SWOT analysis is an essential tool for the analysis and audit of the overall strategic position of businesses and their respective environments. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The first two letters are considered internal factors that can be controlled while the last two letters are the external factors that are beyond control. SWOT analysis is important as it helps in the provision of crucial information for the synchronization of the firm’s capabilities and resources with the competitive environment where the firm operates. In preparation of a SWOT Analysis, both the internal factors and the external factors must be put in consideration (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2008). The essay below entails a SWOT Analysis in purified water products.
Strengths
Strengths are the organizational qualities that enable the organization in meeting its set mission. One of the strengths is the production of high quality purified water at low costs. This would actually earn the firms that produce purified water products in the market a lot of popularity and profits, and therefore the growth of the firms (Arkebauer & Miller, 1999).
Another strength is promotion of committed and well performing employees of the firm. This would encourage the employees to work harder in ensuring that the firm they are working in remains top in the business of purified water products production. This would also motivate other workers in the firm to emulate their colleagues so that they can also get promotions (Kumar, 2004).
Easy customization of products offered in order to meet the needs of the customers. This particular strength enables the company to maintain its esteemed customers. For instance, if the customers request the company to change the packaging of the purified water, the company should investigate on why the customers want the packaging changed, and how they want the packaging to appear (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2008).
Another strength is the membership of the Water Quality Association. This is an important strength for the firm because it earns the company the trust of its customers. Due to the registration with the Water Quality Association, customers become confident of the purified water products offered by the firm (Kumar, 2004).
Weaknesses
In SWOT Analysis, weaknesses are controllable, and are considered the qualities that inhibit a firm from accomplishing its desired mission. Weaknesses tend to bring down influences on the success and growth of a firm. In purified water products, the prices of the products are fixed. When the products are fixed, there are no discounts for the customers. This weakness if not looked into; it can reduce the number of customers for the firm (Arkebauer & Miller, 1999).
In the distribution of the products, the firm does personal selling of large amount of products. This weakness can bring about huge losses to the firm. In order to control this particular weakness, the firm should make some business connections with offices, and educational institutes in selling their purified water products so that people may be aware of different qualities of products the firm offers (Kumar, 2004). Variety of substitutes such as bottled water is another weakness of purified water products. The firm should do away with some of the substitutes so that it can stand a chance in the highly competitive market.
Opportunities
The business environment within which the firm operates tends to provide opportunities. Opportunities for the firm may come into being when the firm takes advantage of the favorable conditions the environment offers to it. The firm cannot control opportunities in SWOT Analysis because they are external factors. One of the opportunities in purified water products is the entry into an unexploited sector. The sector for purified water products production is still a new sector that is not yet exploited; therefore, it is a great opportunity for the firm to enter in such a sector (Arkebauer & Miller, 1999).
It is an opportunity for the purified water products to have very large target markets. The sector of purified water products production has created several large markets for the products globally. It is; therefore, a great opportunity for the firm to sell their varied products in the large target markets. Another great opportunity for the firm is the utilization of the internet as a management tool for customer relationship (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2008).
Threats
Finally, threats in SWOT Analysis occur when the conditions in the external business environment put at risk the profitability and reliability of the firm’s business. One of the threats in purified water products business is the fact that the government regulates the water purification products. This particular threat cannot be controlled by the firm because it is as a result of the external factors in the business environment (Arkebauer & Miller, 1999).
Another threat is the fact that there are great competitors in the field who have big names in the industry of purified water products production. Since the firm and these particular competitors provide equally the same range of products, customers may go for the products produced by the big names in the industry (Kumar, 2004).
The ever-changing technology in the production of purified water products is another threat for the firm. The firm may not have the technologically advanced machinery for the production of its products. This tends to lower the quality of products produced by the firm, and hence creating a loss for the firm (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2008).
