adding to a marketing plan document for added industry and competitive analysis.

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Template #3: Business SWOT Analysis 

The SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for businesses that need to embark on strategic planning for upcoming initiatives. The SWOT analysis template will help you take advantage of this powerful tool without wasting precious resources on design. 

When you need to analyze your company, a business SWOT analysis is a powerful tool. The SWOT diagram allows you to uncover insights about your company that will help you capture more market share.

Because the SWOT analysis is a versatile tool, you can utilize it to work within a large corporate company or a small business context.

Template #4: Customer Service SWOT Analysis

Match your SWOT analysis to your industry. With this template, we've used unique illustrations that help showcase what your business does, showing that you can be more creative with your SWOT analysis design if you prefer.

Customize this editable SWOT template to match your industry and your business offerings. Then input your own core strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities and threats.

Template #5: Hotel SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis chart is a useful planning tool for improving business strategy when you are managing a hospitality business.

A SWOT matrix template can be beneficial when deciding whether to embark on a particular venture or strategy by visualizing the pros and cons. This ability to diagram the pros and cons of potential initiatives helps manage the internal factors in the hotel planning process.

Within a hotel context, the SWOT diagram helps in the decision to buy new software, invest in new in-room amenities, invest in social media or refurbish your infrastructure. 

A crucial benefit a SWOT analysis can unlock for your hotel is the power of proactive action.  Instead of reacting to challenges passively, a SWOT analysis helps you manage your hotel actively.

Template #6: Creative SWOT Analysis

As a creative, you can utilize a SWOT analysis diagram template to brainstorm an action plan to take your career to a new level.

The SWOT diagram is a way to utilize self-analysis to improve your work. Additionally, the diagram helps you find a sense of direction in your business.

It's easy to fall into habitual patterns and fail to innovate. With a SWOT analysis, you can bring new trends and opportunities to the forefront of your brainstorming process. 

Examples of new opportunities include new places to show your work, streamlined marketing practices or adding a new medium to your offerings.

Template #7: Restaurant SWOT Analysis

SWOT analyses are perfect for any industry, including restaurants. Easily customize this creative SWOT template by adding photos of your own menu dishes, matching them to your brand and inputting your own restaurant's industry information.

Opportunities here could be that there are no similar cuisines offered nearby, while threats could be that you're walking into a saturated industry. Consider how you can make the most of each of these.

Template #8: Nonprofit SWOT Analysis

Even nonprofit organizations need a SWOT analysis chart to see if their mission makes sense at the time and place they're starting out. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your up-and-coming organization can help you make a stronger impact in the market.

Use interactive features in your SWOT analysis layout to engage the stakeholders in the information.

Template #9: School SWOT Analysis

When you manage a school’s operations as an administrator or executive, it's vital to stay on top of all the moving parts. A school SWOT analysis will help you do your job exceptionally. 

A SWOT analysis is a useful tool for administrators who want to optimize the functioning of their schools. 

A SWOT analysis is a diagram that can inspire administrators, teachers and staff to study the tweaks they can make in day-to-day operations to improve their culture and results. Generally, a SWOT analysis is used in schools before an audit or assessment. 

The SWOT analysis chart is a practical way to study the systems and procedures that exist within the organization.

Template #10: SWOT Analysis Infographic

This is a basic SWOT analysis infographic template that you can use for any business in any industry. Easily replace all of the existing content with strengths and opportunities that match your own business and the industry that you're in.

Template #11: Nonprofit SWOT Analysis

Strategic planning is a crucial function when it comes to building capacity for your non-profit. If your goal is to increase the impact and bring your mission statement to life, a SWOT analysis is a good investment of your time.

If you want to achieve your nonprofit's mission statement, reviewing your existing strengths and identifying any obstacles to growth is crucial. 

A SWOT analysis is a structured tool to help you uncover insights and discover aspects of your organization that you had never considered.

Template #12: Data Science SWOT Analysis

This data science SWOT analysis template shows just how creative you can get with your SWOT analysis template design. Add a stock photo to your background that's relevant to what your business does to make it more unique.

Template #13: Consulting Firm SWOT Analysis

In consulting firms, information and strategy are clear competitive advantages. This competitive advantage is why a well-done SWOT analysis is so valuable.

Imagine that you are creating a proposal for a client. You know the competition will be fierce for this account. What do you express to make sure the potential client knows all the things that set your firm apart? 

This need to have clarity when it comes to expressing what sets you apart is where the SWOT analysis can help your consulting firm.

Template #14: Personal SWOT Analysis

It can even be a great idea to create a personal SWOT analysis when you're working to build your personal brand. This can also be helpful when trying to find a job or improve your overall career performance. What are your strengths, and where can you improve?

Template #15: Cybersecurity SWOT Analysis

Cybersecurity firms are in the business of analyzing threats. This threat detection capability will help you bring some of those skills to bear with the SWOT analysis. 

As a Cybersecurity professional, you spend time thinking about security breaches and cyber attacks . Finding the time to think about the bigger picture of your business can prove challenging. This time scarcity problem is one reason that the SWOT analysis is so valuable. 

The SWOT matrix is a structured grid that allows you to uncover a lot of information quickly. 

This low time cost will help you find high-leverage opportunities or fixes without setting you back when it comes to the rest of your workload.

