SWOT analysis

SWOTanalysis is a tool for auditing an organization and its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues.SWOTstands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.and weaknesses are internal. Opportunities and threats are. SWOT analysis is an important tool for auditing the overall strategic position of a business and its environment. Once key strategic issues have been identified, they feed into business objectives, particularly marketing objectives. SWOT analysis can be used in conjunction with other tools for audit and analysis, such asanalysis's Five-Forces analysis. Areas to Consider Some of the key areas to consider when identifying and evaluating Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are listed down below Strengths 1.Technological skills 2.Leading brands 3.Distribution channels 4.Customer Loyalty 5.Production quality 6.Scale 7.Management 8.innovative product or service. Weaknesses 1 - Absence of important skills 2 - Weak Brands 3- Poor access to distribution 4- Low customer retention 5 -Unreliable products or services 6- Management Opportunities 1 - Changing customer tastes 2 Technological advances 3- Changes in government Policies (Favor to the firm) 4- Change in population 5- New distribution channels 6 - Mergers, joint ventures or strategic alliances. 7A new international market

A strength is something that a firm truly do well, something that truly differentiates the business, a key metric that is improving, etc. Most companies do surprisingly bad job of identifying what they are really good at doing. Every company has strengths. Strengths Questions What makes firm stand out from the competitors? What advantages does the firm has over other business? What are the major sources of a company's revenue and profit? What is the market share of the company in its various product lines? Does the company have strong brands? Is the marketing/advertising effective? What is the major focus are of the company? Does the company have a pool or skilled employees? Does the company uses information technology effectively? Is the company able to innovate? A Weakness is a real gap, or a problem, or a key metric that is going bad in the company; something firm is not doing very well; something important that firmreally dont know or arent sure about. In fact, one good outcome of a SWOT is to discover what firm really dont know and then do something about it. Weakness Questions What do firm customers complain about? What are the least profitable product lines for the company? In what areas is the company not able to recover costs? Which are the weak brands? Is the marketing/advertising effective? Is the company not focused? Is the company able to attract talent? What are the biggest expenditures of the company? Will the company able to stand price competition from competitors? Whether the company been able to bring new products to the market? Do the employees have faith in management? An opportunity is a favorable external condition; something (that firm hasnt acted on or taken advantage yet) that could impact it positively. Opportunities are new ways that firm can exploit the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES & THREATS, new things that the firm can do to potentially improve the businessthat turn into recommendations and actions. This list becomes the most important part of the SWOT for prioritizing and determining what next steps to take. Are there emerging trends that fit with the company's strengths? What are the interesting trends? Company positioned to take on those trends? Is there a product/service area that others have not yet covered?

What favorable circumstances for the firm? Is the company entering new markets? Is the company advanced in technology? A threat is something external to the business that can potentially impact the firm negatively: competitors (actually doing specific things vs. just being there), changing conditions in the particular marketplace, the overall economy, government regulations, etc. Threats are part of the playing field that firm cant ignore. They are part of the context of the business. Are the competitors becoming stronger? Does the company see other external threats to the company's success? Internally, does the firm has financial, development, or other problems? What is the competition doing? Are the required specifications for your products or services changing? Is changing technology threatening firms position?

Yahoo SWOT Analysis

Strengths Yahoo!'s Overture is a tremendously profitable Internet advertising business. It focuses on affiliate advertising for large advertising accounts, in the same way as Google's Adsense programme. This is an important income stream for Yahoo!. Yahoo! has over 350 million users of its services and solutions. This makes it a very powerful marketing company, with a very well known brand. A key long-term strength is Yahoo!'s international business presence. As the Internet expands and it is adopted by more nations the opportunities for Internet brands begin to emerge. Weaknesses. Differentiation is difficult for Yahoo!. Almost all of its packaged services are available from other sources. (i)Search facilities are available on MSN and Google. (ii)Free E-mail accounts are available from Hotmail (MSN) or G-Mail (Google), and many, many others. (iii)New is available from CNN or the BBC. (iv)Shopping is available everywhere on the Internet. Google has Froogle. Online advertising is a new income stream for organizations such as MSN, Yahoo! and Google. Yes, today they are very, very profitable. However, as technology develops and new unforeseen advertising media emerge, the future is uncertain for these income

streams. This is a weakness for Yahoo! and its competitors. Opportunities The international market is a huge opportunity for Yahoo!. Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google are busy carving niches and taking over businesses in are around the Greater China Region. China has over 1,200,000,000 citizens. Other economies, such as India, also offer tremendous growth potential. The Development of the Yahoo! Directory has potential for new business and income streams. Mobile technologies offer another opportunity for Yahoo!. Today we access the Internet using personal computers. Tomorrow phones, televisions, personal organisers, music players and computers will merge and morph. The mobile devices of the future will need services and solutions. Yahoo! would be well placed to provide many of them. Threats. The biggest threat for all web-based organization is competition. Huge profits attract investors, innovators and entrepreneurs. Dotcom fever has not gone away, it is now more focused on profit delivery. All of Yahoo!'s key services have competitors such as AOL, Google and many others. International, culture specific competitors could affect Yahoo! in the future, unless strategic alliances are forged. China has developed its own search engines, as has India. Why should the World use USA based companies such as Yahoo!?