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In SWOT, strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. For example:A strength could be:

* Your specialist marketing expertise.

* A new, innovative product or service.

* Location of your business.

* Quality processes and procedures.

* Any other aspect of your business that adds value to your product or service.

A weakness could be:

* Lack of marketing expertise.

* Undifferentiated products or services (i.e. in relation to your competitors).

* Location of your business.

* Poor quality goods or services.

* Damaged reputation.

In SWOT, opportunities and threats are external factors. For example: An opportunity could be:

* A developing market such as the Internet.

* Mergers, joint ventures or strategic alliances.

* Moving into new market segments that offer improved profits.

* A new international market.

* A market vacated by an ineffective competitor.

A threat could be:

* A new competitor in your home market.

* Price wars with competitors.

* A competitor has a new, innovative product or service.

* Competitors have superior access to channels of distribution.

* Taxation is introduced on your product or service.

A word of caution, SWOT analysis can be very subjective. Do not rely on SWOT too much. Two people rarely come-up with the same final version of SWOT. TOWS analysis is extremely similar. It simply looks at the negative factors first in order to turn them into positive factors. So use SWOT as guide and not a prescription.

Simple rules for successful SWOT analysis.

* Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization when conducting SWOT analysis.

* SWOT analysis should distinguish between where your organization is today, and where it could be in the future.

* SWOT should always be specific. Avoid grey areas.

* Always apply SWOT in relation to your competition i.e. better than or worse than your competition.

* Keep your SWOT short and simple. Avoid complexity and over analysis

* SWOT is subjective.

Once key issues have been identified with your SWOT analysis, they feed into marketing objectives. SWOT can be used in conjunction with other tools for audit and analysis, such as PEST analysis and Porter's Five-Forces analysis. So SWOT is a very popular tool with marketing students