New Way of Exploring Competitors by Social Media

In the present era of mass communication, social media is being used by millions of professionals for the purpose of distributing data about their business and gathering data of others.

To search your desired information about your rival, you just need to sign up into a social media site and research. It costs nothing and it is effective. You only need to know which tool is best suited for you.

You can access any of the 4 mediums to get your job done.

• Blog

Maintaining a blog is a common trend among professionals now-a-days. They frequently publish their annual reports, future events, portfolios. You can take a look at them to find out the information you wish for.

Another easy way to keep yourself updated with your competitor's news is to subscribe to the RSS feeds. You will get information instantly about clients, rivals and present condition of markets.

• Twitter

The largest micro-blogging site Twitter which has more than 54 million users is another convenient way of researching competitive intelligence.

Famous corporate members, businessmen, and professionals often tweet on Twitter about their business news. You can track their posts and analysis to get information about their plans and thoughts.

There are some sites to help you find Twitter profiles of renowned scholars. You can also begin your search with a list of professionals to whom you should follow on Twitter.

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best social media site to find competitive intelligence as it is the most popular among professionals. It's advanced search feature has made it a unique place to find professionals and their colleagues and gather data about them.

In LinkedIn researchers get the chance to know about existing relationship among professionals, prospective candidates, corporate houses and increase networking capabilities.

• Facebook and Ning

The possibility of success in researching competitive intelligence lies in the communication skill of the researcher. The researcher should join different groups and forums and take part in discussions. Facebook and Ning are two sites that allow the researcher to do so. Researcher got the opportunity to follow the news about rival's business.

Different businesses open "fan page" frequently. Researchers can become fans of these pages and have a closer look at the current state of competitor's business plan and developments.

Summary: Using social media tools will not only give you the opportunity to gather competitive intelligence information but also give you fun. You will be able to communicate with renowned people in your field of work.

Why use a SWOT Analysis?

Why use a SWOT Analysis?

In any business, it is imperative that the business be its own worst critic. A SWOT analysis forces an objective analysis of a Companies position via its competitors and the marketplace. Simultaneously, an effective SWOT analysis will help determine in which areas a company is succeeding, allowing it to allocate resources in such a way as to maintain any dominant positions it may have.

SWOT Analysis is a very effective way of identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses, and of examining the Opportunities and Threats you face. Carrying out an analysis using the SWOT framework will help you to focus your activities into areas where you are strong, and where the greatest opportunities lie.

Why Bother to SWOT?

The economy stinks. So why take the time to bang your company over the head doing a SWOT analysis when so much is out of your control? No question that the current downturn is impacting some businesses more traumatically than others and a lot of disappointing business results can be blamed primarily on the general economic climate. But look around. A high percentage of U.S. businesses are surviving the pain, and many are even thriving. During depressed economic times, there are still lots of winners--who typically win not by sticking with their past game plans--but rather by focusing on some new thing(s) that are under their control.

A Basic SWOT Analysis

You can develop the basic analysis in a brainstorming session with members of your company, or by yourself if you are a one-person shop. The business of management today is characterized by complex issues and continuous change. Frequently the related decisions and actions are characterized by trying to understand the complexity of the issues involved so that an appropriate decision can be made. While this kind of applied decision making is not an exact science, SWOT analysis is internationally known as a method of understanding the issues which are involved. In doing so, ideas can be shared between managers and even integrated into a wider picture for subsequent analysis.

Use SWOT analysis to help you and your team reach the best solution by:

- Helping decision makers share and compare ideas

- Bringing about a clearer common purpose and understanding of factors for success

- Organizing the important factors linked to success and failure in the business world.

- Analyzing issues that have led to failure in the past

- Providing linearity to the decision making process allowing complex ideas to be presented systematically.

How does SWOT analysis work?

- The strategy is to look at the organizations current performance (strengths and weaknesses) and factors in the external environment (opportunities and threats) that might affect the organizations future.

- Once the attributes for each section have been identified it is possible to determine the point of balance. Eventually the points of balance of strengths versus weaknesses and opportunities versus threats can be plotted together.

- For example, an information technology department needs to determine the strengths and weaknesses of its people and its technology. It also needs to make sure the IT strategy complements the Companies business goals. The department head needs to ask: What is each staff member good at? What are they not good at?

- Project leaders also must consider opportunities and threats -- or customers and competitors. How attractive is the market or direction they're considering? What's their market share and cost structure?

- To get a better look at the big picture, consider both internal and external forces when uncovering opportunities and threats.

Internal Analysis:

Examine the capabilities of your organization. This can be done by analyzing your organization's strengths and weaknesses.

