This week’s DB requires you to outline the SWOT for your Pet Food(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).

Within your Original Discussion Thread identify which of the product’s STRENGTHS you will leverage in your marketing activities. This means you should choose a minimum of one Strength and give a detailed explanation of how that “S” will be the one that will allow you to develop a solid marketing strategy.

When responding to your peers, make sure to point out what Weaknesses and Threats could affect their proposed marketing activities.

To avoid formatting confusions, please follow the template provided within 2-2 Final Project Part I Milestone One: SWOT Analysis & Discussion

An easy way of identifying the SWOT elements is using the following reasoning:

“S & W”: Both are considered INTERNAL FORCES, this means that the company can influence them and control them. E.g.: W – High Price (the company can lower the costs) /// S – High Brand Recognition (the company can advertise more or less to modify the recognition)

“O & T”: Both are considered EXTERNAL FORCES, this means that the company cannot influence or CONTROL them. E.g.: T – Competition (other brands on the market) /// O – New Distribution Channels (offer the product through retailers other than SNHU pet store)

The following is an excellent article that discusses the importance of the SWOT analysis within the Pet Food Industry

How to score the highest grade?

Download the Milestone 1 Template to use as your starting point. To help you to transfer your image from PowerPoint to Brightstone, we have created the following video which explains how to save the image as a JPG

Click Rubric to find the RUBRIC that I will use to grade this milestone. I highly recommend you to print this document out to make sure that when you write your assignment, you cover each particular topic as it will be graded. In this way, you increase your chances to have a Proficient document. A graphical review of how to score 100% on this assignment is included below to assist you.

If you have any question, please post it in the DB tray for the Final Project, or email me directly.

Finally, I have recorded this video to help you out avoiding “common mistakes” when conducting your SWOT (please be creative and do not copy the factors shown in this video)

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Describe the different strategies companies use to segment their market
• Interpret a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for a new product
• Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each segmentation strategy

Module Reading and Resources

Textbook: Marketing: An Introduction, Chapter 6
This chapter covers the topics of target marketing and segmentation strategy.

Chapter 2 (pp. 54–55 only)
This section provides an overview of a SWOT analysis.

Presentation: Marketing Concept Glossary II Module-related marketing concepts and terms are presented. Visit the glossary for a quick review of the key terms from this week. You can also look up words in the glossary found along the left-hand navigation bar.

Video: The SWOT
This video illustrates each of the SWOT elements and provides examples. Transcript available here.

SWOT Example

This document is an example from the video, and should help with this module’s discussion.

Assignment Calendar
Assignment Calendar Module Two

Module Overview

This module focuses on two very important and very tactical elements of marketing: the development of a market segmentation strategy and the use of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. Both elements occur behind the scenes, that is, they are not apparent to the consumer, and both are fluid, that is, they can be changed. Once created, they are not etched in stone, but rather are living documents that are revisited, evaluated, and updated as necessary.

Market Segmentation

There are many activities that go into the creation of a marketing strategy. One of the first points of consideration for a company is its target market. As early as the product development phase, marketers segment the market, that is, divide it into categories of potential customers, to identify who is the best target for the product. Why does this matter? After all, so many products seem at first glance to appeal to almost everyone. For example, consider Coke, which is a low-priced soft drink with high brand loyalty and which is available nearly everywhere. It is important to not be misled by that apparent simplicity. The Coca-Cola Company uses segmentation strategies to determine where to sell its products, how to manage the messaging of its ads, and how to price its products. This is further customized to specific cultures and locations.

There are four key types of market segmentation: demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and geographic. Each of these gives marketers specific characteristics about a group. Consider the following table (Table 2.1):

Type of Segmentation

Specific Variable

Marketing Implication

Demographic

Age

Messaging and channel choices. If the Coca-Cola Company is seeking to reach baby boomers, it may rely on a messaging strategy that draws on nostalgia and rely on traditional media like TV and magazines. If it is seeking to reach 18–24-year-olds, it may rely on messaging that positions Coke at the center of the action and utilize alternative media like Facebook and YouTube.

Geographic

Zip Code

Product placement, messaging, and pricing strategies. If the Coca-Cola Company is seeking to sell more product in rural Maine, it may develop regional ads and introduce pricing strategies (buy-one-get-one sales) to keep its pricing in line with income rates.