Template #16: Retail SWOT Analysis

In the retail space, it can be challenging to stay ahead in a competitive marketplace. A SWOT analysis will help you deal with competitors and find creative ways to earn your customer’s loyalty. 

As a retail professional, knowing exactly what strategies to use to increase your revenue can be challenging. However, by using tools like the retail SWOT analysis, you can uncover new opportunities. 

With this SWOT diagram template, you may learn things about your brand image or business processes that significantly impact your bottom line.

Template #17: Employee SWOT Analysis

You can also create a SWOT analysis for your employees. If you're evaluating their performance, consider doing so with a template like this one. Input their strengths and weaknesses and how you can help them improve.

Offer each employee a SWOT diagram template for them to analyze their own characteristics. Help them improve on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Use dynamic fields and master slides to set up the same template for all your employees. Easily change their name and personal information on their SWOT analysis layout.

Template #18: Ride Share SWOT Analysis

If you're starting a new business, especially in a saturated industry, you absolutely need to create a SWOT analysis. This editable SWOT analysis template will help you find your unique angle so that you're able to compete with already established brands in your market.

Template #19: HR SWOT Analysis

As an HR professional, the discovery of more efficient business processes is precious to your business. Working through an HR SWOT analysis is one of the best ways to discover new opportunities to bring your organization value.

Whether you are developing or revising your department’s strategic plan, a SWOT analysis is an integral part of the process. Through diagramming the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your organization, the process will generate insights into your next steps.

Template #20: SaaS SWOT Analysis

With your SaaS marketing strategy , you'll want to create a SWOT analysis that allows you to figure out what makes your tool stand out amongst the rest. Include some unique opportunities for growth and your marketing angle that will get potential customers interested in your brand over the others.

Your Visme account includes a large variety of SWOT analysis example templates for your team to choose from. Select the one that best matches your needs and start highlighting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Template #21: Marketing SWOT Analysis

Marketing strategy is a mission -critical function for every business. When you sit down to check off the tasks on your to-do list, it’s easy to get lost in the daily grind. Utilizing a tool like a marketing SWOT analysis will help you stay connected with the big picture. 

The marketing SWOT analysis tool is a great way to get started with streamlining your marketing strategy.

When it comes to forging a marketing strategy for your campaigns, there is a ton of planning that goes into the process. A SWOT analysis will help you make sure all the potential opportunities your team can take advantage of are included in the process. 

Likewise, the SWOT diagram will help you ensure that any challenges your team needs to be aware of are addressed in each campaign.

Template #22: Digital Marketing SWOT Analysis

Take a page out of this SWOT analysis book and include a useful stat about your industry at the top. This will help you fill out the rest of your analysis and ensure you know exactly where you stand in the market.

Get started with a SWOT analysis sheet straight away if you want your business to flourish.

Template #23: Web Development SWOT Analysis

Web development firms have many opportunities to grow their businesses in existing markets. Additionally, there may be hidden opportunities that are currently latent and unexplored. An editable SWOT presentation template for your firm can help you explore both visible and hidden demand for your services.

Web startups can use a SWOT analysis table to significant effect. You can utilize the diagram to determine how your firm is doing when it comes to customer service. Additionally, you can discover if there are marketing opportunities you can take advantage of in future campaigns.

Template #24: Ecommerce SWOT Analysis

Ecommerce brands also need a SWOT analysis. How unique are your products? What do your competition's websites look like? How can you stand out? Additionally, consider conducting a PEST analysis to explore broader external factors influencing your business environment. Talk about all of this and more when editing this SWOT analysis table template.

Template #25: Startup SWOT Analysis

As a startup founder or early employee, you know about the potential of disruptive innovation. A SWOT analysis can reveal helpful insights that open new horizons of disruption and opportunity.

The benefit of a SWOT analysis for your startup is that it gives you the full picture. On the one hand, you can take a complete inventory of where you are right now. On the other, it can help you see what’s emerging for your startup in the future. 

As you work through the process, consider all the aspects that make up your startup. Think of your strengths and any potential weaknesses. Make sure to take an inventory of all existing functions, including parts of your organization that may be neglected. Use one of our SWOT templates to document all the information.

Template #26: Retail SWOT Analysis

How can you make your retail store stand out from the crowd? A SWOT analysis can provide you with the details to ensure your store layout, prices, sales, discounts and more are perfectly in line with your industry and will target the right audience.

Template #27: Online Banking SWOT Analysis Template

As an online banking solution, there's more and more noise each year. You need to create a SWOT analysis to understand the frustrations and pain points that many of your target customers have with their existing online banking.

Find out what your business can do to make online banking as easy as possible in your opportunities section and go for it. This is the best way to draw in a larger audience.

Template #28: Engineering SWOT Analysis

Engineering is a great field to utilize the SWOT analysis. The diagramming process can help make sure you are succeeding in crucial operational details. Additionally, these SWOT analysis templates can make sure you are not leaving any opportunities behind. Utilizing this strengths and weaknesses analysis template to delve deeper into internal factors affecting your engineering projects.

Project managers at engineering firms have two competing priorities. First, you have to make sure everything stays agile, on track and everyone is executing. On the other hand, you have to make space for creativity, strategy and making sure nothing gets stale. 

These competing priorities are why the SWOT analysis is so valuable for engineering teams. 

