Situation or SWOT Analysis

Knowing your market environment is key to a successful business.“Marketers must understand the current and potential environment in which the product or service will be marketed. A situation analysis is sometimes referred to as a SWOT analysis—that is, the firm should identify its internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) and also examine external opportunities (O) and threats (T)” (22). Analyzing your market environment can be split up into groups to make it more organized. “When examining internal strengths and weaknesses, the marketing manager should focus on organizational resources such as production costs, marketing skills, financial resources, company or brand image, employee capabilities, and available technology”(22) For my company, it is important to source my ingredients ethically and environmentally safely. I realize that this will cost more than cutting corners and buying products that are essentially harvested by slave labor. Strengths of this will be that I have a quality product that is also morally sound and weaknesses of this could be that it will be more expensive to manufacture my product. “When examining external opportunities and threats, marketing managers must analyze aspects of the marketing environment. This process is called environmental scanning—the collection and interpretation of information about forces, events, and relationships in the external environment that may affect the future of the organization or the implementation of the marketing plan” (22). Opportunities for my company in this market include current chocolate trends which support my aromatic flavors and some threats include a smaller target market due to exotic flavors and the price range.