Critical Evaluation of Marketing Tool-Swot Analysis
Critical Evaluation of Marketing Tool-SWOT Analysis
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the SWOT analysis as one of popular tools in marketing. SWOT analysis is an analysis method of identifying all external and internal factors for organization strategies (Rauch, 2007). It is considered in this paper that though SWOT analysis has limitations, it can be improved to be more effective as its development. This paper firstly focused on the definition of SWOT analysis. And then it discussed the context of the SWOT analysis including its evolution and its applications. Followed by, the paper introduced two relevant practice cases based on SWOT analysis. Next, the critical evaluation of SWOT analysis was presented with both advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the paper drew its conclusion.
Definition
As Sara Cullen (2005) defined that SWOT analysis is “a tool used for many purposes in business. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats”. It is an organized analysis to measure the business strategic position aiming to recognize its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Jobber 1947- c2007:47). The organisation treated strengths and weaknesses as an internal appraisal and the opportunities and threats as an external appraisal (Kotler, 2005：58). As the internal appraisal, organisations can considered the aspects of the organisation covering as much as possible such as personnel, facilities, location, products and services to find their strengths and weakness (Dyson, 2004). By identifying the external appraisal such as political, economic, social, technological and competitive environment organisations can acquire the opportunities and threats (Dyson, 2004). By identifying all the factors, the organisations can make their strategic decisions by developing strengths, eliminating weaknesses, exploiting opportunities and countering the threats (Dyson, 2004). And SWOT analysis is the simple approach of
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the SWOT analysis as one of popular tools in marketing. SWOT analysis is an analysis method of identifying all external and internal factors for organization strategies (Rauch, 2007). It is considered in this paper that though SWOT analysis has limitations, it can be improved to be more effective as its development. This paper firstly focused on the definition of SWOT analysis. And then it discussed the context of the SWOT analysis including its evolution and its applications. Followed by, the paper introduced two relevant practice cases based on SWOT analysis. Next, the critical evaluation of SWOT analysis was presented with both advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the paper drew its conclusion.
Definition
As Sara Cullen (2005) defined that SWOT analysis is “a tool used for many purposes in business. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats”. It is an organized analysis to measure the business strategic position aiming to recognize its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Jobber 1947- c2007:47). The organisation treated strengths and weaknesses as an internal appraisal and the opportunities and threats as an external appraisal (Kotler, 2005：58). As the internal appraisal, organisations can considered the aspects of the organisation covering as much as possible such as personnel, facilities, location, products and services to find their strengths and weakness (Dyson, 2004). By identifying the external appraisal such as political, economic, social, technological and competitive environment organisations can acquire the opportunities and threats (Dyson, 2004). By identifying all the factors, the organisations can make their strategic decisions by developing strengths, eliminating weaknesses, exploiting opportunities and countering the threats (Dyson, 2004). And SWOT analysis is the simple approach of