Communication SWOT AnalysisFRANCESCO LURATI and ALESSANDRA ZAMPARINIUniversità della Svizzera italiana (USI), Switzerland

In this entry, the SWOT analysis framework (one of the most used analytical tools instrategy development) is applied to communication strategy development and commu-nication planning.

A SWOT analysis is a general framework used by managers to identify strategiesthrough the investigation of a (business) organization’s internal strengths and weak-nesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats. The internal analysis considersfactors an organization generally controls, such as its resources, processes, and products.The external analysis considers factors that characterize the environment, includingcompetitors’ and partners’ organizational characteristics as well as the relevant social,technological, economic, environmental, and political (STEEP) trends. Organizationsusually have little or no control over external factors (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003). Theconfrontation between internal and external factors allows the organization to iden-tify strategic issues. Based on these issues, alternative states can be formulated to solvethose issues while strategies and plans can be articulated to foster these needed states(Wilson, 2008). Thus, strategy development and planning emerge in the intersectionbetween internal and external factors.

A communication SWOT analysis considers specific factors pertaining to the execu-tion of communication and its outcome. It also examines factors defining the commu-nication environment in which the organization operates (see Figure 1).

Communication strengths and weaknesses

The internal analysis aims to understand the “organization’s status” and “its standingwith important groups in its environment” (Cornelissen, 2014, p. 184). Four factorsare considered, namely communication execution, stakeholder relationships, identityof the organization, and reputation of the organization (see Figure 2).

The first factor to be considered in the internal analysis is communication execu-tion. The quality of the communication is often ignored in strategic exercises, leadingcommunication managers to develop unnecessary measures instead of simply tryingto improve the way communication is performed. Communication managers shouldfirst assess how communication is executed in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, andprofessional standards. For this task, the models for the evaluation of communicationprograms (Broom, 2013) can provide the framework for formulating questions such as:

The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication. Robert L. Heath and Winni Johansen (Editors-in-Chief),Jesper Falkheimer, Kirk Hallahan, Juliana J. C. Raupp, and Benita Steyn (Associate Editors).© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.DOI: 10.1002/9781119010722.iesc0203

2 COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS

Factors Strengths Weaknesses

Communication execution

Relationships

Identity

Reputation

Factors Opportunities Threats

Competitors’ communicationweaknesses and strengths(communication execution,relationships, identity, and reputation)

Social, cultural, technological, economic,environmental, and political trends andtopics

Stakeholders’ characteristics

Inte

rnal

Exte

rnal

Figure 1 Factors considered in a communication SWOT analysis.

RELATIONSHIPS

What is the quality of the relationships between the organizationand its stakeholders?

IDENTITY

Does the organization havean inspiring purpose? Do itsvalues provide guidance? Towhat extent are its different

identity perspectivesaligned?

REPUTATION

To what extent does theorganization meet its

stakeholders’expectations?

COMMUNICATION EXECUTION

To what extent is communication executed efficiently, effectively,and in line with the professional standards?

Figure 2 Description of the factors considered in the analysis of an organization’s communi-cation strengths and weaknesses.

• Is the preparatory work done appropriately; is it based on adequate formativeresearch; is the communication plan built on clear goals and SMART objectives;do the communication activities and communication materials meet the requiredstandards; and are the communication channels mastered professionally?

• Does the implementation of the plan reach the intended stakeholders?

COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS 3

• Does the implementation of the plan generate the intended communication impactsand effects (Lindenmann, 2001)?

The second factor to be considered is stakeholder relationships since stakeholders areat the heart of the communication endeavor. Organizations communicate to build rela-tionships and, through them, constitute the organization itself (McPhee & Zaug, 2000),which also shapes its identity and reputation. The quality of the relationships an orga-nization entertains with its internal and external stakeholders is the central element ofstrategic communication. To assess relationship quality (Hon & Grunig, 1999), specificaspects should be explored, such as:

• Is there an adequate balance between exchange relationships and relationshipsaimed at benefiting the counterpart without expecting anything in return (i.e.,communal relationships)?

• Are parties involved in the relationships able to influence their counterparts’ deci-sions?

• Is there a solid trust relationship among the parties?• Are relationships built on strong commitment?• Are relationships a source of satisfaction?

The third factor to be considered is the identity of the organization. Identity is com-plex and multifaceted: It is a set of concepts and statements that are central in theself-definition of an organization; helps to differentiate it from other organizations; andprovides a sense of unity and direction over time (Albert & Whetten, 1985). An orga-nization’s identity takes form in different ways. Members of an organization experienceit in terms of “culture”; they also perceive and evaluate it continuously, comparing itwith their own needs and expectations. Top managers formulate identity traits in termsof “visioning.” Finally, communication managers formalize an organization’s identitythrough “branding,” which—along with corporate behaviors—eventually contributesto the images external stakeholders have of the organization. These processes of identityformation and formulation are dynamic and inevitably are sources of identity multiplic-ity (Hatch & Schultz, 2008). Numerous questions need to be addressed when assessingthe strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s identity and should touch on variousaspects, such as:

• Does the organization have a clear, inspiring, and compelling purpose?• Is the organization guided by inspirational values?• To what extent are the different identity perspectives aligned?• Is the organization’s identity in line with the identity and expectations of its stake-

holders?

