Business Strategy Assignment Exploring Case Of Dollar Shave Club

Question

Task:
Your task of business strategy assignment consists of selecting the real firm related to either simulation game run 1 or Run 2, perform a SWOT analysis (based current firm situation) and using a TOWS interpretation of your SWOT, describe two scenario that you assume will allow the firm to either sustain its current business strategy or change its strategy for better.

Answer

Introduction
The case of Dollar Shave Club selected herein business strategy assignment is a firm established in Venice, California that sends razors and other private grooming goods to subscribers through the mail on a monthly basis. It provides clippers on a quarterly basis and also delivers extra grooming supplies to customers' homes for a little fee. Mark Levine and Michael Dubin were the men that launched Dollar Shaving Club. The two met at a party when they expressed their dissatisfaction with the heavy price of electric shavers (Dollar Shave Club | Look, Feel, & Smell your best, 2022). The company was founded with their own funds and capital from start-up accelerator Science Inc. in January 2010. They commenced activities in January 2011 and released their webpage in April 2011. In a deal rumoured to be worth $1 billion in profits, Dollar Shave Club was purchased by Unilever on July 19, 2016. Dollar Shave Club provides websites with the opportunities to generate a royalty on every membership that is sold thru a customised link that records which webpages the buyer came from in order to reach the Dollar Shave Club storefront. After beginning with only razors and razor trimmers, Dollar Shave Club has expanded to include a large range of items from neighbouring market segments such as hygiene products and shaving accessories (Dollar Shave Club | Look, Feel, & Smell your best, 2022). As a result, Dollar Shave Clubs is only available online thru the homepage, avoiding the necessity for physical locations, in-person sales employees, and the payment of vendor profits to third parties. Dollar Shave Club offers a particular brand reputation that is centred on the scruffy gentleman. Consumers can connect with the brand because of its emphasis on manhood, which is reflected in its marketing campaigns as well. Dollar Shave Club offers memberships for their razorblades, which are available for purchase. As a result, the commodity is classified as a disposable and provides the client with convenience by eliminating the requirement to repurchase the item each time he requires it.

SWOT analysis
Strength

1. The firm, which was founded in 2011, has a fairly broad geographical scope and a diverse client profile, which enables them to establish a positive sense of brand image (Gruner et al., 2019). In addition to having a physical presence in various nations and many locations, the firm's accessibility to the target industry is controlled by its geographical footprint, which ensures simple access.
2. Everything, according to the organisation, should be of top quality when it comes to personal pharmaceutical drugs. Dollar Shave Club may be able to enhance customer loyalty and bring new clients as a result of its high-quality items.
3. The company's owners engage with vendors who deliver raw resources at a reasonable price, allowing the company to reap the benefits of their efforts (Regt and Barnes, 2019).
4. A robust internet persona on numerous online communities, as well as good online reputation management, can assist Dollar Shave Club increase the importance of positive e-WOM and facilitate the development of long - term customer relationships (Ho et al., 2021).
5. Aside from that, the business has well-developed information technology systems.

Weaknesses

1. The business does not have a proper project management practise, which can hinder the firm's capacity to successfully create additional locations and develop the brand presence on an internal level.
2. The employees of the company are typically under a lot of pressure at work, which renders their research less effective (Gruner et al., 2019).
3. The corporation does not take into consideration the many ecological consequences that they are producing, which can lead to condemnation from environmentalists.
4. The business often does not communicate with its clients in a timely manner, that has become a key source of customer loss for the corporation.

Opportunities

1. Newer versions, new cleansers with different scents, and other innovative items or services could assist the organisation in expanding its target group by attracting more public's curiosity in what they have to offer.
2. The core operations are only available in a few locations, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom (Ho et al., 2021). If Dollar Shave Club expands its services to additional nations, it will assist the company gain greater recognition and attract more customers to its website.
3. In order to have a better brand recognition, the corporation needs also spend money on advertising campaigns (Regt and Barnes, 2019). As a result, Dollar Shave Club is willing to coordinate with a variety of artists, maintain better organised social media accounts, and so on.

