What is a SWOT Analysis?
SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats; is a strategic planning tool for evaluating a companies competitive position.
A SWOT analysis is a technique used to asses the performance, competition, risk and potential of a business, product, service or experience.
The analysis is often conducted using primary and secondary research methods with the purpose of enhancing an individual or companies chance at succeeding in the world and/or market.
SWOT analysis are broken down into four components: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths
Strengths define what is working for a business.
The following questions might help you identify strengths:
- What does the business do well?
- What does the business do best?
- What’s unique about the business?
- What does the target audience like about the business?
- Which categories or features surpass those offered by the competitors?
Weaknesses
Weaknesses define things that do not favor the business.
The following questions might help you identify weaknesses:
- Which products, services or experiences are underperforming?
- Why are the products, services or experiences underperforming?
- What can the business improve?
- How does the business rank against their competitors?
- What do their competitors have that the business lacks?
Opportunities
Opportunities can be identified from the strengths and weaknesses and help inform how a business can positively evolve.
The following questions might help you identify opportunities:
- How can we offer things that our competitors offer?
- Where are the market gaps in our products, services or experiences?
- What are the business goals for the year?
- Where can a business improve?
Threats
Threats are areas that can potentially cause problems for a business. Threats can be within a business is control (i.e. offering edit option in messages) as well as out of a business's control (i.e. a global pandemic).
The following questions might help you threats:
- How have customer expectations evolved?
- Where are we not meeting customer demands?
- To which competitor are we losing our customers to and why?
- Where are we being outperformed?
- Are we doing anything to bridge the gap in our product, service or experience offering?
Looking to learn how to create a SWOT Analysis ?
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