1. Simplicity
Requires no extensive training or technical skills to be used successfully. The analyst needs only a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the company and the industry in which it competes.
2. Lower Costs
Reduce the costs associated with strategic planning. Many opt to downsize or eliminate their strategic planning departments.
flexibility
A SWOT analysis can enhance the quality of an organization’s strategic planning even without extensive marketing information systems. Presence of a comprehensive information system can make repeated WWOT analyses run more smoothly and efficiently.
Integration and Synthesis
SWOT analysis gives the analyst the ability to integrate and synthesize diverse information, both a qualitative and quantitative nature. Can deal with a wide diversity of information sources. Helps transform information diversity from a weakness of the planning process into one of its major strengths.
Collaboration
Fosters collaboration and open information exchange between different functional areas By learning what their counterparts do, what they know, what they think, and how they feel, the marketing analyst can solve problems, fill voids in the analysis, and eliminate potential disagreements before finalization of the marketing plan.
Directives for a productive SWOT analysis
Stay focused-separate analysis for each product-market combination is recommended.
Search extensively for Competitors
The product, generic, and total budget competitors. Potential future competitors also. Collaborate with Other Functional Areas. SWOT promotes the sharing of information and perspective across departments. Allows for more creative and innovative solutions to marketing problems. Examine Issues from the Customer’s Perspective. Customer’s beliefs about the firm, its products, and marketing activities are important considerations in Swot. Views of employees and other key stakeholders. Look for Causes, Not Characteristics. Rather than simply list characteristics of the firm’s internal and external environments, the analyst must also explore the resources possessed by the firm and/or its competitors that are true causes for the firm’s SWOT. Separate Internal Issues from External Issues Marketing options, strategies, or tactics are not a part of the SWOT analysis. Separate product/market analyses can be combined to examine the issues relevant to the entire strategic business unit, and business unit analyses can be combined to create a complete SWOT analysis for the entire organization. The only time a single SWOT analysis would be appropriate is when an organization has only one product/market combination. Search extensively for competitors. The firm must watch for any current or potential direct substitutes for its products. Product, generic, and total budget competitors are important as well. Collaborate with other Functional Areas. Generates information and perspectives that can be shared across a variety of functional areas in the firm. Look for causes, Not characteristics