Template #29: Real Estate SWOT Analysis

The real estate industry also needs a SWOT analysis to determine what kind of market they're in. Is it a good time to buy or sell? This SWOT analysis template example can help homeowners, home buyers and real estate agents figure that out.

Template #30: Cloud Solutions SWOT Analysis

As a cloud solutions firm, you sell a specialized and crucial product to your customers. A SWOT analysis can help you refine your messaging and grow your business. 

As a company manager or founder of a cloud service firm, it can feel like you always have new problems to solve. Whether it’s fixing inefficiencies or improving your services, there is still the potential to optimize. 

Using SWOT analysis, you can shift from reacting to problems as they happen to addressing things ahead of time. Using this cloud service SWOT analysis template example is a great way to get started with the diagramming process.

Template #31: Fashion Brand SWOT Analysis

As a fashion brand, you need to know what your competition is up to and what the state of your industry is so that you have the best chance at success. What makes your brand unique? What are the potential threats to your business? Having a clear understanding of where you stand can improve your chances of a successful business.

This SWOT analysis template example is just what you need to take your fashion brand to the next fashion week.

Before we get into the templates, let’s cover some frequently asked questions.

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a living document that highlights the four essential characteristics of a business, campaign, or strategy at a point in time. The letters SWOT stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

The analysis is conducted with your team as part of the planning and development stage. By including internal and external characteristics, your team and stakeholders can see the big picture of the current situation.

• Strengths = Strong internal characteristics
• Weaknesses = Weak internal characteristics
• Opportunities = Opportunities for external growth
• Threats = Threats by external obstacles

Why is a SWOT analysis important?

SWOT analyses are actionable decision-making tools. They form the foundation for how you’ll develop strategies, formulate roadmaps, create teams and set goals. When you skip conducting and documenting a SWOT analysis, it’s difficult to have a vision for the future or even a good grasp on the current market and position.

How do I write a SWOT analysis?

A Swot Analysis document—like the templates below—summarizes an analysis previously done with your team. The overview is recorded in a professionally designed document to share with stakeholders, team members or clients. To lay down the content for the SWOT analysis, answer these questions in a group discussion.

• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• What are the Opportunities
• What are the Threats

For some answers, you’ll need to do some research, including competitor analysis , market analysis , market status, positioning, social equity, etc.

The SWOT analysis layout looks like a four-sectioned grid. Strengths and weaknesses are next to each other, as are the opportunities and threats.

What are the three major benefits of a SWOT analysis?

Creating a SWOT analysis has plenty of benefits for any business. Here are three of the most influential for choosing a SWOT analysis.

1. Versatility

A SWOT analysis’s versatility is one of its greatest characteristics. First, it can be applied to any business regardless of size, situation, or scope. They can be incorporated into high-level decision-making or to help strategize a social media campaign.

Second, they are inexpensive to make and simple to conduct. Finally, a SWOT document or presentation slide can easily form part of your branded material inside a Visme workspace.

2. Four stories in one

Another benefit of a SWOT analysis sheet is that you get four stories about the same topic in one simple grid. When making decisions, having information is essential for the big picture and the details.

Depending on the project, some stories will be more important than others. The strengths and weaknesses help you see what strengths to rely on and what weaknesses to be careful with. The opportunities and strengths tell the story of growth and obstacles to overcome.

3. Improves communication through data

Doing the work to get the most out of the SWOT analysis includes researching and collecting data. The analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data not only fills in the section of the SWOT analysis but also fosters better communication between team members and stakeholders.

The collected data in the SWOT analysis becomes a communication point with four stories for decision-making and effective strategy.

What are the limitations of SWOT analysis?

Like any business tool, the SWOT analysis does have some limitations. These are three you need to know about

1. It can get overwhelming

Conducting a SWOT analysis can be overwhelming when there are too many people involved or there isn’t a moderator to take control of the situation. The initial list of weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats in the swot analysis layout will likely be very long.

When the list is too broad, it’s not practical or efficient. Choices must be made according to the purpose of the analysis and what is most important or needs immediate attention.

2. Differing opinions

Another limitation of creating a SWOT analysis with too many people is that there will be differing opinions on the same topic. This is where it’s important to have the data to back up every list item.

In some cases, the differing opinions during the analysis will take the conversation on a tangent, away from the analysis at hand. It’s another reason to assign a moderator during the analysis.

3. Lack of prioritization

Finally, another major limitation of a SWOT analysis is that it needs prioritization of items.

A SWOT analysis chart template helps you document the answers to the questions mentioned above, but it doesn’t offer insight into what has to be done next. Yet another reason there needs to be a person in charge who knows how to prioritize results and take action on them.

What are the rules for a successful SWOT analysis?

Don’t swot in a silo.

Don’t conduct a SWOT analysis on your own. To get a real idea of the big picture, there needs to be a variety of voices and sources of information in the conversation. With Visme, you can share a live project or collaborate synchronously.

Don’t Rely On Opinions; Get The Data

Data must back every characteristic written down in the SWOT analysis grid. An opinion isn’t good enough.

Keep It Simple

Don’t go overboard on the number of characteristics in each section. Five is a good quantity. Formulate each item as a short sentence or even one word, if possible. Use SWOT templates to save time.

Be Specific

Keep your eye on the goal of the SWOT analysis. Stay close to the main topic in question. Sometimes it's better to conduct separate analyses to gain a better understanding of a situation.

