SWOT analysis is an analysis of the external and internal environment of an enterprise in the current market situation. This is a simple and convenient tool for analyzing what is happening, allowing you to conclude the company's competitiveness. It is often carried out before drawing up a marketing strategy of the company to avoid mistakes in future promotion.


Advantages of SWOT analysis:

It can be used in any industry.

You can evaluate both the overall situation and individual aspects.

It can be used for both short-term and long-term tasks.

This method is suitable for studying not only an enterprise or product, but also a market, industry, or even a country. You can also conduct a personality analysis, including self-analysis. A good solution may be to conduct a SWOT analysis of competitors – this will help to systematize data about them. The results of such analysis are equally important for making strategic decisions in enterprise management. Based on it, you can create an action plan, as well as clearly define the necessary resources and deadlines to get the desired result.

It is better to conduct SWOT analysis at least once a year when planning future actions, as well as when there are crises in the external or internal environment.

SWOT stands for S — Strengths; W — Weaknesses; O — Opportunities; T — Threats.

Strengths allow you to identify the main advantages in the competition. Here you need to highlight those areas where the position of the analyzed object is better than that of competitors. You should pay attention to these advantages and try to develop and strengthen them.

Next, you need to focus on the weak sides of the object. It is very important to be as impartial as possible. Otherwise, the results of the analysis will be incorrect. You need to constantly work with weaknesses because they directly affect the decline in profits and prevent the product or company from being a leader in its field. If you can't get rid of weakness, you need to minimize the risks associated with it.

Then we move on to the influence of the external environment. Opportunities are factors of the company's environment that favorably affect the company's profit and image. Such factors can be considered as opportunities for growth and development.

Threats, on the contrary, harm business and lead to a decrease in competitiveness. It is very important to assess the probability of their occurrence and the threat degree. It is also necessary to draw up an action plan to neutralize the threat if it occurs.


Based on the strengths identified in the SWOT analysis process, you can distill the main competitive advantage of a product or company. It is necessary to invest in it and develop it in every possible way. Pay attention to the advantages that the consumer may not be aware of.

Then all the data is combined into a SWOT analysis matrix. It is necessary to rank the factors in it by the degree of importance for the company. There are two areas in the matrix: positive and negative influence. An analysis of these areas will show the most important aspects of both the external and internal environment. For analysis, you need to create a table with a description of each of the factors. For internal factors, it is necessary to determine the strength of influence, external factors, the probability, and duration. You also need to determine exactly how the factor affects the company's profit.

Thanks to the "opportunities — strengths" cell, you can build a strategy for the growth and development of the company. It is important to analyze how all the available strengths can be used as effectively as possible for each opportunity.

The "opportunities-weaknesses" cell contains solutions for the company's defense strategy and writing an internal transformation plan. This cell shows how you can change the company to eliminate weaknesses or reduce their impact. It is also necessary to assess whether any weakness can prevent you from taking advantage of this or that opportunity.

The "threats — strengths" combination is the basis of the potential benefits strategy. You can use this to create a defense strategy in the event of threats.

The combination of "threats — weaknesses" shows the limitations of strategic development. It is very important to analyze how to strengthen weaknesses to minimize losses in the event of threats.