Situation
analysis
Situation analysis refers to a collection of methods
that managers use to analyze an organization's internal and external
environment to understand the organization's capabilities, customers, and
business environment. The situation analysis consists of several methods of
analysis: The 5Cs Analysis and SWOT analysis. A Marketing Plan is created to guide
businesses on how to communicate the benefits of their products to the needs of
potential customer. The situation analysis is the second step in the marketing
plan and is a critical step in establishing a long term relationship with
customers.
Marketing Plan
- Objectives
- Situation analysis
- Strategy
- Execution
- Evaluation
The situation analysis looks at both the
macro-environmental factors that affect many firms within the environment and
the micro-environmental factors that specifically affect the firm. The purpose
of the situation analysis is to indicate to a company about the organizational
and product position, as well as the overall survival of the business, within
the environment. Companies must be able to summarize opportunities and problems
within the environment so they can understand their capabilities within the
market.
There are several methods to analyze a situation
5C Analysis
While a situation analysis is often referred to as
the "3C analysis", the extension to the 5c analysis has allowed
businesses to gain more information on the internal, macro-environmental and
micro-environmental factors within the environment. The 5C analysis is
considered the most useful and common way to analyze the market environment,
because of the extensive information it provides.
Company
The company analysis involves evaluation of the
company's objectives, strategy, and capabilities. These indicate to an
organization the strength of the business model, whether there are areas for
improvement, and how well an organization fits the external environment.
Competitors
The competitor analysis takes into consideration the
competitors position within the industry and the potential threat it may pose
to other businesses. The main purpose of the competitor analysis is for
businesses to analyze a competitor's current and potential nature and
capabilities so they can prepare against competition.
Customers
Customer analysis can be vast and complicated. Some
of the important areas that a company analyzes includes.
- Demographics
- Advertising most suitable for the demographic
- Market size and potential growth
- Customer wants and needs
Collaborators
Collaborators are useful for businesses as they
allow for an increase in the creation of ideas, as well as an increase in the
likelihood of gaining more business opportunities.
Climate
To fully understand the business climate and
environment, many factors that can affect the business must be researched and
understood. An analysis on the climate is also known as the PEST analysis.
SWOT analysis
A SWOT Analysis is another method under the
situation analysis that examines the Strengths and Weaknesses of a company
(internal environment) as well as the Opportunities and Threats within the
market (external environment). A SWOT analysis looks at both current and future
situations, where they analyze their current strengths and weaknesses while
looking for future opportunities and threats. The goal is to build on strengths
as much as possible while reducing weaknesses. A future threat can be a
potential weakness while a future opportunity can be a potential strength.
This analysis helps a company come up with a plan
that keeps it prepared for a number of potential scenarios.
Implementation
To ensure outcomes are delivered on decisions made
by organization, implementation planning must be carried out. However, some
policies, programs and projects involve high implementation risk, and thus
require appropriate management disciplines to be used and engagement with
central agencies to maximise the prospects of delivery success.
Keys to Strategic Planning Implementation Success. These are the keys to effective strategic planning
implementation for your business.
- Full and active executive support,
- Effective communication,
- Employee involvement,
- Thorough organizational planning and competitive analysis, and
- Widespread perceived need for the strategic planning.
Strategic Implementation
Strategic implementation is the execution of a
strategic plan. The team proceeds according to the plan as much as possible,
although unforeseen events and unintended consequences are sure to occur. The
implementation team might be able to overcome minor obstacles without
compromising the objectives of the plan, but some eventualities spell doom for
a strategic plan. For example, if a company forecasts high consumer demand for
a product but the market shifts before the product can hit the shelves, the
entire project could be a failure.
Successful strategic planning implementation
requires a large commitment from executives and senior managers, whether the
strategic planning is occurring in a department or in a complete organization.
Executives must lead, support, follow-up, and live the results of the strategic
planning implementation process. Or, the strategic planning implementation
process will fail. It’s as simple as that.
Without the full commitment of the organization’s
senior executives, don’t even start strategic planning. Participants will feel
fooled and misled. A vision statement and a mission statement, along with this
year’s goals, filed, unimplemented in a cabinet or computer, is a serious
source of negativity and poor employee morale.