External Analysis:

Look at the main points in the environmental analysis, and identify those points that pose opportunities for your organization, and those that pose threats or obstacles to performance.

Key points: Once the SWOT analysis has been completed, mark each point with the following:

- Things that MUST be addressed immediately.

- Things that can be handled now.

- Things that should be researched further.

- Things that should be planned for the future.

- Now that each point has been prioritized, set an action point for each and assign it to a person, add a deadline.

- Although the SWOT analysis will assist in identifying issues, the action plan will ensure that something is done about each one. With complicated issues, a further brainstorming session might be done to analyze it further and decide what action to take.

- The SWOT analysis results should be reviewed every few months to determine if anything has changed and what has been achieved.

- The "Brainstorm" is best used when setting up a new project or organization, works best in smaller groups than a SWOT session, and can be effectively used in the transformation process when the participants are a smaller group of managers.

- The observations generated by the participants should not include any major surprises to the organizers and coordinators of the program and the administrators of the organization.

- It can be used in a conference where the participants come from different locations and organizations.

SWOT Weaknesses

SWOT.... Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The SWOT analysis technique is typically used during strategic planning to provide a concise summary of a strategic analysis. Generally your strategic analysis will include an analysis of your three strategic environments, which are your

• Internal Environment,
• Industry Environment, and your
• Macro Environment

In this article you will learn all about how to identify weaknesses and to help you to get started we have also provided you with a list of common weakness. We will also show you how to avoid the common mistakes that are often made when categorising weaknesses.

Now let's start by defining the term weakness as it relates to your SWOT analysis.

Definition of a Weakness

Corporate Level Weakness Defined:A weakness is a core capability of your business where your competitor(s) have an advantage over your business, which your customers value i.e. you failed the better than your competitors test.

During your SWOT analysis you will consider a variety of weaknesses from within your business. It is important to note that these weaknesses will all be internal to your business and they are all found during your internal analysis.

The SWOT technique can also be used at divisional, departmental and team level. When completing a team level analysis, you should identify strengths and weaknesses from the eyes of your internal customers.

Understanding SWOT Weaknesses

Some Possible Weaknesses

There are two categories of weaknesses that you may identify in your business, both are equally valid and should have receive equal consideration, these two categories are

1. Tangible Weaknesses, these describe characteristics of your business that can be precisely identified, measured or realized. (Normally you can touch them)
2. Intangible Weaknesses, these describe characteristics of your business that can not be physically touched or physically measured (You can not touch them)

Now, that we have identified two categories of weaknesses let's take a look at some common tangible and intangible weaknesses that maybe found in your business

Some possible tangible weaknesses that you may find in your business

• Old or outdated plant and equipment. Old plant or equipment is generally supported by equipment reliability issues or a lack of general competitiveness.
• Narrow product line
• Insufficient financial resources to fund changes
• High costs (Not high price, high costs specifically refers to the cost of brining your product or service to market)
• Inferior technology or technology that does has not kept pace with customer or supplier preferred transaction methods.
• Low volume or restricted in your ability to scale up

Some possible intangible weaknessesthat you may find in your business

• Weak or unrecognizable brand
• Weak or unrecognizable image
• Poor relationships with your customers
• Poor relationships with your suppliers
• Poor relationships with your employees
• Marketing failing to meet objectives
• Manager inexperience
• Low investment in research and development
• Low industry knowledge
• Low innovative skills

Where People often go wrong

The most frequent error we see in a SWOT analysis with the categorisation of environmental observations. This is particularly prevalent when identifying weaknesses.

It is common for weaknesses to be identified as an opportunity to resolve the weakness rather than as a weakness, and some times as a threat of the harm the weakness may cause.

For example

A weakness of poor relationship with your employee's, could be written up as an opportunity to improve labour relations or as a threat of industrial action by militant employees. It is important to categorise it as a weakness. Why?

It is important to categorise your weaknesses correctly as later you will look to find opportunities that capitalise on your strengths as these are your greatest strategic opportunities and threats that are exacerbated by your weaknesses as these are your greatest strategic risks.

If you have worded a weakness as an opportunity there is a risk that you will not identify your strategic risks and appropriately prioritise action to mitigate these risks.

Another common issue with identifying a SWOT weakness is to allow personal preferences to come into play. For example, if you are a big fan of apple computers but the company who you work does not use them, it is not valid to claim the organisation has a weakness that they use inferior technology. It is only a weakness if the choice of technology platform is restricting your business from competing with your competitors.

And the final item is that managers are often reluctant to be open and honest about the weaknesses of the business that they are running. They see it as a failure on their part. It is best to encourage leaders to be open and transparent about the weaknesses in their business, only by be open can you ask for help.

