Situation or SWOT Analysis

COCo de mode: SWOT Analysis

A marketing team should seek to understand "the current and potential environment in which the product or service will be marketed” (Lamb,22). Conducting market research to identify strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities and threats are vital to the success of a business:

Strength: Coco de Mode will be sold at the top luxury department stores in the nation; Saks Fifth Avenue, Nieman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodmans and Barneys New York. This strengthens our brand image as a luxury fashion chocolatier.

Weakness: Offered during special holidays Christmas, Valentines, Mother’s Day, Easter, etc. Our plan is to make our product available year round and for special events and corporate functions.

To better understand external opportunities and threats, an environmental scan to analyze aspects of our marketing environment is essential. An environmental scan is a “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” (Lamb,22).

External Opportunities: Currently, small-scale family farmers account for 90% of the world’s cocoa supply which means “that the industry may simply be unable to provide sufficient supply to meet the demand.”(Fairtrade Foundation,2016). Sourcing cocoa beans from small-scale family farmers in Peru, Dominican Republic, and Tanzania may prove to be problematic as demand for our product increases.

Threats: The demand for cocoa is projected to increase by 30% by 2020, however, “without empowering and investing in small-scale farmers, the industry will struggle to provide sufficient supply.” (Fairtrade Foundation, 2016).