What is SWOT Analysis?
SWOT is a concept that refers to strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Therefore, SWOT analysis shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing an organization. The SWOT analysis was first meant only for businesses. However, the use of SWOT analysis is also there for students in the education field. SWOT analysis users ask and answer questions to create meaning information. The SWOT analysis is a tried and tested tool for strategic analysis.
SWOT Analysis for Students
Schools and Colleges are places where the careers of individuals begin. A person’s fate depends upon his school/college. Students do not fall into a specific category. Hence, there is no generalization for students. Students also belong to different geographical regions. They also belong to different cultures and religions. Because of these reasons marketing to students is quite difficult. Many students use social media which is helpful for the business.
Many positive and negative affect student life. There should be a way to organize these factors to analyze students. This is where SWOT analysis is required. A SWOT analysis would show all factors which relate to student marketing. It will tell the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which relate to students.
SWOT Models for Students
The following is a description of SWOT analysis for students:
Strength-
First of all, students are easily influenced. So a marketing strategy must use this receptive nature to develop over time. There is a connection that binds all students together. Hence any new exciting news travels very quickly among students. So, interesting information will quickly become popular news.
Within a short period of time, information can reach the whole campus. Therefore, this information travels rapidly from a few students to the whole campus. Even if schools are in different locations is not a big problem. This is because students belong to the same young generation. So, anything attractive to the young generation would become widely popular among them. The internet certainly has a big role to play in that.
Weakness-
Factors influence students easily however, the students are sharp. Students are aware of a good quality product. They know what is going to last or not. Most noteworthy, students have the ability to spot a poor marketing plan. Furthermore, they can spot this from the very early stages. To target students, a business must gather their opinions. Many businesses fail because of a lack of inside student knowledge. The business must get students influence to avoid any failures.
Opportunities-
In the current era, social media is probably the best way of marketing. Hence, social media platforms are a huge opportunity. It is also a very successful way to reach students. This is because the young generation uses social media very much. Schools also use various forms of social sites. So, reaching out to students is an easy task. Many schools also happen to be endorsing companies. Hence, they are helpful in promoting specific businesses.
Threats-
Targeting schools and colleges can be pretty expensive. So, the cost of marketing should be less than the profits. Students seem to have tight budgets. As such it does not look likely that students will spend big. Students are very much involved in social interaction. This is another threat facing the business. Any negative information about the business will spread very quickly. This is due to word of mouth widely present among the students.
The student population is also very diverse. As such a SWOT analysis may not give a true picture. To create a thorough analysis takes a lot of time and effort.
