Wedding Planning Business Swot Analysis
The following SWOT analysis is for a wedding planning services firm. The firm will be located in Cardiff in Wales. The firm will operate primarily operate in Cardiff and Southern England. The firm will plan the entire wedding including catering, cakes and all other aspects of the wedding. Cross cultural weddings will also be available for customers.
Customers who choose to get married according to the traditions of India, China and other cultures will be able to plan the wedding with our firm. We also offer wedding planning services for same sex couples.Strengths:Low Profile Industry:Industry is not viewed as competitive one. Being a virgin industry, this is the time to enter into the market.Cross cultural wedding planning servicesOver the last decade, cross cultural weddings have seen a sharp increase.
This is due in part to rapid globalization and also due to people moving to other countries to work/study in. In such a scenario, a company providing cross cultural services is at an advantage.Same sex weddingsIn December 2005 the Civil Partnerships law that was passed in 2004 came into effect. This has opened up a large segment of the market. Mintel estimates the value of this segment at four billion pounds.
Base of operationsIn contrast the situation prevailing in Scotland, the south of England is estimated to spend more than the national average on honeymoons by newly-wed couples as reported by Mintel. By extrapolation it may be possible to say that there will be a tendency spend more on weddings also.Easy to go globalThere is every opportunity for the company to grow globally within a short period of time as the wedding industry is an expanding market.Weaknesses:Services abroadThe main area of focus for the firm is planning the weddings in the domestic segment. Normally people prefer to have the weddings arranged not only in the United Kingdom but also in exotic locations dispersed in different countries that leave the limitation of offering a wedding package only domestically and not overseas act as a weakness for the firm.Range of services providedUndertaking to provide all services for a wedding will be a great strain on the resources of the company in terms of man power required.
In the initial stages, the firm may find it difficult to extend quality service to the customers, which is a definite weakness for the firm.Belief of peopleWeddings by nature are very delicate ceremonies that involve different beliefs for different groups of people. It is quite possible that the people may not prefer to employ the services of a planner who also plans for same sex couples.No market Information:Being relatively new there is no in-depth market information available to base the decisions.No Brand RecognitionIt would take a long time to establish a brand image in the market, as there will be only sporadic use of the servicesOpportunities:1.
Civil Partnerships ActThe passing of the civil partnerships Act that legalizes the same sex weddings is a great opportunity for firms that are in this sector. The firm can make good use of this opportunity by enlarging its services in this sector.2. Scope for growthHaving started out as a wedding planning firm, there is great scope for growth and diversification into other sectors. These include offering planning services for other ceremonies like bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, honeymoon trips, event management and so on.3.
Growth in tourismAfter a slight fall due to the state world affairs, tourism is now on the rebound. This growth in tourism provides a good opportunity for the firm.4. Opportunity to extend services on line:With the growth in the business the services can be extended on line to different cutomers by hosting a website.Threats:1. Tour operatorsThe business of the firm is exposed to a threat by the large number of tour operators who are now offering packages for weddings and honeymoons abroad.
Companies like TUI and Thomas Cook lead this segment. Fall in number of weddings2. Civil ceremoniesThe office for national statistics also has figures which indicate a fall in the number of religious ceremonies. These figures indicate that less number of people are going for religious ceremonies and elaborate weddings.3. Presence of competitors:There may be other competitors already existing in the market.
Due to lack of market information this may not be evident.4. Hard to get quality staff:It would be hard to get suitably trained staff to serve the company
