If you are a business owner, a manager or an entrepreneur, you must analyze your business on a regular basis to understand your business environment. Swot Analysis is an easy to use yet very effective tool for this purpose. SWOT Analysis consider four factors – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. These Swot analysis factors analyze internal and external environment of your organization. By using this tool, you can identify changes in the external environment and implement in your business for competitive advantage.
SWOT Analysis Strengths Definition
In Swot analysis, S stands for Strengths. SWOT Analysis Strengths are those features and areas of your organization where you can perform better than your competitors in the industry. Strengths are internal and positive factors that help you to take advantage of opportunities in the external environment.
Please don’t confuse with swot analysis strengths and opportunities. Strengths are internal and controllable factors. You have the luxury to improve certain business areas to increase your strength. On the other hand, Opportunities are external factors of your organization that are uncontrolled. Opportunities can be explored in the new areas to increase profit and growth.
Importance of Strengths in Swot Analysis
SWOT strengths are an integral part of your organization. Without knowing the strengths of an organization, you cannot achieve your business objectives. It helps you to identify areas, where you do well from your competitors, can improve your decision-making process.
There are two ways to conduct swot analysis, first, you can do swot analysis of your company and know your key strengths. Secondly, you can also perform a detailed swot analysis of your competitors to know their strengths and weaknesses. By doing this you can even know your competitors’ psyche and work overtime to build the strength that can keep you ahead of your competitor. If you know your business strengths you can better take advantage of opportunities.
SWOT Analysis Strengths Examples
Here are some examples of strengths that will give a better understanding of the swot analysis topic.
Customer Loyalty and Relationship
In the competitive market having loyal customers is a vital strength for your business. Having this luxury you can extend your product line and even can charge premium pricing. There are different ways to look at your customer to know the strength of your company. For example, an electricity provider will look at the subscribers and show them as a key strength of the company against competitors. A financial institution like a Bank key strength is the number of account holders.
Strong Financial Resource
There are different types of resource a firm have for example human resources and financial resources. Having strong financial resources are the backbone of the company success. If you don’t have a strong financial position, it can adversely affect your growth and success in the market. More resources mean more success.
A good example is Samsung. Since it has strong distribution channels, loyal customers base and sufficient financial resources that makes it produce innovative and new products. Samsung has a neck to neck competition with Apple and many other companies.
Producing Quality Products
There are some companies who always produce premium quality products. At this moment you must be thinking of Apple, Dell, Intel and many more. There are many successful brands who are producing quality and innovative products for decades. Customers always prefer their brand over competitors and wait for the upgrade version and new products like MacBook Pro 2018 release was the long-awaited product in the market.
Economies of Scale
Economies of Scale is always considered a SWOT strength. If we consider economies of scale in retail industry the names you think will be Nordstrom, Walmart, Tesco and Amazon. All these names are the leading name in their respective industries. Being a first mover advantage, they have strong relationships with their suppliers and can give a tough time to new entrants. Due to strong financials and suppliers they purchase in bulk and able to charge less than small retailers in the industry. Due to the large scale of operations, they have a cost advantage and achieve economies of scale.
Positive Brand Image
Brand image is a very good example of SWOT analysis strength. Look at Apple, Dell XPS and Samsung. These companies are able to produce the most innovative and quality smartphones and laptops. They have the same functionalities and product features. But Apple remains on Top in mobile and laptops technology. It is worth mentioning that Apple charge more than Dell XPS and Samsung but still, Apple is able to affect consumer mind and psyche with its Brand image.
Strong Marketing Communication Strategies
It is one of the more important steps to create competitive advantages. Marketing communication means how to convey your message, how to persuade and how to remind your target audience using different strategies and channels. Unilever knows how to use its brand name and brand logo to attract consumers using television commercials, different events and campaigns. Coca-Cola and Pepsi both able to attract its customer and sell more and more products through its marketing and communication efforts.
Technological Advancement
There is no doubt that technological advancement is a key strength in SWOT analysis. Apple is a very good example, it has a strong competitive advantage over its competitors. From last few decades, Apple is able to fulfill its brand promise i.e. simplicity and differentiation. Samsung is also considered a technological leader not only in smartphones but LCS, LEDs and Television.
Swot Analysis strengths are positive and internal factors of your business and they are helpful to achieve your business goals and objectives. It can help you to stand out from the crowd.
