One of the foundations of a successful marketing strategy is a thorough analysis of your company. To make the best decisions about what products to offer, which markets to target,

and how to reach target market members, you must recognize your company’s strengths and weaknesses. The information collected in this analysis should be referenced when making many of the decisions in your marketing plan. While beginning to develop your plan, the information in this chapter can help you with the following issues:

1. Can you identify the core competencies of your company? Do they currently contribute to a competitive advantage? If not, what changes could your company make to establish a competitive advantage?

2. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your company to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Continue your analysis to include the business environment, discovering any opportunities that exist or threats that may impact your company.

3. Using the information from your SWOT analysis,

have you identified opportunities that are a good match with your company’s core competencies?

Likewise, have you discovered weaknesses that could be converted to strengths through careful marketing planning?