SWOT And PEST Analysis Of FitOn Smartwatch

1. Describe the new product chosen and current market conditions in Australia by examining relevant business trends, competitors, customer needs and other factors in the marketing environment that may affect consumer purchasing (research evidence is expected to help support your discussion)
2. Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis for your new product
3. In general, explain your understanding of the nature and scope of marketing plus the marketing concept
4. In general, explain your understanding of marketing research techniques and analysis, and how they are important to marketing decision-making
5. Differentiate between the marketing mix and the extended marketing mix.

Description of the Product

A business unit has several departments which ensure the successful operation of the business. A company has to invest in marketing to make sure that the company is being able to reach out to the consumers in a way that grabs the attention of the consumers as well as make them want the product or service that the company has to offer.

A wrist watch is an instrument that guides us to be punctual and to respect time it monitors our priority as well. FitOn is an extension of the concept where health is also given equal priority. A healthy body is the key to success as is said by many, if the body is healthy the mind also is happy (Kickstarter.com, 2017). The idea behind creating the product is to “democratize wellness” and to promote the healthy way of living. FitOn is an instrument that has a combination of three technologies; hence it is innovative culminations of usage that will help a person keep track of the health and wellbeing. The technologies used are Smartwatch, personal health guide and monitor and fitness tracker. This watch is world's 1st Blood Oxygen Saturation Smartwatch that can trace the vital conditions with complete functionalities (Kickstarter.com, 2017). The Application that assists the watch can keep a check on the person using the watch at every point in a day. The watch is water resistant and can be used while swimming. The watch has a high-tech built-in sensor that accurately shows the oxygen saturation of the person using it. With the help of this device a person can efficiently plan and organize their exercise routine in order to tactfully deal with the busy schedule in life (Kickstarter.com, 2017).

• Portability
• Affordable
• User-friendly

Political: the government of Australia is liberal democratic in nature. The authority of Australia is welcoming of business opportunities as they do not have a very rigid trade or business policies. The country has several agreements and treaties with the neighboring counties to ensure trade facilities. The open doors policy of the Australian government encourages international trade in the country. This encourages foreign investors to expand the business and provide the people of Australia with better options. The liberal trade policies of the country will ensure growth and development of the businesses as well. The country is also politically stable and that makes the business environment healthy. There are also no major internal conflicts in the political front as well. There are several taxes that are imposed in the country like progressive income tax, sales tax, corporate tax etc (Gupta, 2013).

PEST analysis of Australia

Economic: The economic factors that usual affect the business are inflation rates, rate of employment, and purchasing power of the people. The economy of the country is growing and can be called modern. With contemporary trade policies and agreements which helps the growth of the industry. The GDP of Australia is 1.205 trillion USD (2016).  The per capita GDP and the purchasing power of the people are also high which makes it a good place for expansion for international organisation (Ho, 2014). Hence it can be said that the return on investment in Australia can be expected to be high. Australia is known to be the largest capitalist countries in the world. The economy of the country is highly dependent on mining and agriculture. The flexibility offered by the political conditions impact the economic aspects as well making ease of business operation as the financial condition of the country is stable (Ho, 2014).

Social: the Society and the culture of a place is the key to understand the consumer behavior. Depending on the background and the societal conditions the purchasing trends will be set in a country. The products or services that are available in the country are based on the need or demand which is generated with the help of traditions, societal conditions and standard of living.  In deciding the target market a business unit considered the socio-cultural aspect. Australia has a diverse population of people coming from various backgrounds. There has been a growing awareness among the people regarding healthcare and fitness due to the extremely busy and unhealthy schedule that people have. This aspect of the society will decide the consumer behavior and acceptance towards an innovative product like FitOn (Ho, 2014).

Technological: There has been a lot of funding from the government’s end to invest in technological research and development in the country. This proves that the country encourages innovation and creativity. As FitOn is the world’s first smart watch to provide three facilities at a time it is only fitting that the country will welcome this unique product (Gupta, 2013).

The SWOT analysis is going to provide in-depth idea regarding the internal and external business environment. The strengths are related to the internal environment whereas the opportunities and threats are based on the external business environment (Bull et al. 2016).  

The product is unique and one of a kind, there are several Smartwatches available in the market, but this product provides additional fitness and monitoring services to the user as well making it World’s 1^st Smartwatch also offering special wellness services.