SWOT Tip

By the virtue of its name the SWOT analysis technique is an analysis technique NOT a solution technique. It is hard to remain focused on analysis, but important to do so. A thorough analysis is the perfect foundation for making strategic decisions.

Once the SWOT analysis is complete the next stage of strategic planning is to develop alternative possible courses of action.

Sample TV Spot

1. A Diamond is Forever

30” TV Ads

Romantic location (pier) - Sunset

During a 30” tracking shot (panoramic), the camera spies 4 couples proposing marriage. We watch four different scenes.

First couple

The man has already asked the famous question “Would you marry me?” to his “fiancée“, she has already answer him “YES” and she’s jumping(pitch)into him. The camera deepen in the Ring-box on her hand.

Second couple

 (few-distance away)

When the camera’s going away from the first scene and it‘s approaching to the second one, we start to hear some noises: the woman says “NO”, gives a slap to the man, takes the Ring-box from his hand, and throw it away( in the ocean).

The camera quickly goes away.

Third couple

The man is kneeling in front of his girlfriend, giving her the Ring.

(Foreground of her face) - She’s comically/funnily crying and says “YEEES” (with screeching voice).

Last couple

The camera comes discretely(unobtrusive)in the last scene from the “behind”.

The man hides behind his back an awesome LUGGAGE, the camera highlight the brand - Briggs & Riley -.

The camera follows the man that from the back, gives the LUGGAGE to the girl and asked: “Would you merry me?”. The girl, amazed/surprised/deeply moved, answer: “YES” and kisses him.

VOICEOVER

 “A DIAMOND IS FOREVER…BRIGGS & RILEY TOO.”

TAGLINE

 -THE LAST PIECE OF LUGGAGE YOU WILL EVER BUY-

BRAND FRAME

- BRIGGS & RILEY Travel Ware -

 www.briggs-riley.com 

Sample Online Promotion Plan

415,000 Exposures per month

Marketing Communication Objective

1. Increase sales by 15% in 12 months.

The marketing objective is to increase gross sales by 15%. We will achieve this by creating an estimate of 415,000 exposures per month in a one-year span.

online user experience

Website Redevelopment

In order to maintain the integrity of the Briggs & Riley brand we shall revamp the website to fit in all the characteristics that make up The Last Piece of Luggage you will ever buy.™

1.   Fashionable – Revamp the site to make it more modern, sexy, and attractive. Very Web 2.0 look!

2.   Reliable – The user will have as many methods of communication possible. A maintenance team will constantly keep every dollar of your investment moving towards growth. We are in the era of Customer Oriented Marketing (what I have labeled the .COM era) and we will utilize our expertise to track and take note of the customers’ wants and needs.

3.   Innovation – Create new and helpful tools on the Internet for Briggs&Riley customers. Including iPhone applications that will build carriers of the iPhone points like airplane miles. Just by traveling or moving anywhere they will earn points. The more they travel, the more points they earn. As simple as that.

email

Email Campaign

Register users online through the Briggs&Riley site. Utilize those emails as well as purchase more emails from a list to gain maximum exposure at a minimum price.  Do you know how much it costs to expose Briggs&Riley’s latest luggage collection to 5,000 viewers? Zero. We will utilize an email campaign that co-brands with the wants and needs of our target market. Our email blasts will offer traveling discounts on flight and hotel, sales promotion coupons, public relations, viral marketing, and customer feedback.

search engine optimization (SEO)

The Yin and the Yang. Pay Per Click and Organic Search.

Organic Search

-      Keyword marketing

-      Geographic marketing

-      Blog Integration

-      Video Integration

-      Top results in Google

-      LONG TERM INVESTMENT

Pay-Per-Click

-      Paid ads on Google & other websites

-      The fast sales machine

-      Cost Per Click

-      Can help boost the organic search

-      SHORT TERM INVESTMENT

banner ads & video marketing

Placement of banner advertisements including video & flash on websites that attract a large-scale of our target market.

-      Google Ads

-      Expedia.com

-      Orbitz.com

-      Amazon.com

-      Ebay.com

-      LATImes.com

-      Nordstroms.com

-      Macys.com

-      Bloomingdales.com

-      CNN.com

-      National Geographic.com

the iphone and briggs & riley

The Brigg&Riley Application

This newly developed Briggs&Riley on the iPhone will allow users to target the closest bag-drop off location, in case their luggage needs any repair.

Get the App. Earn Travel Points. As simple at that.

The application will include a GPS system that tracks the individuals movements and counts the amount they have traveled from one stopped location to the next.

