SWOT Analysis: Honest Tea

Honest Tea’s business plan for 1999 (PDF).

A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis based on Honest Teas’ business plan (PDF).

Suppose Honest Tea has hired you as a consultant to evaluate the completeness of their strategy for future growth. Base your evaluation on the provided SWOT analysis. Provide a rationale for your response.

After reviewing Honest Tea’s SWOT Analysis, I have come to a conclusion that Honest Tea is at a great standing point for the strategy for future growth. Just like any other company, there are going to be issues. Of course the company will face a large amount of competition, and the most important factor is to attract as many customers as possible so they can stay ahead of the game. The biggest issue for this company is creating a way to make their product stand out more than another other company. The company is doing a great job by using the media to market their products. Being that this is a healthy and natural product that should automatically draw more customers. However, there should be more to marketing than just using the media. This is not a strong enough marketing plan. The company should look at increasing their marketing resources in order to gain more customers. For example, the company could place their product in different stores throughout the country, in order to get customers to start noticing the products. Honest tea should also create surveys to distribute to customers so they make be able to rate the product and determine how well it is selling. On the other hand, the fact that the company is not financially established can create many issues. Some of those include, bankruptcy, losing their reputation, and possibly another company could create the same product and gain more profit from it. Although in the SWOT analysis, it has listed this as an strength, hiring experienced sales managers is not always considered an strength. Many times, when new businesses start up, and hire experienced managers, they come in with a “I know everything” attitude. Therefore, they may not be open to new ideas and what the company plans to do in order to get their business recognized. It is sometimes good inexperienced managers and train them to become managers that understand the overall business strategy of your company.  Lastly, I am totally against the fact that the company is giving away free products eight times throughout the month. If they are already not fully financially established, what makes them think that this is a good idea? I believe that instead of giving away stuff, they should focus on more marketing techniques that will draw more customers, using coupons, and offering other discounts, instead of giving them away items. 

Honest tea SWOT Analysis shows that the company has many opportunities. The company can use those opportunities to focus on new goals, and marketing strategies. Being that the company already has over 10 supermarket chains with over 900 outlets, it may be great to start selling their product online. This will be a great way to attract cyber customers. I am an internet shopper and I would prefer shopping on the internet any day rather than going in the actual store. The company could also offer better deals, discounts, and promotions just for customers coming on the website to shop. As mentioned, every business will run into some situations that make have an effect on the overall performance of the organization.  They key is to always make the product available to customers and keep customers interested in what you are selling. I believe that if the company makes these changes, it will continue to be successful.