Can you tell me 3 strengths of your brand? What about 3 weaknesses? If you hesitated, had to stop and think for an answer, and maybe found one minute later then you can benefit from SWOT Analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a tool to analyze the aspects of your brand to help it improve, grow, rinse, and repeat. Some benefits of conducting a SWOT analysis are:
1. Brand self-awareness
2. Recognizing opportunities
3. Identify threats and mitigating
4. Plan and make decisions strategically
5. Optimize Resources
6. Improved employee collaboration & communication
7. Tracking performance
SWOT will look at internal and external factors to understand your brand’s position in its field. That said, how can your brand go about conducting the analysis? You need to create a SWOT Matrix. Here is an example of what that will look like.
SWOT Analysis can be a very useful tool for your brand to succeed. We hope this helps you as a starting point to conduct one to improve. It should be noted that there are some common mistakes to avoid when doing this though. Try not to make your lists too long. This can overcomplicate things and make it less feasible to improve. Don’t be vague. Being specific will help provide laser focus on each topic. Do not overlook your weaknesses and be honest. You will only hurt the brand by doing so. Don’t be unrealistic with ideas that may not even be an option yet. It’s great to have future goals but if your brand isn’t there yet, it will be a waste of time and effort. Lastly, do not do the analysis alone. This should be done as team collaboration to make sure you don’t miss anything and build a stronger bond between employees. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. -Helen Keller
