Doing a SWOT Analysis for Your Interne

Marketing Plan
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
Web Marketing Today, March 13, 2000
Restaurants ought to make bigger napkins, since some of the most productiv
business ideas seem to come to mind over a meal. The SWOT analysis techn
lends itself to napkin planning and snapshot insights. To conduct a SWOT an
draw a vertical line in the center of your napkin (or whiteboard or flipchart),
intersected by a horizontal line. Now you have four quadrants where you'll sk
your company's situation.

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Though a great deal of research may lie behind what's in each box, keep it s
and incisive. Collecting these facts and ideas together in one place energizes
see the big picture. Use it as a brainstorming tool. A strategy formation tool.
that the first pair of categories -- strengths and weaknesses -- refer to your
company's INTERNAL nature, while the second pair of categories refer to EXT
opportunities and threats.

Strengths
In the first box list all the strengths your company possesses. Don't be mode
them out. If you do this with others, you might begin by brainstorming word
characterize your company and writing them down as fast as people say them
use those ideas to construct a profile of your company's strengths.

Weaknesses
In the second box list weaknesses, areas your business lacks or doesn't have
personnel to cover well. Be honest. It's better to face the bad news now rath
construct an unrealistic marketing plan that is doomed to failure.

Opportunities
The third box is for opportunities. When you look at the market (and we're lo
particularly at the Internet market in this series), what do you see? What AR
your competitors doing that customers need? Look for gaps. Of course, this i
to a competitive analysis; none of these elements of a marketing plan stand
they're all interrelated. Gaps may not last long. What you see as an opportun
today may not exist in three months. A SWOT analysis is only a snapshot in
not a permanent document.

Threats
The final box is to list threats to your business. What trends do you see that
wipe you out or make your service or product obsolete? What are your comp
doing to push themselves ahead? What new dot-com start-up is trying to mo
the market?

Here's an example of how a SWOT Analysis might look for a fictional animal
card site, CrawlyCards.com, specializing in pictures of ground-clinging crea
such as slugs, snails, and puppydog tails.

Strengths Weaknesses

• Unique idea, no one else is even • Small opt-in customer list,

close
• Strong artistic team includes
some of the finest slug and insect
illustrators in the country
• Excellent animation abilities
• Source of inspirational card
inscriptions for all occasions
• Experienced and innovative
company officers.
site users seek to remain
anonymous
• Few advertisers interested
strangely targeted market
• Perl script that runs the sit
slow and needs to be rewr
a compiled language
• Lack of interest from ventu
capitalists.
• Single stream of revenue i
advertising, and that is slim
pickin's.

Opportunities Threats

• No real competitors in our precise • Chemical companies are

space.
• Much traffic from students at UC
Santa Cruz (Banana Slug is their
mascot) sending cards to each
other. Possible joint venture with
alumni association and the
Official Pacific Northwest Slug
Page http://www.tammyslug.com
• Seek advertising from French
restaurants and their suppliers.
• Possible books sales such as:
Slugs and Snails (Minipets), Field
Guide to the Slug, and Creepy
Crawly Cuisine: The Gourmet
producing more effective s
that may destroy gastropo
populations in our lifetime
• Large card sites such as B
Mountain
(http://www.bluemountain
might want to take over th
and mollusk traffic and ed
out.
 Guide to Edible Insects.
• Possible sales of Turbo Snails to
browse algae in fishtanks
• Partnership with CyberSlug
Adoption Center
• E-commerce venture selling
scarab jewelry
• Possible advertisers among pet
supply and fish supply stores,
bug jewelry manufacturers
• Possible affiliate program with
snail bait companies

• Possible cross promotion with

Conchologists of America

Obviously this company has some real problems -- no effective revenue mod
at least they're looking at alternatives. This is what a SWOT analysis can do
and may be the germ of an idea that will revolutionize the snail and slug card
business as we know it.

(To those of you from a different culture, this example is a joke. Please don't
seriously, just an example of Yankee poor taste. :-) It helps lighten up an ot
dull subject.)

Read additional articles from Web Marketing Today, Issue 74, March 13
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