25-08-2017, 09:32 PM
CASE STUDY : BUTLERS CHOCOLATE CAFE
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)
SWOT analysis is a tool for auditing an organisation and its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors.
SWOT analysis show where a business should focus its attention.
Butler’s chocolate company could pitch the following strengths and weaknesses against the opportunities and threats
INTERNAL
STRENGTHS
• Combination of finest chocolate with fresh Irish ice cream, butter and eggs. Mrs. Butler had her own secret recipes.
• It had a unique concept – Relaxing café ambience and Butlers Chocolate café offers a top quality retail outlet.
• Butlers introduced many other innovations which became a positive point for Butlers Chocolates Cafes and which helped increase their sales. The innovations are :-
Mail order gifts
Internet marketing
Club membership
Discount schemes
• The entrepreneurial concept by which they tried to market the chocolates with the help of coffees to increase the sales. The innovative idea became the strength of the butlers chocolate café.
• The strongest part in this case is that the Butlers Chocolate Café carried out environmental scanning before they even started with the concept of chocolates with coffee to check whether the idea is working in the market or not.
• Chocolate leader in several big markets including: UK, US
• Décor and Ambience are designed in such a way to enhance the experience of the café.
WEAKNESS-
• Relatively low advertising and promotions budget. For instance: “These delicious and mouth watering chocolate truffle bars from Ireland. Choose from Jameson Irish whiskey, Irish Cream Liqueur, and Irish coffee.” It is an online advertisement about chocolate truffle bars with the Irish coffee flavour, which I have never heard before.
• Product range needs many certain skills. As it is a handmade product, I can not imagine how many people work on it.
• It has not a full access to the system to make any modifications. Butlers purchased the hardware and software equipment and Labyrinth maintain the actual system. Therefore for Butler’s perspective it is very important for them to be able to maintain and update the site themselves.
PEST ANALYSIS
An essential input into the analysis of opportunities and threats is the PEST analysis because management must be aware of the major changes in the environment in which its business operates.
PEST analysis stands for “Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis” and describes a framework of macro environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research and gives a certain overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operation
External
Opportunities:
Current economic conditions create both problems and opportunities for marketers. Companies are facing declining demand and see few opportunities for growth. These days customers want value and more value. Increasingly, marketers must deliver offerings that delight and satisfy customers.
• Social: People became well-educated and want more value for the quality. Corporate ethics has become a hot topic in almost every business area. For instance the obesity and as a consequence of it, the diabetes became overall problem in our society and the company needs to find a nice way to aware people. So the company must take responsibility for the social and environmental impact of their action.
• Economic: Butlers Chocolates is to expand its network of Butlers Chocolate Cafes into the US. The luxury chocolate maker is to open its first outlet in New Jersey with future openings expected in the following 18 months. Butlers also opened its first UK store in the high-profile Westfield shopping mall in London.
• Technological innovation: Explosive growth computer and informational technology has had a major impact on the way the company brings value to their customers. Although the value of a Web site is difficult to measure, the actuality is that the company has made a lot of money from its Internet efforts. New technologies create new markets and opportunities. Therefore the web-department should watch the following trends in technology to increase online buyers.
Threats:
• Economics: In economic situation like we face nowadays the company may expected decrease in customer’s demand. Therefore to be successful, the company will have to be strongly market focused.
• Competitive price pressure: Competition from other European confectioners has intensified. Also we can see threats from substitutes because of the growth of discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.
• Higher input prices: For instance: Butlers Irish Gift wrapped Assortment (500 g) costs €25. There are a lot of competitive prices around.