Duracell is considered as the world’s biggest maker of alkaline batteries with high performance, rechargeables, and speciality cells. From the day of its inception in the beginning of 1940s, Duracell has an iconic presence in the personal power domain. The unique selling proposition of the brand is its compact design and long life.
The company has been able to win the hearts of its customers through highly innovative advertising campaigns and the mascot the Duracell Bunny who is lovable and representative of the brand’s flagship traits. After numerous consolidation currently the brand Duracell is owned by Procter & Gamble.
Duracell calls itself a producer of power systems and its product categories include batteries such as rechargeable batteries, chargers, coin button batteries and more. Duracell was also part of the Appollo mission and is credited as being the first cell in the moon.
Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Duracell :
Strengths are something that gets defined by the business in terms of the range of operation that makes it stay higher among the competitors. A few of them are:
- Product Features: Duracell batteries have become the market leader in the category primarily because of its features which are supposed to be better than its competitors. Duracell batteries have a longer life, more power and perform better than the competing brands.
- Innovation: Duracell has been a highly innovative brand not just in the design of its products but also in its promotions. Duracell has always been associated with very innovative advertisement campaigns.
- Brand Value: The brand Duracell is valued at a very high price and is considered as a good investment being vouched for by investment specialists such as Warren Buffet. Currently, Duracell is valued at USD 4.9 billion higher than most of its counterparts.
- Prompt response to changes: The market for power systems is in a state of perpetual change. The new changes in technology include rechargeable batteries, longer duration energy storage times and synchronisation with wireless iPhone charging equipment etc.
- Brand Icon: The Duracell bunny is a very popular brand mascot and the company has done a series of ads which showcase the long life and power of Duracell batteries.The manner in which the company has been able to weave stories using its brand mascot around prominent traits of the brand has been responsible for its overwhelming success as a market leader.
- Strong Distribution network: The strong distribution network of Procter & Gamble is helping Duracell to reach out to customers across the country as well as the world.
Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Duracell :
Weaknesses are those areas that refer that need better approach and improvement. Some of them are:
- Poor differentiation: The products of Duracell are fairly similar and thus the customer finds it difficult to differentiate between them.This often leads to substitution within the brand.
- The high cost of technology: Duracell invests in a lot of technology in its supply chain and operations. The company also invests in research since it is critical for brand innovation. These high costs may prove to be disastrous to the pricing of the battery.
- Excessive technology changes: The power market is very lucid and with every new product there is a new and different power requirement. This increases the need for continuous product innovation and this means that there is high investment needed for this.
- Poor penetration in rural markets: The customers in rural markets are not aware of batteries or power backups and the company has not been very successful in reaching out to rural markets.This is a huge gap that the company needs to bridge.
Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Duracell :
Opportunities are those paths that boost the business to increase the return on the invested capital. Those are”
- Growing demand for electronic products: Globally there is a surge in the demand for electronic gadgets such as smartphones, digital cameras and power banks. All this creates a proportional increase in the demand for Duracell batteries.
- Product and service expansion: New devices like automated vehicle systems, interconnected devices, robotic-based systems etc will create new power needs and each of these can mean a completely new segment or market for Duracell. This may also mean that there is a growing need for expansion into newer territories that are unknown to the company.
Threats in the SWOT analysis of Duracell :
Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:
- Competition: The company faces a lot of competition from brands such as Energizer, Pansonic and Sony.
- Low barriers to entry: The power market has relatively lower barriers to entry and the commodity being disposable has more demand. The ease of entry makes the market lucrative for many small to medium-sized players,
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