Every project begins with some sort of analysis.
Whether launching branding, communications or marketing activities, analysis is vital for determining where you are at the beginning of an initiative, where you want to go, what competition or challenges are anticipated, and where you want to end up.
In short, analysis is a process of collection and review of information about a company’s internal processes and resources, and external marketplace factors, in order to inform strategy development. Analysis is the science that is at the beginning of almost every branding, communications and marketing activity.
There are many ways to conduct analysis, from basic gathering of information for review and analysis, to utilization of analytical tools and techniques.
Following are examples of some strategic analysis tools:
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or business activity. SWOT can be used for all sorts of decision-making: a company’s position in the market or commercial viability; method of sales distribution; product or brand; business idea; strategic option such as entering a new market or launching a new product; opportunity to make an acquisition; potential partnership; changing a supplier; outsourcing a service, activity or resource; an investment opportunity.
GAP analysis
GAP analysis compares a company’s actual performance with its potential performance. At its core are two questions: “Where are we?” and “Where do we want to be?”
PEST analysis
PEST analysis examines the external macro-environment in which a company exists: political factors, economic factors, social factors and technological factors. It can also be used for evaluating market growth or decline, and a company’s position, potential and direction for a business.
Porter’s Five Forces analysis
Porter’s Five Forces analysis, developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, is a framework for assessing and evaluating the competitive strength and position of a business organization. Porter’s theory is based on the concept that there are five forces which determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market: supplier power, buyer power, competitive rivalry, threat of substitute products/technology change, and threat of new market entrants.
Four Corner’s Analysis
Four Corner’s Analysis, also developed by Michael Porter, is useful for analyzing competitors and determining their course of action. It emphasizes that the objective of competitive analysis should be on generating insights into the future, and calls for understanding what motivates the competitor. The “four corners” refer to four diagnostic components essential to competitor analysis: future goals, current strategy, assumptions and capabilities.
Value Chain analysis
Value Chain analysis is a comprehensive technique for analyzing a company’s source of competitive advantage. It examines how activities within the organization create value for customers. The three basic steps for conducting a value chain analysis are: separate the company’s operations into primary and support activities; allocate cost to each activity; identify the activities critical to customer satisfaction and market success.
Early Warning Systems
Early Warning Systems help detect or predict strategically important events as early as possible. There are seven key components of an early warning system: clear market definition; ability to capture information on relevant competitors; filtering information according to significance; predictive intelligence for determining what direction a competitor is likely to take; communicating intelligence to the right people in the company at the right time; contingency planning for events that have high potential impact or probability of occurring; and a cyclical process to ensure the process continues.
War Games
War Games can be useful for identifying a company’s competitive vulnerabilities, evaluating assumptions about competitors’ strategies, and exploring implications of strategy changes in a “no risk” environment. A business war game typically has the following characteristics: off-site venue; senior managers representing a cross-functional mix of participants; two to three days’ duration; teams of four or more people, with each team representing either the sponsoring company or one of its competitors; preparation time in which each team receives information describing the company they are representing and its strengths and weaknesses. War games usually comprise several “moves” or decision rounds. A team of facilitators serves as the Board of Directors to ensure strategic plans are acceptable and legal, and conduct a review with participants to examine the merit of each strategy.
Whether your project needs a basic analysis of readily available data, or would benefit from a more in-depth strategic analysis tool, COS can help.
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