Threats

1. Major contenders for Dollar Shave Club include Edgewell Personalized Care, John Masters Organics, Amway Thailand, and Friction Free Shaving. If a firm does not stay updated with the latest developments, offers high-quality products, and maintains open lines of communication with its customers, it will fail (Gruner et al., 2019). Its competitors will have a plethora of opportunities to rise to the top of their respective industries.
2. Hyperinflation is on the rise right now, which could also raise the cost of manufacturing and have a negative impact on the performance of a business (Tamayo and Tan, 2021).
3. Customers are driven away from a corporation leading to a shortage of marketing and merchandising skills. In order to avoid losing them, the organisation should devote serious consideration to these abilities and hire the most qualified individuals capable of solving those challenges (Ho et al., 2021).

TOWS interpretation

Recommendations
Scenario 1: Winning over a traditional market demography
The traditional market features consumers who are elder and not that comfortable with respect to social media sites or online marketing or delivery of products. Put another way, this implies that the organisation is committed to improving the quality of life for all of its customers (Chen et al., 2018). It is due to the fact that Dollar Shave Club sends personal goods to people via mail, which is, obviously, a handy method since they do not have to keep spending resources searching for the right shaver or other grooming product for their needs. Because the products are tailored to each individual's delicate skin, there is virtually little possibility of developing health complications (Blancaflor and Julian, 2021). Aside from that, the company's development team has been working exceptionally hard to introduce new items which not only appear and sound nice, but also smell wonderful, which is another benefit of the firm's product portfolio.

Scenario 2- When the branch is diversified in a location which is ecologically rich and conscious
The ecologically conscious communities would not enable a firm that is not ecologically sound to operate in the market properly (Chen et al., 2018). The company needs to reassess its marketing and operating strategies to comply with all of the ecological regulations of the authorities.

Conclusion
Based on the above analysis of the firm it can be said that the firm would be most benefited with respect to diversifying in an ecologically active environment. One of the major weaknesses of the company is the lack of ecological sustainability practices. Operating in a market such as this one would enable the firm to be especially conscious in terms of the environment and devise strategies accordingly in terms of establishing themselves in the market. At the conclusion, it can be said that the firm is quite proficient in terms of assessing its strengths and shortcomings, the firm can diversify to various opportune locations where their businesses can further flourish.

References
Chen, T., Fenyo, K., Yang, S. and Zhang, J., 2018. Thinking inside the subscription box: New research on e-commerce consumers. McKinsey & Company, pp.1-9.

Wood, S., 2018. The evolution of shopper behaviour.

Gruner, R.L., Vomberg, A., Homburg, C. and Lukas, B.A., 2019. Supporting new product launches with social media communication and online advertising: sales volume and profit implications. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 36(2), pp.172-195.

Ho, C., Joosen, B. and Burakowska, G., 2021. A PANORAMIC VIEW.

Strong, C., 2018. The Behavioural Science of CPG.

Lehn, K., 2018. Corporate governance, agility, and survival. Business strategy assignment International Journal of the Economics of Business, 25(1), pp.65-72.

Tamayo, J.A. and Tan, G., 2021. Competitive Two-Part Tariffs. Harvard Business School.

Regt, A.D. and Barnes, S.J., 2019. V-commerce in retail: nature and potential impact. In Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (pp. 17-25). Springer, Cham.

Dollar Shave Club. 2022. Dollar Shave Club | Look, Feel, & Smell your best. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 February 2022].

Blancaflor, E. and Julian, J.A., 2021, August. KingsmanMNL: A Proposed Web Application Designed for Male Grooming Essentials Services. In 2021 5th International Conference on E-Society, E-Education and E-Technology (pp. 283-289).