The fourth factor to be examined in a communication internal analysis is the reputa-tion of the organization. Reputation is a value judgment expressed by the organization’sstakeholders. They form this judgment based on their perceptions of how the organi-zation has been, is, and will be able to fulfill its economic tasks and its role in society.

4 COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS

Reputation takes shape around stakeholders’ expectations; it is influenced by multiplefactors (e.g., products, leadership, social responsibility), and develops over the long term(Van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). To assess an organization’s reputational strengths andweaknesses, a broad range of aspects characterizing the activities of an organizationneeds to be considered, such as:

• What is the performance of the factors influencing the organization’s reputation(i.e., the quality of its products and services; its ability to innovate; the workplace itoffers; its corporate governance standards; how well it performs as an actor in thebroad society; how well it is managed; and how it performs)?

• What is stakeholders’ level of familiarity with the organization?• What is the overall reputational level?• To what extent is the organization’s reputation influenced by commonalities such

as its industry’s and country’s reputations?

Communication opportunities and threats

The communication environment influencing an organization and its communicationis shaped by three external factors, namely competitors’ communication strengthsand weaknesses; broad social, technological, economic, environmental, and political(STEEP) trends and topics; and the general characteristics of the organization’sstakeholders.

The first factor to be considered in the external analysis is competitors’ communica-tion strengths and weaknesses. Organizations can analyze the strengths and weaknessesof their competitors’ communication by using the same framework applied for the inter-nal analysis. Competitors’ communication weaknesses may translate into opportunitiesfor the organization whereas their strengths may be considered threats.

The second factor to be considered is STEEP trends and topics. Organizations areoperating in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) condi-tions, resulting from the ever-growing number of trends and topics that emerge in ahighly connected world. Some of these trends and topics may turn out to be oppor-tunities for the organization, whereas others could be threats. Analyzing these con-ditions is challenging, but vital. The main challenge resides in the need to determinetheir relevance and urgency, as well as how they relate to each other. Many conceptualframeworks, such as STEEP, DESTEP (demographic, economic, social, technological,ecological, and political factors), and PESTE (political, economic, social, technological,and ecological factors), are available to guide this analysis.

The third factor to be considered in the external analysis is stakeholders’ character-istics, which matter at different levels. As seen earlier, the quality of the relationshipsan organization has with its stakeholders constitutes a central concern in assessing itscommunication strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, as will be discussed later, oncethe communication issues are identified, specific stakeholder characteristics concernedwith those issues need to be assessed. At this stage of the analysis, the task is instead toidentify the main characteristics of the general stakeholder environment in which the

COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS 5

organization operates and that influence the overall communication climate. To do so,managers can find useful characteristics by considering sociostructural variables thataffect the diffusion of innovation in a social group and ask questions such as:

• What level of social, psychological, economic, and physical risk are stakeholderswilling to endure to address specific issues?

• How uniform is the demographic, cultural, educational, political, and economicprofile of relevant stakeholders, and how does this translate in terms of diversity ofagendas and opinions?

• How intensive are the information exchanges among stakeholders?

Issues identification

A SWOT analysis helps managers identify key issues that organizations face and pro-vides the framework for developing strategies that address those issues (Fleisher & Ben-soussan, 2003). Issues take shape in the intersection between an organization’s internaland external factors. A communication problem pertaining to communication execu-tion, stakeholders’ relationship quality, organizational identity, or reputation dimen-sions becomes an issue when it collides with broad environmental conditions.

An organization does face problems when its practices do not correspond withstakeholder or societal expectations. However, these problems become issues whenthey impair the organization’s ability to exploit opportunities or cope with threats—inother terms, when they impair its ability to deal with the broad dynamics unfoldingin the environment. In fact, because those dynamics exist independently from theactivity of the organization, they affect the entire market and, thus, determine theorganization’s relative position and ability to compete, prosper, and survive. In contrast,if those problems do not collide with external dynamics independent from an organi-zation’s actions, they will not fundamentally challenge its functioning, future interests,and—ultimately—survival. This explains why some “problematic” organizations canalso prosper. Therefore, in order to identify its communication issues, a company needsto look at its communication strengths and weaknesses, and ask the following questions:

• Are the organization’s communication strengths adequately exploited to leveragecommunication opportunities and cope with communication threats?

