SWOT analysis overview and applications

SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
Unique product with tangible benefits
Unknown technology
Solves a real world problem
Ease of use?
There are a couple of strengths that will drive the adoption of this product. The first is that it is unique – there are no competitors in Canada at the moment. There is one competitor in the UK at present. The competitive threat can be managed by licensing the technology from that company, with a non-compete clause, or by developing similar but superior technology of our own. Patents can protect any unique attributes of our product.
The second strength is that this product solves a real world problem. Many innovative ideas fail at the application stage so it is important that the product solves a problem better than existing products. In this case, there is no product that can allow a cast to be set on the fly. Using this as a bandage would only replace bandages – a product that works just fine – but the added functionality that this can be set hard enough to be used as a cast means that it is almost a better choice than bandages in a first aid kit, or at the very least a complementary product. That this product represents an improvement over current technology is very much a strength.
The main weakness is that this product is entirely new, which means that neither the market nor the regulators know anything about it. An intensive communications effort will be required to introduce this product to the market, and to convey the value propositions to the clients.
The second weakness is the question of ease of use. A spray can seems easy to use, but a spray can that comes with a variety of different settings ranging from bandage to cast seems more difficult to use. A medical practitioner with ample experience would obviously find it easy, but somebody taking this on a hike and having never used it before might not find the use so straightforward. Thus, it is important to make the product as easy to use as possible, maybe by having pre-made settings on the canister, or by having two distinct products – one for bandages and one for casts.
Opportunities
Threats
Medical device category
Regulatory bodies
Civilian category
Competitors
There are major opportunities for this product, both in the medical devices category, which is regulated, and in the civilian category. Bandages are not regulated medical devices, but this is not necessarily a decision that the company can make on its own. The military is another market that has potential, because of the necessity of treating injuries in the field. There are opportunities to sell both the cast and the bandage applications, or a combination, but at a $100 price point the cast application is the more promising – bandages are cheap and portable so this product lacks competitive advantage in that category. But in casts, it has strong competitive advantage.
The regulators are a threat. If this is deemed to be a medical device, and thus falls under regulatory scrutiny, bringing it to market will be a much more costly and time-consuming process than if this avoids such categorization. Furthermore, while patents can protect the technology, once an idea exists there will be companies that seek to identify how this product is made, and then make their own version with unique formulas. Competitors will come to market eventually, despite patent protections, and the company will need a plan for defending share.