Final SWOT Analysis
Well, it’s the last day of my SWOT analyses! I hope you’ve enjoyed them and learned as much as I have 🙂
Today, we analyze Bakery E.
I am excited to finalize this post and complete my project for the month! However, I will more than likely do a wrap-up post this weekend sometime so I guess this is my second-to-last post.
In case you haven’t read my first four analyses (and if you care to do so, which is highly recommended), you can read them here:
Here are the numbers, charts, and graphs for Bakery E:
My attention is immediately drawn to the bar graph. Look at that difference! So many 1’s, but ALSO so many 5’s…..hmmm. I suspect this indicates that Bakery E either hit a bull’s eye or missed in pretty much every category. There isn’t much in between.
Looking at the pie chart, I’d say Bakery E is decently rounded, but there are some areas of improvement – specifically the area of Pricing and Design Options. However, even if Bakery E is somewhat well balanced, it doesn’t change the fact that it received several low scores.
I don’t care how balanced your pie chart is if all of your scores are 1’s!
Here (for the last time!) is the chart comparing all the bakeries side by side:
Strengths:
Customer experience is something Bakery E does VERY WELL. Their funnel time was by far the fastest of the five bakeries and each email I received from the was cordial and made me feel valued. When I went to their store in person, the in-store service was wonderful, and the atmosphere of their store made me want to buy a cake! They even had free samples available for tasting which were very delicious. Going back their emailing service, the very first email I got from them, they attached a brochure answering pretty much every single wedding-related question possible. In all, Bakery E nailed the Customer Experience!
Weaknesses:
Bakery E is weak in the area of Pricing and Design Options. While they offer a pretty good selection of flavors, all their cakes all look the same, and their alternative options are not very different which kind of defeats the purpose. Like I said, all their cakes look the same. Their alternative options are basically different sizes….that’s not super impressive. I’d say this is rather critical since their wedding cakes don’t even look any different than their normal cakes! In addition, they don’t deliver very far – only about 15 miles, which is low compared to the other bakeries.
Opportunities:
Bakery E’s biggest opportunity would be to start offering gluten-free options. Their cake is so good, and gluten-free stuff is wildly popular both for health reasons and because more people are allergic to it today. So, if Bakery E were to corner the gluten-free market, I think it would greatly benefit them, and their number of reachable customers would increase!
Threats:
The biggest threat to Bakery E is their website’s inability to even indicate that they offer wedding cakes. I know it sounds crazy, but if you want people to know you have something, it’s a good idea to advertise it (sarcastic font applied). I clicked around on their website for quite a while and was unable to find even a little hint that they offered wedding cakes. Once I emailed them, they said weddings were their favorite thing to do and they were really excited for me – but if I hadn’t emailed them, I wouldn’t have known! Not everyone is going to email you and ask if you offer something! I’d recommend that Bakery E put their wedding cake information on their website!
Conclusion:
Now, I feel like I’m criticizing a bakery based off of a category it’s not normally known for, so I apologize. Bakery E is normally known for bundt cakes, not normal cakes. However, they still say they do weddings, so I rest my case. Then again, maybe only people who really like bundt cakes get their wedding cakes there. It could very well be the case!
Well, that about wraps up the SWOT analyses (except for the wrap-up post)! Kind of sad…but that only means I’m starting a new project soon 🙂 Stay tuned…
Until next time,
Hope Frances
