In our world of 60 plus hour work weeks, instant communications, and ever changing market dynamics, many times companies don’t take the time and effort to plan. One of the most effective, yet overlooked planning tools is a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. A SWOT analysis is a powerful tool from both a business and marketing communications point-of-view.

To carry out a SWOT Analysis, you’ll need to address the following questions:

Strengths:

• What are your advantages?
• What are your advantages?
• What do you do well?
• What do others perceive as your strengths?

Consider these questions from your own point of view, as well as your various internal and external target audiences.

Weaknesses:

• What could you improve?
• What do you do badly?
• What do others perceive as your weaknesses?

Again, consider the answers to these questions from both an internal an external point of view-from within your organization, as well as from without. This is the place to be painfully candid; don’t hide or gloss over any unpleasant truths.

Opportunities:

• Are there changes in technology or market dynamics, on both a broad and narrow scale, that you can exploit?
• What are the social or economic trends that could affect your market?
• Are there coming changes in social patterns, population profiles, or lifestyles that will bear on what you’re selling?

Look for opportunities in both the short and long term. Most importantly, find out if you have the data required to locate profitable market opportunities; if not, determine what information you need-and from where you can obtain it.

Threats:

• What obstacles do you face?
• What does your competition plan to do?
• Are changing technologies or market trends threatening your position?

Market threats can take many forms. The goal is to identify potential threats so you can steer your organization around them before your competition exploits them to their advantage.

Carrying out this analysis will be illuminating. Done correctly, a SWOT Analysis will help you focus on your strengths, minimize or rectify weaknesses, take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities, and protect against threats.