SWOT Analysis of FitOn

The company is driven by motivation to improve the healthcare of the people.  The mission and vision of the company is one of the strengths (Comino & Ferretti, 2016).

The watch is waterproof and hence it allows swimming in the pool or in Shallow Ocean as well.

The watch also allows the user to control the phone through it, it supports notification, call rejection, remote clicking of pictures, timers and stopwatches etc.

The built-in sensors of the product accurately measure the data and information from the user. It also helps the person to workout based on the goals that are set (Kickstarter.com, 2017).

It doesn’t only keep a tack of the time that is spent on training and workout but also keeps check on the time that is spent sitting which leads to several health disorders. It can also track HRV (Heart rate variability) is the physiological phenomenon of variation which occurs in between interval of heartbeats (Cavusgil et al. 2014).

The brand awareness is not prominent, doesn’t have strategic marketing plan.  

The watch is unfit for scuba diving or any other water sport that requires going under certain distance or includes high-velocity water.

The organization is struggling with funds availability

The availability of the product is also very uncertain (Comino & Ferretti, 2016).

As the product is unique, there is a scope of getting potential investors and resolve the issue of funding.

The company can open a website to initiate the process of operation instead of building a store which will take a lot of investment (Kickstarter.com, 2017).

The upper middle class and the middle class community are the target market of the product who are increasingly becoming aware of the healthcare issue sand the wellness due to the hectic work schedule of the busy routine that they follow.

The organisation also has the opportunity to invest in the marketing and promotion of the product with the help of social media (Bull et al. 2016).

Fitbit is the biggest competition of the company and it has partnered with Amazon to distribute the product to the potential consumers.  

The watch will only be useful to people who are tech savvy and people may think it is complicated to use (Bull et al. 2016).

Marketing is the process or a set of procedure which is implemented by an organisation to plan, organize, strategize, communicate and formulate policies and decisions so that the organisation can grow and develop in the future. Marketing is all the process involved from manufacturing a product or service to delivering it to the end consumer. It begins with the concept of developing a product to service, setting a price point which is suitable both for the company and consumers, the channel of distribution and the availability of the product and the ways and means the company can communicate with the end consumers (Armstrong et al., 2015).

Market research is the process by which a company can analyze the trend of the industry, determine the demand of the product, analyze the competition in the market and conclude any policy or decision based on rational reasoning. Organizations may involve a third party company to do market research or can perform internal research as well. There are two types of research secondary which involves gathering information from the data that is already available and secondly primary data which is collection of new information through various tools and instruments. It is important as it gives insight regarding the industry the company is operating in as well as helps the management of the organisation take decisions (Babin & Zikmund, 2015).

The four Ps of the marketing mix are: product, price, place and promotion the extended version of the marketing mix further includes physical evidence, people and process. As discussed above the marketing is a set of process which begins from the product and ends with the services hence the difference in between the two is that the first four are product mix and the 7Ps are the service mix.  The difference in between a product and service is the involvement of the organisation with the customer, in a service the involvement of the organisation is more than a product. Hence people, physical evidence and process is included in the service mix (Armstrong et al., 2015).

Conclusion 

FitOn is a product which is new and innovative which is the selling point of the product, the company requires a little help from investors as well as from the marketing perspective. The product has good prospect in the Australian market as people are continuously becoming more and more health and fitness conscious.

Reference list: 

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Babin, B. J., & Zikmund, W. G. (2015). Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.

Bull, J. W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C., ... & Carter-Silk, E. (2016). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services, 17, 99-111.

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia.

Comino, E., & Ferretti, V. (2016). Indicators-based spatial SWOT analysis: Supporting the strategic planning and management of complex territorial systems. Ecological Indicators, 60, 1104-1117.

Gupta, A. (2013). Environmental and pest analysis: An approach to external business environment. Merit Research Journal of Art, Social Science and Humanities, 1(2), 13-17.

Ho, J. K. K. (2014). Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European academic research, 2(5), 6478-6492.

Kickstarter.com. (2017). FitOn: World's 1st Blood Oxygen Saturation Smartwatch. Retrieved 22 December 2017, from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/567949755/fiton-worlds-1st-blood-oxygen-saturation-smartwatc?ref=popular