Application Exercise - SWOT Analysis

Assignment Overview:

It is critically important in marketing to understand your brand's position in the marketplace relative to the

competition. Marketers frequently perform a SWOT analysis to gain needed insights. For this application

exercise you will perform a SWOT analysis for a department, club, team, service, or project at The College of

Saint Rose. For example, you might choose the business school, dining hall, softball team, Fall Classic, or

study abroad tour. You will find it very helpful to identify the competition before you begin your analysis. As

you will read below, strengths and weaknesses are relative to the competition. You will make recommendations

based on your analysis. For example, what opportunity has the greatest promise? What threats need to be

addressed immediately? How can the organization use its strengths to take advantage of an opportunity? How

can the organization use its strengths to mitigate a threat? This is a team assignment.

SWOT Background:

SWOT analyses include the following four sections:

Strengths: Characteristics of the department, group, or project that give it an advantage over others.

These are internal.

Weaknesses: Characteristics that place the department, group, or project at a disadvantage relative to

others. These are internal.

Opportunities: Elements that the department, group, or project could exploit to its advantage. These are

external.

Threats: Elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the department, group, or project.

These are external.

The following figure summarizes the elements in the SWOT analysis

Research Requirements:

Your SWOT analysis must be based on actual consumer insights, not your own personal beliefs.

Therefore, you must conduct marketing research.

You must interview at least 5 people. You can also use online data available.

Deliverable:

1-2 page. 12 font size . line spacing 2

Report should include the following:

o Overview of organization

o Identification of competition

o Research methods

o SWOT: details of strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

o Recommended decisions based on results: what were the biggest threats? What strengths can be

used to mitigate a threat? what opportunity are generated? What resources could be used to take

advantage of these opportunities? What threats need to be addressed immediately?