Customer Service

Customer service at your finger tips.

blogs

Create a blog for the Briggs&Riley newly redeveloped website.

Customer Service

Expand customer service throughout blogs on the Internet. Have real customer service representatives using Twitter and their iPhone application to help customers.

Luggage Experts

Establish Briggs&Riley as the expert in fine and fashionable travelware.

Online Advertising

Promote flash banner ads on highly trafficked blogs. As important, we will target the opinion leaders in the online luggage community.

p.r 2.0

Online Public Relations

Interactive online tools--blogs, social media outlets like Facebook and MySpace have blurred the lines between public relations and marketing. Now, the job of a public relation consultant is not only to gain positive exposure through media relations, but also to increase access to the sales channel.

Our approach brings online marketing strategies together with traditional media relations to both speak directly to prospects and earn credibility for the Briggs&Riley brand through editorial coverage.

Syndication Reach & Frequency

Targeting prospects using Geographic & Psychographic data to precisely land the B&R story in the “laps of” prospects, and opinion leaders.

BUILD METRICS

Identify the Buying Cycle

Utilizing all digital technologies to track and analyze the spending patterns of customers and sales.

Saving Costs

Attain the results of any campaign from its organized metric system and develop the next campaign more effectively. Learn from past mistakes and constantly improve financial health by utilizing metrics.

Crate and Barrel Current Situation Analysis

2002

        Crate and Barrel Selects eGain to Manage Growing e-Mail Traffic Tied to Online Catalog Sales. The two eGain solutions work in tandem to help the extremely successful home furnishings retailer provide the quality of service that has become essential for customer retention in the highly competitive online catalog business.

        Crate and Barrel turned to eGain Mail to route, track and manage this traffic. eGain Commerce Bridge provides a direct links to the internal database

that contains order status information, which is often required to generate the required response.

Business Wire, May, 2002

http://www.allbusiness.com/retail/retailers-nonstore-retailers-mail-order-internet/5888431-1.html

About eGain Communications Corp.

          eGain (Nasdaq:EGAN) is a leading provider of eService software. Selected by 24 of the 50 largest global companies to improve phone and Web-based customer service, eGain solutions increase service efficiency and customer retention -- thus delivering a significant return on investment (ROI). eGain eService Enterprise -- the company's integrated software suite -- includes applications for e-mail management, Web collaboration and self-service, and enterprise-wide knowledge management. eGain has an operating presence in 18 countries and serves more than 800 enterprise customers worldwide -- including Vodafone, DaimlerChrysler, and ABN AMRO Bank.

2004

        Crate and Barrel Selects Unica Corporation's Affinium to Increase Effectiveness of its Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns

Unica's Affinium(TM) Chosen for Ease-of-use and Intuitive Functionality

       

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April, 2004

http://www.internetadsales.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=563

About Unica

          Unica Corporation's enterprise marketing management software, Affinium, powers marketing innovation for more than 300 companies worldwide. With Affinium's resource management, campaign management and customer analysis software, leading companies deliver customer-focused marketing at lower cost, faster and with improved results. Affinium provides a complete platform to transform the entire marketing process - from budgeting and planning, to project management and workflow, to real-time execution, to closed-loop reporting - for brand, product, direct and event marketing. Customers include ABN AMRO, AIG, Bank of Montreal, Choice Hotels, Cintas, EDF, Lands' End, Medco Health Solutions, Nordstrom, Scotiabank, SNCF and Tribune. Unica delivers customer success through offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia and a network of world-class partners. For more information, call 781-839-8000 or visit www.unica.com.

          Unica is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Unica Affinium, Affinium, Affinium Campaign, Affinium Campaign Collaborate, Affinium Campaign eMessage, Affinium Campaign Interact, Affinium Campaign Optimize, Affinium Leads, Affinium Model, Affinium Plan, Affinium Mart, Universal Dynamic Interconnect, Interconnect Modules, Marketic, Powering Marketing Innovation, Customer Value Maximization, MAP, One-to-One Optimization, Right-time Marketing are trademarks of Unica Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

2007

          Crate and Barrel Chooses Omniture SearchCenter to Increase Return on Ad Spend. Natively integrated with Omniture SiteCatalyst® Web analytics , SearchCenter enables Crate and Barrel to identify revenue associated with individual keywords and automatically optimize bidding strategies to drive the most valuable traffic to their Web site.

