Conducting a SWOT Analysis: Know your competition

When you are conducting a SWOT analysis, knowing who and what you are up against (internally and externally) is part of laying the foundation for strategic planning and making your PR campaign. Ronald D. Smith describes a SWOT analysis as “a strategic planning tool analyzing an organization’s strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats” (Strategic Planning for Public Relations: 2021, pg. 61). Forbes also has published a free SWOT grid template that anyone can make a copy of and edit directly. I find it to be much easier to investigate internally than evaluating the outside factors that your client most likely cannot control. That’s why today, I wanted to discuss some key items when conducting research on your outside environment.

Opponents versus competitors

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At face value, opponents and competitors might seem the same. In PR search, there are distinct differences. An opponent is a person or group who is against your client- what they do, stand for or its mere existence. On the other hand, a competitor is a person or group that is competing with you- you both are in the same market vying for the same publics.

Take the legendary rivalry of Coca-Cola versus PepsiCo. These two soda giants have been competing in the same market for over a century, trying to persuade everyone to buy their product over the other. Then, there are people like mothers who don’t let their children drink soda. There are environmentalist groups like Loving Homes for Plastic. This organization posted an ad urging customers to send back their plastic bottles to these companies to avoid them from ending up in landfills and oceans. These groups aren’t trying to take the soda giants’ business for their own but trying to shut down or boycott them.

Know your surrounding environment- external impediments

A crucial part of public relations is being keenly aware of the environment surrounding your client. Some factors to consider may include:

· Economic climate

· Political climate

· Legal climate

· Social climate

When you are doing the preliminary research for a campaign, these categories and more must be considered and sifted through. The tricky thing about the external environment is that you never know what the universe is going to hand you… the year 2020 alone can affirm that. Take the failed Pepsi commercial in 2017. A New York Times article write how Pepsi received backlash that “borrowed imagery from the Black Lives Matter movement.” Pepsi conducted poor research regarding the social and political climate here because they did not consider the recent protests of the recent killings of black people by police officers when shooting the commercial. The piece goes on to explain how next day, the company released a statement saying how they “missed the mark” and took down all content related to the ad. This instance is one of the more notable ad campaign blunders when it comes to a failed environmental scan. No matter when it’s supposed to be rolled out, if there is a possibility of it causing fractures in any sector, the campaign should take a step back.