Don’t Stop At SWOT

An effective SWOT analysis doesn’t stop at creating the document to include in a report or presentation. It needs continued action to assess all four sections and make decisions toward growth.

How Often Should a SWOT Analysis Be Performed?

No hard rule says when or how often you should perform a SWOT analysis. The best way to know when is the right time is when you need to know the current situation of any aspect of your business.

Any new campaign or strategy needs a SWOT analysis. Ongoing business topics need a SWOT analysis at regular intervals—like quarters—or when things aren’t performing to their best, and it's time to reassess. A SWOT analysis is a great reassessment tool at any moment in your business.

Create your own set of branded SWOT templates and SWOT analysis sheets for your team to use inside your Visme workspace.

Not sure how to choose the best SWOT analysis template for your needs? Select a few that you think will work with your brand style and do a poll with your team to choose the final one.

Don’t forget that everything in the Visme  SWOT templates is editable and customizable to match your brand.

Ready to Design Your Own SWOT Analysis Online?

If you made it to this section of the article, you might already know that it is time to create a SWOT analysis with Visme. However, if you are unsure if it is time to get started, it is time to take the next step. 

Sign up for a free Visme account today and get started with your SWOT analysis. 

Create your own SWOT analysis in minutes.

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About the Author

Brian Nuckols is a writer working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He enjoys communicating visionary ideas in clear, action oriented language. When he’s not working on content for a transformative company you can find him analyzing dreams, creating music, and writing poetry.

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Create a Winning Strategy with SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a powerful tool businesses use to assess their internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis is essential for any company looking to make informed strategic decisions. It provides a comprehensive overview of the business's current state and helps identify areas for improvement.

SWOT analysis can also be used to compare a company's performance with that of its competitors, allowing businesses to identify areas where they can gain a competitive advantage. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the market, companies can develop strategies to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate potential threats. Ultimately, SWOT analysis helps businesses to make more informed decisions that align with their overall objectives and drive long-term success.

Understanding SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is a strategic planning technique used to evaluate these four elements within a business context. It allows companies to gain insights into their competitive position and develop strategies for growth and success.

What is a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis involves identifying internal factors such as company resources, capabilities, and limitations (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors like market trends, competition, and potential risks (opportunities and threats). By understanding these aspects, businesses can make more informed decisions about their future direction.

SWOT Analysis for Business

Conducting a SWOT analysis is crucial for businesses of all sizes. It helps identify areas where they excel or need improvement. It also enables them to anticipate potential challenges and take advantage of emerging opportunities in the market. Ultimately, it serves as a valuable tool for strategic planning and decision-making.

The Basics of SWOT Analysis

Understanding SWOT Analysis is crucial for any business looking to assess its current position in the market and plan for the future. It involves identifying internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats.

Definition of SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool to evaluate a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It provides a comprehensive overview of the internal and external factors that can impact a business's success.

Importance of SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT Analysis allows businesses to gain insight into competitive advantages and disadvantages. It helps identify areas for improvement and potential growth opportunities.

Benefits of Conducting a SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT Analysis has numerous benefits. It helps with strategic planning, decision-making, and setting realistic goals for the future. Additionally, it provides a clear understanding of the business's position in relation to its competitors.

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis

When conducting a SWOT analysis, the first step is to identify your business's strengths. This involves taking stock of what your company does well, such as having a solid brand reputation, innovative products, or a loyal customer base. By recognizing these strengths, you can leverage them to your advantage and use them as a foundation for future growth.

Identifying Strengths

To identify strengths, consider what sets your business apart from competitors. This could include unique selling points, valuable assets, or skilled employees. For example, if your company has a solid online presence and high customer satisfaction ratings, these would be considered strengths that can be used to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Next, it's essential to recognize your business's weaknesses. This involves acknowledging areas where your company may be lacking or underperforming, such as outdated technology, limited resources, or poor customer service. By identifying these weaknesses, you can take steps to address and improve upon them to strengthen your overall position in the market.

Recognizing Weaknesses

To recognize weaknesses effectively, it's important to gather feedback from various stakeholders, including employees, customers, and suppliers. This input can provide valuable insights into areas for improvement and help prioritize which weaknesses should be addressed first.

Once strengths and weaknesses have been identified, the next step is to find opportunities for growth and development. Opportunities could arise from market trends, changing consumer preferences, or technological advancements your business can capitalize on. By identifying these opportunities early on through SWOT analysis, you can proactively position your company to take advantage of them.

Finding Opportunities

When finding opportunities for your business through SWOT analysis, consider factors such as emerging markets or untapped customer segments that align with your company's strengths. For example, if there is a growing demand for eco-friendly products and your business has expertise in sustainable manufacturing practices, this presents an opportunity for expansion into new markets.

SWOT analysis is a valuable tool for businesses to assess their internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. By understanding the basics of SWOT analysis and how to conduct one effectively, businesses can use this information to formulate strategies that leverage their strengths, address weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate threats. Real-world examples of successful SWOT analyses from companies like Coca-Cola, Apple Inc., and Amazon demonstrate the practical application of this tool in achieving competitive advantage. With the availability of features like SWOT analysis tools, customizable templates, and easy sharing of reports, businesses can easily integrate SWOT analysis into their decision-making processes to sustain their competitive edge.

