MARKETING TOOLS

Critical Analysis of Marketing Tools

Critical Analysis of Marketing Tools

Introduction

The two marketing analysis tools that are chosen for this assignment are SWOT and Product Life Cycle. These methods help businesses in implementing their strategic plans and evaluate the environment in which they operate. Marketing tools provide essential information for successful development and implementation of marketing plans. The help analyse the situation and the surroundings of a business, so that correct steps can taken for future success. There are various marketing tools that can be used by companies; for our critical analysis, SWOT analysis and Product Life Cycle model are chosen.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a planning tool that is used by organisations to evaluate and analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in the business or in a particular project. From marketing perspectives, managers and business owners use SWOT analysis to assess the level of competition in the industry. They can develop SWOT's for the respective competitors and then weight their strengths against the strengths of their own products. SWOT is useful in highlighting the internal and external aspects that might effect or benefit the business. This analysis of external and internal environment helps in the decision making process of the marketing strategies.

The internal aspects of SWOT analysis are the strengths and weaknesses. Strengths are the company's capabilities and resources that give it a competitive advantage. For example, the company has better brand recognition than its competitors, making it strength for the company. Weaknesses show the position of the company with respect to its competitors in the industry. For example, a rival company has a larger marketing budget than our company, making it a weakness for our company. The external aspects of SWOT analysis are threats and opportunities. Threats indicate the vulnerabilities of the firm from the changes and development in the market. For example, different small scale companies start to enter the market using the power of social media; this poses a threat for our company. Opportunities are the new pathways that the company could take and benefit from it. For example, with our strong brand recognition the company can expand into new markets through advertisements and promotions, hence increasing market share and profits.

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle method is a strategy employed by marketing manager to the respective products, in order to understand their life cycle and the product can enjoy long and fruitful life. When a new product is developed and launched into the market, it cannot sell forever; therefore, to understand the time it will take the product to reap benefits of the risk and time spent on its development, team leaders and manager use the tool of product life cycle. This gives an estimated picture of the time it takes to make profits till the time it takes for it to decline.

The product life cycle is divided into several stages; product development, introduction into the market, growth of the product, maturity, and decline of the ...