Market Wire,  October, 2007 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200710/ai_n21058600

About Omniture

          Omniture, Inc. is a leading provider of online business optimization software, enabling customers to manage and enhance online, offline and multi-channel business initiatives. Omniture's software, which it hosts and delivers to its customers as an on-demand subscription service, enables customers to capture, store and analyze information generated by their Web sites and other sources and to gain critical business insights into the performance and efficiency of marketing and sales initiatives and other business processes. In addition, Omniture offers a range of professional services that complement its online services, including implementation, best practices, consulting, customer support and user training through Omniture University(TM). Omniture's 2,500 customers include eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Oracle, Countrywide Financial, General Motors, Sony and HP. www.omniture.com

2008

        Crate and Barrel chose Trusonic in an effort to exercise the latest available technologies to enhance brand and environment. By providing strategic control of music, messaging and ad placement, Trusonic solutions build on existing brand awareness while generating new revenue possibilities. Crate and Barrel found Trusonic's easy to use online tools created new opportunities for creativity and flexibility.

Entertainment Close-up, July, 2008

http://www.articlearchives.com/retail-wholesale-trade/retailers/850490-1.html

About Trusonic

          Trusonic was founded in 1999 as a unit of MP3.com by a group of business music professionals, software engineers, and audio technologists. The founding vision was to leverage MP3.com's core competency with Internet media distribution to provide music and messaging services to businesses around the world. This vision was realized with the successful deployment of Trusonic's first generation of web-based playback software and the first Trusonic Media Player in the spring of 2000.

In the fall of 2003, certain assets of Trusonic were acquired from MP3.com, Inc. by a group of investors and is now a privately held corporation. This acquisition included licensing rights to 1.5 million Independent Artist songs from the original MP3.com website. The new management and operations team consists of a CEO from the retail industry, a CTO from the music industry and a team of music and technology experts.

Now in its sixth generation, the Trusonic technology platform is second to none in the industry - providing reliable music and messaging services to thousands of customers in three continents. Using our web based software customers can create or change audio programs at a single location or thousands of locations with a few clicks of a mouse.

Trusonic is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fluid Media Networks.

Travelware SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis – A structured evaluation of internal strengths and
weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that can help or
hurt a brand.

It is crucial to create such an analysis, as it will serve as the bases for
setting the objectives, strategies, and tactics for our Integrated
Marketing Communication campaign.
Brand: Briggs & Riley
Analysis Sources: First hand retail experience, street surveys,
Internet research (reviews, chat rooms, blogs), retail luggage
salespeople

STRENGTHS:
- Look forward to repairing luggage because it provides them with
real world feedback to correct past mistakes.
- “Simple as that” Warranty
- Retail salespeople are very knowledgeable about the product –
it’s benefits, features, heritage, pricing…etc.
- Brand is trusted by: luggage retailers, online reviewers, and past
customers.
- Luggage Design; Expandable zipper, pockets, storage, easy
access, good size, compatible lines
- Luggage Quality; Durable, made from quality materials, long
lasting.
- Website; Easy to navigate, informative, professional look, SEO
friendly.
- Products are able to be purchased with relative ease; online and
in most luggage retail stores.
- Large amounts of good publicity (especially online).
- Segmentation of product line; Baseline, Transcend, @ Work, and
Verb.
- 2002 acquisition of B&R by United States Luggage, a dominant,
well-run and established luggage company.
- Good and responsive customer service.
- Strong brand loyalty.
- Customers like the company and enjoy doing business with
them.

WEAKNESSES:
- High price.
- Low brand awareness by customers/potential customers.
- Low top-of-mind awareness.
- Target market is narrow & specific; generally those with higher
income, traveling much, whom do research on the internet, and
are willing to pay the high price
- Minor blemishes; crooked seam, stray threads…etc.
- Heavy weight (some products).
- Repair shop accessibility is not available everywhere.
- Aesthetic look of bags; many do not look expensive for their
steep price.
- Low awareness of the “simple as that” warranty.

OPPORTUNITES:
- Increase overall brand awareness.
- Increase top-of-mind awareness.
- Differentiate the B&R brand by emphasizing the “simple as that”
warranty
- Leverage the large amounts of positive public relations B&R
continues to receive from customers & consumer researchers.
- Advertise to target market.
- Create promotional sale campaigns to increase sales.
- More innovative designs.
- Word-of-mouth marketing/referrals.
- Increase promotion of “Outlet Center” on B&R website.
- Bigger presence in the international market.
- Create a less expensive sub-brand.

THREATS:
- Established competitive brands; Delsey, TravelPro, Victorinox
- Low-priced comparable products.
- Slumping economy means less people are traveling to cut costs
and save more money.
- Low consumer confidence equals a decrease in sales.
- Salespeople are not well informed about B&R products; giving
wrong information, or treating customer poorly.
- Production costs rising.
- Repair costs rising.
- Luggage retail stores which distribute B&R products closing or
shutting down.