Using SWOT Analysis to Formulate Strategy

Quantum Template from Strikingly

Now that you've completed your SWOT analysis, it's time to put those insights to work and come up with a solid game plan for your business. Take a close look at your strengths and figure out how you can leverage them to gain a competitive edge in the market. Address any weaknesses you've identified and come up with strategies to improve or mitigate them. And don't forget to capitalize on the opportunities you've uncovered while also finding ways to protect your business from potential threats. This is where the real magic happens, so roll up your sleeves and get ready to turn your SWOT analysis into actionable steps for success.

Leveraging Strengths

After identifying your strengths through the SWOT analysis, it's essential to leverage them to gain a competitive advantage. For example, if your company has a strong brand presence, you can use this as a marketing tool to attract more customers and increase sales. By focusing on what sets you apart from competitors, you can capitalize on these strengths and stand out in the market.

Addressing Weaknesses

Addressing weaknesses is crucial for business growth . Once weaknesses are identified through the SWOT analysis, developing strategies to overcome them is essential. For instance, investing in the latest technology could help streamline operations and improve efficiency if your company lacks technological infrastructure.

Capitalizing on Opportunities

The SWOT analysis helps uncover potential opportunities for growth and expansion. Whether it's entering new markets or introducing innovative products or services, capitalizing on these opportunities can lead to business success. For example, a growing demand for eco-friendly products presents an opportunity for your company to develop sustainable offerings.

Mitigating Threats

Identifying and mitigating threats is essential for long-term success. Using the SWOT analysis insights, you can develop strategies to minimize potential risks, such as changing market trends or new competitors entering the industry. This could involve diversifying your product range or implementing contingency plans in case of economic downturns.

Real World Examples of Successful SWOT Analysis

Ventures Template from Strikingly

Looking at successful examples can help one understand SWOT analysis in the real world. Coca-Cola's SWOT analysis is a prime example of how this tool can be used effectively in business. The company's strengths lie in its strong brand recognition and global presence, while its weaknesses include dependence on carbonated drinks. Opportunities arise from the growing demand for healthier beverages, and threats come from intense competition in the beverage industry.

Coca-Cola's SWOT Analysis

Coca-Cola's SWOT analysis showcases how the company leverages its strengths to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate threats. Coca-Cola has sustained its competitive advantage in the market by recognizing its weaknesses and addressing them through diversification into non-carbonated drinks.

Apple Inc.'s SWOT Analysis

Another compelling example is Apple Inc.'s SWOT analysis, which highlights the company's innovation and strong brand loyalty as key strengths. Weaknesses include high product prices, while opportunities stem from expanding into emerging markets. Threats come from intense competition and changing consumer preferences.

SWOT Analysis of Amazon

Amazon's SWOT analysis reveals strengths such as a dominant position in e-commerce and a wide range of products and services. Weaknesses include dependence on online sales, while opportunities arise from cloud computing services and international expansion. Threats include regulatory challenges and competition from other tech giants.

Strikingly Features for SWOT Analysis

Strikingly Kickstart Program

Strikingly offers an array of features to help businesses conduct effective SWOT analyses. One key feature is the integration of SWOT analysis tools, which allows users to easily input data and generate comprehensive reports. This simplifies the process and ensures that all relevant information is captured for a thorough analysis.

Integrating SWOT Analysis tools

By integrating SWOT analysis tools, Strikingly enables businesses to streamline the process of conducting a SWOT analysis. This feature provides access to pre-built frameworks and templates, making it easier for users to identify their organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This ensures that no crucial details are overlooked during the analysis.

Customizing SWOT Analysis Templates

Strikingly , a versatile website builder offers a platform for businesses to conduct comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analyses. By customizing SWOT analysis templates, businesses can gain valuable insights and develop effective strategies.

Steps to Create a Winning Strategy with Strikingly

• Choose a Strikingly Template. Select a Strikingly template that provides a suitable structure for your SWOT analysis. Many templates offer customizable sections that can be adapted for this purpose.
• Define SWOT Elements. Clearly outline the four components of a SWOT analysis. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
• Create Visual Appeal. Use Strikingly's design tools to create visually appealing SWOT analysis templates. Consider using color coding, icons, or charts to enhance clarity.
• Incorporate Interactive Elements. Explore Strikingly's interactive features to make your SWOT analysis engaging. For example, use accordions or tabs to expand and collapse sections.
• Collaborate with Team Members . If working in a team, use Strikingly's collaboration features to allow multiple users to contribute to the SWOT analysis.
• Analyze and Prioritize. Once you've completed the SWOT analysis, prioritize the factors in each quadrant. Strikingly's table or list features can be used to organize and rank items.
• Develop Action Plans. Create action plans based on the insights gained from the SWOT analysis. Strikingly's blog feature can be used to document these plans.
• Regular Review and Updates. Conduct regular SWOT analysis reviews to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and identify emerging trends. Strikingly's platform allows for easy updates.
• Share Insights. Use Strikingly to share the SWOT analysis with team members or stakeholders. This can be done through embedded documents or presentations.
• Integrate with Other Tools. Combine Strikingly with other business tools to enhance the SWOT analysis process. For example, integrate with project management tools or CRM systems.