Psychographic

Lifestyle

Messaging, pricing strategies, product placement, and channel strategy. If the Coca-Cola Company is seeking to reach families (a lifestyle classification), it may develop messaging that seeks to position its product as healthier than other soda options, creating ads showing families enjoying Coke together. Coca-Cola will ensure ample product placement in the stores where families shop in a given area, such as a local grocery store or Wal-Mart, and will offer pricing deals (four 12-packs for $10) to make the product budget-friendly.

Behavioral

Loyalty

Messaging. If Coca-Cola is seeking to reinforce its product with current loyal users, its messaging will be positive and “feel-good.” If it is seeking to attract new customers (or win customers from Pepsi), it may use messaging that compares the two products.

2.1: Four Types of Market Segmentation

The marketing implications of these different market segments are important throughout this course. Each subsequent module will build upon the concepts covered in this module, including work students will complete for the final project and milestones. One of the core marketing considerations is how companies segment their markets and then use that segmentation in the development of messaging, channel strategies, pricing, and placement.

SWOT

SWOT analysis is one of many tools that marketers use to evaluate and rate how their company and products are performing. To conduct a SWOT, the company looks internally to identify its strengths and weaknesses and externally to identify its opportunities and threats. As an example, consider a SWOT Coca-Cola might have run when it launched Coke Zero (Table 2.2):

Table 2.2: Example of How Coke May Have Used a SWOT Analysis for Market Strategy Development

So why is this information so helpful? This exercise is used time and again because it provides important insights into how a company should approach the development of a marketing strategy. As a general rule, companies seek to leverage, or build upon, the strengths of the product to maximize achievement of the opportunities and minimize the weaknesses to reduce the impact of the threats. A company only has control over its strengths and weaknesses, thus this is where change can occur, and then a company tracks how those changes affect the opportunities and threats in the marketplace.

This video, The SWOT, provides more information on SWOT analyses.

Now, take a minute to review this week’s glossary.

Complete the assignment as follows:

Using the Milestone One SWOT Template provided, conduct a SWOT for the pet supply store’s new product. Consider how this information can help to develop the marketing strategy. You will post your SWOT to the discussion topic as an image. Review this tutorial for assistance with saving your slide as an image and uploading an image to the discussion. In your post, discuss which of the product’s strengths you will be leveraging in your marketing activities. In addition to your SWOT matrix image, include one to two paragraphs describing how the company could use this information to develop marketing strategies and activities. Use specific details and examples.

In your response posts to your classmates, discuss how the company’s threats or weaknesses could affect your classmates’ proposed marketing activities. 

For more information, view the following documents:

For your response posts (2), you must do the following: 

•   Reply to at least two different classmates outside of your own initial post thread.
   
•   Demonstrate more depth and thought than simply stating that “I agree” or “You are wrong.” Guidance is provided for you in each discussion prompt. 

FEEDBACK: As we move to DB 2, make sure you these articles, they will provide you insights of the industry and market trends:

Five retail executives discuss the pet industry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as how these factors are impacting their businesses.

What it Means to be ‘Clean’ in Today’s FMCG Market

classmates Post #1:  

For the promotion of Furever Fresh we will be emphasizing our strength as a fresh and healthy alternative to conventional, lower quality, preservative filled pet foods. This should help us to overcome the increased cost of our product because customers are used to the fact that foods that are fresh, natural, or organic are often accompanied by a higher price tag compared to their counterparts. With healthy eating and active lifestyles becoming more and more popular this is a great time to launch our fresh and healthy pet food by marketing pets as a “members of the family” to our customers.  Pet food is a crowded market place but we hope this is how our product will begin to stand out from the crowd. We will take advantage of our well trafficked store locations and popular user friendly website by putting Furever Fresh front and center for everyone to see. Brand loyalty comes naturally in the pet food marketplace and focusing on our quality and freshness will get buyers to make to switch!

classmates Post #2:  

Designing a SWOT analysis is a crucial step whenever It comes to creating and marketing a new product. My company will be able to use this SWOT analysis in order to develop marketing strategies to help our food become extremely successful. We will be focusing on the fact that while our pet food does cost 10% more than leading competitors, the all-natural ingredients and dedication to our customers is more than able to bridge the gap. It will also be important to determine whether or not being without social media is a harm to the business, and after evaluating these risks, there will be a potential launch of social media accounts as deemed fit.

One of the strengths I will be leveraging in my marketing activities, is the fact that my company has a well-established reputation in the pet industry, and customers will be excited to try a new product from a company they already love and trust.  I will also be leveraging the multiple retail locations we have readily available for consumers, as well as promotion of the fact that we offer free shipping on any product purchased online, big or small.