SWOT - some ideas please

[Neil Jones]

I need to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Oppertunities and Threats) analysis as part of my business project, the companies I'm studying are Britpart and Autopost, if you know either of these companies well or even not so well could you give me some suggestions on their good and bad points, whether it be to do with the staff, their location, price, quality of merchandice or even reputation I'd much appreciate it.

Cheers
Neil

[TimM]

Quick (and obvious)

BRITPART:

Strength - Well know, established name, price.
Weakness - People preferance for genuine parts (are Britparts inferior  :? )
Oportunity - Using there reputation and market domenance to field new accessories such as being first to develop and market a lift kit for a RR Sport (unless there is one already)
Threat - Other trade and competition on price.

Does that help, or was it all too obvious?

[strapping young lad]

i thought a weakness of britpart is that you cannot buy direct, you have to go to someone who stocks britpart items.

[tenpolequint]

Hey you dont work for ASDA do you and are trying to muscle in on Britpart.

[Neil Jones]

Cheers TimM, those are definately the type of things I'm after.  If anyone thinks of anymore then I'd much appreciate it.

(Just for tenpolequint- I don't work for ASDA, the name refers to the brand of food I used to buy when I first came to uni, since then I've decided it's better not to eat than to consume that food!  Don't know why I've kept the name, but it's the same whereever I go (on the internet), i suppose it's because I'm not going to forget it in a hurry and generally no-one else has the name.)

[TimM]

i thought a weakness of britpart is that you cannot buy direct, you have to go to someone who stocks britpart items.

Glad you said, that, I thought the same (but after I'd posted), but wasn't sure if someone would suddenly appear with a link  :roll:

[V8MoneyPit]

i thought a weakness of britpart is that you cannot buy direct, you have to go to someone who stocks britpart items.

Ah, but that is only a weakness from your point of view. They are a wholesale company and retail is, quite frankly, a pain in the bum by comparison. We do both, so I can state it with confidence..... just don't tell any of my retail customers  :lol:

[Neil Jones]

i thought a weakness of britpart is that you cannot buy direct, you have to go to someone who stocks britpart items.

Ah, but that is only a weakness from your point of view. They are a wholesale company and retail is, quite frankly, a pain in the bum by comparison. We do both, so I can state it with confidence..... just don't tell any of my retail customers  :lol:

I had been thinking about that one.  It is also an advantage as they dont need a shop or any shop staff to run it, that saves other costs and hassle.


Do yo all agree that seeing the Britpart logo in another ad(eg  Paddocks) is like the Intel Pentium logo and sound coming up during a computer advert (say for PC World)? ie its a stamp of good quality aswell as saying that they sell Britpart parts

[TimM]

Do yo all agree that seeing the Britpart logo in another ad(eg  Paddocks) is like the Intel Pentium logo and sound coming up during a computer advert (say for PC World)? ie its a stamp of good quality aswell as saying that they sell Britpart parts

that depends on whether you like Britpart or not........

My view is that it is a good thing, but I know people who don't like Britpart, they prefer genuine LR bits as they think (rightly or wrongly) that they are better parts, so there view would be no for that question.

[Neil Jones]

Yeh I guess so, although if I want a genuine part I go straight to Guy Salmon's, so wouldn't bother with anywhere else.

Is anyone on here familiar with Autopost?  What do you think of them?

[muddyweb]

The key is to choose which perspective you make the SWOT from... as you can see from the initial feedback one person's perception of a strength is someone else's weakness.

Are you looking at it as a consumer, a competitor, a reseller or as the companies themselves would asses ?

[tenpolequint]

Smartprice - keeping the same username over many forums is a good way to  go. I agree with you about the quality of the low price foods but I never realised how realy bad they were for you until that Jamie Oliver thing on school meals. My own username derives from a group called Tenpole Tudor who did a song called Swords of a thousand men, which we used to sing on the back-seat of the bus coming home from school.

[dew1911]

I used to have like 6 usernames at once, and it became such a pain that I just started using dew1911. It's a mixture of my initials (DEW) and Birthday (November 19th - 19/11) and it's sort of stuck, I like it, it's simple to remember and pretty unique.

[mark.yellow.series.3]

wow you were born in 1911, that old :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[tenpolequint]

I wonder how mark got his username? :D

[Neil Jones]

The key is to choose which perspective you make the SWOT from... as you can see from the initial feedback one person's perception of a strength is someone else's weakness.

Are you looking at it as a consumer, a competitor, a reseller or as the companies themselves would asses ?

Back on topic.  I am looking at it from the perspective of the company, seeing where they could do better in themselves.  As has been pointed out, that one persons perspective of a weakness, is anothers perspective of a strength, but i wonder what effect this has on how well the company does.  Cheers again guys.

Neil

[muddyweb]

OK... here's my take for Britpart then....  (all my personal opinion incidentally, and just off the top of my head... I'll probably think of more later !)


Strengths :
Very large product base
High turnover of stock provides purchasing leverage
Strong reseller network with good technical knowledge
High levels of brand awareness
Good stock availability


Weaknesses :
Quality perception - seen as a 'cheap' part
Lack of brand loyalty from both resellers and consumers due to a price-driven market


Opportunities :
Accessory Sales, aftermarket add-ons
Genuine parts resales at discounted prices
Promotion of brand to raise profile and gain loyalty from resellers


Threats :
Heavily targetted competition
Diminishing market of older vehicles, newer vehicle spares can be more complex
Internet-only companies with low overheads




Hope that goves you some ideas to pursue !



I don't really know Autopost... so I would say that their single, biggest weakness is brand awareness, and of course following on from that a lack of trust of the unknown..   that then gives you their single biggest opportunity... which is to promote the brand, either to the reseller network or if they were intending to deal direct, to the consumer base.

[Neil Jones]

Cheers Tim, some really good ideas there.  Gives me a lot to go on.

Thanks

Neil