Additional Tips for Effective SWOT Analysis with Strikingly

• Use clear and concise language to describe each SWOT element.
• Prioritize factors based on their impact on the business.
• Consider using SWOT analysis templates as a starting point for more in-depth analysis.
• Regularly update the SWOT analysis to reflect changing business conditions.
• Leverage Strikingly's analytics to measure the impact of your SWOT-based strategies.

By customizing SWOT analysis templates on Strikingly, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their internal and external environments, leading to more informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Sharing SWOT Analysis Reports

After conducting a SWOT analysis, businesses can easily share their reports with stakeholders using Strikingly's sharing feature. This allows for seamless collaboration and communication across teams, ensuring that everyone is aligned on the findings and strategies derived from the analysis. Sharing reports also facilitates transparency and accountability within the organization.

Sustain Your Competitive Advantage with SWOT Analysis

Scribble Template from Strikingly

Understanding SWOT analysis is crucial for any business looking to gain a competitive edge. By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can identify critical areas of strength and weakness and potential opportunities and threats in your market. This valuable insight can then inform strategic decision-making and drive business growth .

Applying SWOT Analysis to Your Business

Applying SWOT analysis to your business involves using the findings to make informed decisions about strategy, marketing, product development, and more. By leveraging the strengths identified in the analysis and addressing weaknesses, you can position your business for success in a competitive marketplace.

Next Steps After Conducting a SWOT Analysis

Once you have conducted a SWOT analysis , the following steps involve translating the insights gained into actionable strategies. This may include setting specific goals and objectives based on the opportunities identified and implementing measures to mitigate potential threats. Regularly revisiting and updating the SWOT analysis is essential to ensure it remains relevant.

Sustaining your competitive advantage with SWOT analysis requires ongoing vigilance and adaptability. By continuously monitoring changes in your industry landscape and updating your SWOT analysis accordingly, you can stay ahead of the competition, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and mitigate potential threats.

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Mattel SWOT Analysis

Before we dive deep into the SWOT analysis, let’s get the business overview of Mattel.

Company Profile:

• Name: Mattel, Inc.
• Founded: 1945
• Headquarters: El Segundo, California, USA
• Industry: Toys and Entertainment
• CEO: Ynon Kreiz

Business Segments:

• Focus on the U.S. and Canadian markets.
• Major products include Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, and American Girl.
• Operations outside North America.
• Key markets include Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
• A subsidiary focusing on dolls and related products.
• Offers a premium brand experience with stores, a catalog, and online sales.
• Expand brand I.P.s through T.V. shows, movies, digital content, and live events.
• Partnerships and licensing deals with major studios and streaming platforms.

Key Brands:

• Barbie: One of the world’s most iconic doll brands.
• Hot Wheels: Leading brand in toy vehicles.
• Fisher-Price: Early childhood development products.
• American Girl: Premium dolls and accessories.
• Thomas & Friends: Popular train-based children’s brand.
• Mega Bloks: Construction toys brand competing with LEGO.
• UNO: Widely popular card game.

Financial Performance:

• Revenue (2023): $5.44 billion
• Operating Income: $520 million
• Net Income: $250 million

Recent Developments:

• Barbie Movie (2023): Major success, revitalizing the brand and boosting sales.
• Sustainable Product Lines: Introduction of the “PlayBack” program to recycle old toys.
• Partnership with SpaceX: Hot Wheels collaboration to create space-themed products.

Here is the SWOT analysis for Mattel

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool to evaluate a business, project, or individual’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It involves identifying the internal and external factors that can affect a venture’s success or failure and analyzing them to develop a strategic plan. In this article, we do a SWOT Analysis of Mattel.

SWOT Analysis: Meaning, Importance, and Examples

• Iconic Brands: Mattel owns some of the most recognizable and beloved toy brands worldwide, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, and American Girl. These brands have substantial brand equity and loyalty.
• Diverse Product Range: The company offers various toys catering to different age groups and interests, enhancing market reach.
• Cutting-edge Designs: Mattel is known for its innovative product designs and continuous development, keeping its product lines fresh and appealing.
• Technological Integration: Incorporating augmented reality (A.R.), artificial intelligence (A.I.), and interactive features into traditional toys.
• Global Reach: Extensive distribution channels across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
• Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with major retailers, online platforms, and entertainment companies to ensure broad product availability.
• E-commerce Growth: Significant investment in online sales channels, leveraging e-commerce platforms to boost sales.
• Digital Engagement: Development of digital content, apps, and games to complement physical toys and enhance brand engagement.
• Media Integration: Successful expansion into T.V. shows, movies, and digital content, such as the recent “Barbie” movie, boosts brand visibility and engagement.
• Content Partnerships: Collaborations with leading studios and streaming platforms to produce and distribute content.
• Eco-friendly Initiatives: Programs like “PlayBack” to recycle old toys and the goal of using 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastics by 2030.
• Green Product Lines: Introduce environmentally friendly product lines that appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.
• Solid Revenue Base: Consistent revenue generation with strong profitability.
• Strategic Investments: Continuous investment in R&D, marketing, and acquisitions to drive growth.
• Leadership in the Toy Industry: One of the top global players in the toy industry with significant market share.
• Brand Loyalty: High customer loyalty and strong brand recall, particularly with legacy brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels.
• Strategic Vision: Leadership under experienced executives like CEO Ynon Kreiz, focusing on innovation, sustainability, and digital transformation.
• Operational Efficiency: Strong management practices ensuring efficient operations and strategic execution.
• International Presence: Strong presence in mature and emerging markets, allowing diversified revenue streams.
• Localized Products: The ability to tailor products to meet local tastes and preferences enhances global appeal.
• Brand Concentration: A significant portion of Mattel’s revenue is generated from a few key brands, such as Barbie and Hot Wheels. Any decline in their popularity could negatively impact overall sales.
• Intense Rivalry: Faces fierce competition from other major toy manufacturers like Hasbro, LEGO, and newer entrants in the market. This fierce competition can impact market share and pricing power.
• Digital and Interactive Competition: There is increasing competition from digital games and interactive entertainment options, which are increasingly popular among children.
• Global Disruptions: Exposure to global supply chain disruptions can affect the timely production and delivery of products. Recent issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions have highlighted these vulnerabilities.
• Rising Costs: Fluctuations in raw material and transportation costs can affect profit margins.
• Digital Shift: A rapid shift towards digital and screen-based entertainment among children can reduce the demand for traditional toys.
• Sustainability Concerns: Increasing consumer awareness and demand for sustainable products requires continuous adaptation and investment in eco-friendly materials and processes.
• Quality Control: Past issues with product recalls due to safety concerns can damage brand reputation and lead to financial losses. Ensuring stringent quality control is essential but challenging.
• Debt Levels: High debt levels can limit financial flexibility and the ability to invest in new initiatives or withstand economic downturns.
• Profit Margins: Pressure on profit margins due to rising costs and competitive pricing strategies.
• Retail Channel Dependence: Heavy reliance on significant retailers for product distribution can be risky if relationships with key retailers are strained or retail strategies shift.
• E-commerce Adaptation: While there has been a push towards digital, the transition to e-commerce can be challenging and requires significant investment.
• Barbie Controversies: The Barbie brand has faced criticism over the years for promoting unrealistic body images and gender stereotypes, which can impact its appeal in a changing cultural landscape.
• Market Dependence: Heavy reliance on North American and European markets. Economic downturns or shifts in consumer behavior in these regions can significantly impact sales.
• Regulatory Challenges: Navigating different regulatory environments across global markets can be complex and costly.
• Product Failures: New product launches carry the risk of failure, which can lead to financial losses and inventory write-offs.
• Adaptation Speed: Quickly adapting to technological changes and market trends is crucial, and any lag in this area can be detrimental.

Opportunities

• E-commerce Growth: Investing further in online sales channels can help reach a broader audience and cater to the growing trend of online shopping.
• Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Sales: Enhancing DTC platforms to establish stronger customer relationships, improve margins, and gather valuable consumer data.
• Smart Toys and Technology Integration: Developing toys that incorporate A.R., V.R., A.I., and other advanced technologies can capture the interest of tech-savvy children.
• STEAM Products: Expanding the range of educational toys that focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) can appeal to parents and educators.
• Original Content: Producing original T.V. shows, movies, and digital content based on existing toy brands can increase brand engagement and create new revenue streams.
• Streaming Platforms: Partnering with major streaming platforms to distribute content and enhance brand visibility.
• Eco-friendly Products: Developing and marketing more sustainable toys and packaging can attract environmentally conscious consumers and meet regulatory requirements.
• Recycling Programs: Expanding initiatives like the “PlayBack” program to enhance brand reputation and customer loyalty.
• Emerging Markets: Increasing presence in high-growth regions such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa can diversify revenue streams and reduce dependence on mature markets.
• Localized Products: Tailoring products to fit local cultural preferences and trends in different regions.
• Brand Collaborations: Forming strategic partnerships with famous brands and franchises to co-create products that attract new customer segments.
• Cross-Industry Collaborations: Exploring partnerships with tech companies, educational institutions, and entertainment firms to innovate and expand product offerings.
• Revitalizing Classic Brands: Investing in marketing and product innovation to refresh and rejuvenate classic brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels for new generations.
• Expanding Product Lines: Introducing new product lines within existing brands to cater to evolving consumer preferences.
• Personalized Products: Offering customization options for toys, such as customized dolls or cars, can create a unique customer experience and drive higher sales.
• Consumer Feedback Integration: Using customer feedback and data analytics to adapt products and marketing strategies to meet consumer demands quickly.
• Active Play: Developing toys that promote physical activity and outdoor play can address parents’ increasing focus on health and wellness.
• Mental Wellness: Creating toys and games that focus on mental wellness and stress relief can appeal to both children and adults.
• Theme Parks and Attractions: Exploring opportunities to develop theme parks, branded play areas, and attractions based on popular toy brands.
• Experiential Retail: Enhancing in-store experiences with interactive displays, workshops, and events to draw customers into physical retail spaces.
• Major Competitors: Strong competition from other large toy manufacturers, such as Hasbro and LEGO, and emerging companies can impact market share and profitability.
• Price Wars: Competitive pricing strategies can lead to reduced profit margins.
• Shift to Digital Entertainment: Children’s increasing popularity of digital games, apps, and online entertainment options can reduce demand for traditional toys.
• Technology Adoption: Mattel’s failure to keep up with rapid technological advancements can make its products less appealing to tech-savvy consumers.
• Global Supply Chain Issues: Mattel’s dependence on global supply chains makes it vulnerable to disruptions caused by geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, pandemics, and other unforeseen events.
• Rising Costs: Increases in raw materials, labor, and transportation costs can adversely affect profitability.
• Sustainability Concerns: Growing demand for environmentally friendly products requires continuous adaptation and investment in sustainable materials and processes.
• Trends and Fads: The toy industry is highly influenced by trends and fads, and failing to predict or adapt to these changes can lead to a decline in sales.
• Product Recalls: Issues related to product safety and recalls can damage brand reputation and result in financial losses.
• Regulatory Compliance: Navigating complex regulatory environments in different countries can be costly and challenging.
• Economic Downturns: Economic recessions or downturns can reduce consumer spending on non-essential items like toys.
• Currency Fluctuations: Exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations can impact financial performance, especially with significant international operations.
• Brand Criticism: Negative perceptions related to brand messages, such as criticism of Barbie for promoting unrealistic body images, can impact brand reputation and sales.
• Consumer Boycotts: Public backlash or boycotts related to social, ethical, or environmental issues can harm the brand.
• Counterfeiting: Counterfeit products can erode brand value and lead to financial losses.
• I.P. Infringement: Legal battles over intellectual property rights can be costly and time-consuming.
• Retail Consolidation: Consolidating significant retailers can increase bargaining power and pressure on margins.
• Shift to Online Shopping: While e-commerce presents opportunities, it also requires significant investment and adaptation, and failure to compete online effectively can be detrimental.
• Labor Disputes: Strikes, labor disputes, and workforce management issues can disrupt operations and affect productivity.
• Talent Retention: Attracting and retaining skilled talent in a competitive job market can be challenging.

Check out the SWOT Analysis of Global Businesses

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Advertisement

See Where Countersnipers Could Have Stopped the Trump Rally Gunman

By Anjali Singhvi ,  Helmuth Rosales and Charlie Smart

Where countersnipers were stationed — and where they were not — has emerged as a point of contention in assessing security failures at the July 13 assassination attempt at a rally for former President Donald J. Trump.

Countersniper locations

Locations with better views of gunman

Water tower

Countersnipers

inside building

Secure perimeter

Locations with better

views of gunman

Source: Beaver County E.S.U. via Senator Charles E. Grassley’s office

Note: The 3-D model is based on drone imagery taken by The New York Times.

Since the shooting, testimonies from law enforcement officials before House and Senate panels have pointed to critical spots near the rally that could have allowed countersnipers to spot the gunman before he fired eight shots, including one that grazed Mr. Trump’s ear .

The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, managed to climb up on top of an AGR International warehouse, walk across its roof and begin shooting — all while evading countersnipers. There were four locations where countersnipers were stationed near the rally, according to Beaver County planning documents . Law enforcement officials have since testified that higher-elevation positions should have been secured.

The Water Tower

The tallest structure in the area was a water tower about 450 feet away from the warehouse Mr. Crooks used as his perch. About 108 feet high, its platform would have provided countersnipers with one of the clearest views of the warehouse rooftop and the rally grounds, according to analysis with a 3-D model built by The New York Times.

The analysis found that views from at least three of the countersniper positions were limited for a number of reasons, including the slope of the roof that the gunman chose and a tree that blocked the line of sight for one of two Secret Service countersniper teams.

If countersnipers had been positioned atop the water tower, here is what they would have seen.

View from water tower

The New York Times

In a House committee hearing on July 23, Representative Eli Crane, a Republican from Arizona and a former NAVY seal sniper, who visited the rally site after the shooting, raised questions about why no countersniper team was positioned on the “tallest structure by far on the site with 360 surveillance.”

In the same hearing , Col. Christopher Paris, the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner, said that “height provides a tactical advantage.”

The water tower was outside a secure perimeter the Secret Service delineated as part of its plan, even though it was within a rifle’s range of Mr. Trump. When asked why no agents were stationed there, Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned as the Secret Service director 10 days after the assassination attempt, said “that would not be something that would be included in a security plan.” She did not provide any more details.

Roofs in the AGR Complex

Local law enforcement countersnipers were positioned in the AGR International building complex, which the Secret Service excluded from its secure perimeter. They were at windows inside a building adjacent to the one Mr. Crooks climbed up.

But no countersnipers were on any of the roofs of the complex, which was made up of multiple one- and two-story buildings with interconnected roofs.

Countersnipers were inside

this building, but the roof

offered a better view

In the House hearing , Representative Carlos Gimenez of Florida questioned the decision to place countersnipers inside — a position that provided a limited line of sight, unless the countersnipers were sticking their heads out of the windows.

Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the acting Secret Service director, told senators this week that the decision was an oversight in planning. “They should have been on the roof,” he said, while acknowledging that it was the Secret Service’s responsibility to clarify that expectation with local law enforcement.

In addition to the roof adjacent to the one Mr. Crooks was on, Times analysis showed that several of the flat and sloped roofs of the AGR complex would have provided clear lines of sight of the gunman on the roof.

Methodology

The Times flew a drone on July 16 over the site of the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., and used the imagery captured by the drone to create a 3-D model of the scene. The Times also used measurements collected on the ground, satellite imagery and references from photos and videos posted on social media to corroborate the dimensions in the model. The positions of the gunman, countersniper teams and the victims were based on sites The Times located from social media videos.

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