• Are the organization’s communication weaknesses adequately addressed to leveragecommunication opportunities and cope with communication threats?

Issues emerge from the inability to use strengths and address weaknesses in orderto interface with the environment successfully. However, as shown in Figure 3, ifcommunication strengths are used successfully to deal with opportunities and threats,they correspond to communication assets.

One or more stakeholder groups correspond to each issue. To complete their analysis,communication managers need to identify and characterize these issues in terms of

Internal factorsE

xter

nal

fac

tors

Communication strengths1.2.3.

Communication weaknesses1.2.3.

Communicationopportunities

1.2.3.

IssuesStates in which inadequate (orinadequately exploited) internalstrengths have limited the abilityto leverage external opportunities.

IssuesStates in which internalweaknesses have limited the abilityto leverage external opportunities.

AssetsStates in which adequate (oradequately exploited) internalstrengths have increased the abilityto leverage external opportunities.

Communicationthreats

1.2.3.

IssuesStates in which inadequate (orinadequately exploited)internal strengths have limited theability to address external threats.

IssuesStates in which internal weaknesseshave increased the potentially negativeimpact of external threats.

AssetsStates in which adequate (oradequately exploited) internalstrengths have increased the abilityto address external threats.

Figure 3 Identification of communication issues and assets through SWOT analysis.

Communicationstrengths

Communicationweaknesses

Communicationopportunities

Issues

Communication goalsStates in which internal

strengths are used to leverageexternal opportunities.

Issues

Communication goalsStates in which internal

weaknesses are overcome toallow the leveraging of external

opportunities.

Communicationthreats

Issues

Communication goalsStates in which internal

strengths are used to addressexternal threats.

Issues

Communication goalsStates in which internal

weaknesses are overcome toaddress external threats.

Figure 4 Communication goals.

COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS 7

level of activity of their corresponding stakeholders, the influence the latter may haveon other stakeholders, and the impact they may have on the organization.

Communication goals

The ultimate aim of a communication SWOT analysis is the definition of the commu-nication strategy. Communication goals are at the heart of a communication strategy.Communication goals ensue from the SWOT analysis. They are a positioning statement,to the extent that they describe the states an organization wants to promote in order tosee its issues settled (see Figure 4). As such, goals provide the strategic direction.

Communication managers will complete the communication strategy and plan bydefining specific objectives for each goal. Communication objectives are clear state-ments that describe cognitive and behavioral outcomes that need to be achieved in orderto reach the states set in the goals.

SEE ALSO: Branding/Brand Management; Communication Channel; CommunicationEffects; Communication Planning; Communication Strategy; Core Values; CorporateGovernance; Corporate Social Responsibility; Identity and Identity Management;Issues Management; Mission and Vision; Organizational Culture; Relationships; Repu-tation; Risk Management and Communication; Stakeholder; Strategic Communication;Strategic Planning; Trust

References

Albert, S., & Whetten, D. (1985). Organizational identity. In L. L. Cummings & B. M. Staw (Eds.),Research in organizational behavior (pp. 263–295). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Broom, G. M. (2013). Cutlip and Center’s effective public relations: International edition (11th ed.).Harlow, UK: Pearson Higher Education.

Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice (4th ed.). LosAngeles, CA: Sage.

Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2003). Strategic and competitive analysis: Methods and tech-niques for analyzing business competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hatch, M. J., & Schultz, M. (2008). Taking brand initiative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Hon, L. C., & Grunig, J. E. (1999). Guidelines for measuring relationships in public relations.

Gainesville, FL: Institute for Public Relations.Lindenmann, W. K. (2001). Public relations research for planning and evaluation. Gainesville, FL:

Institute for Public Relations.McPhee, R. D., & Zaug, P. (2000). The communicative constitution of organizations: A frame-

work for explanation. Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Com-munication, 10(1–2), 1–16. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from http://www.cios.org/www/ejcmain.htm

Van Riel, C. B. M., & Fombrun, C. J. (2007). Essentials of corporate communication. New York,NY: Routledge.

Wilson, J. W. (2008). Strategic communications planning. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

8 COMMUNICAT ION SWOT A NA LYS IS

Further reading

Bensoussan, B. E., & Fleisher, C. S. (2013). Analysis without paralysis: 12 tools to make betterstrategic decisions (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson FT Press.

Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2015). Business and competitive analysis: Effective applicationof new and classic methods (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson FT Press.

Smith, R. D. (2017). Strategic planning for public relations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Francesco Lurati is a professor of corporate communication at the Faculty of Com-munication Sciences of Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland.He pursues research in the field of corporate communication, in particular, in the areasof organizational identity and corporate reputation. He has published in the Journal ofBusiness Research, Corporate Reputation Review, Corporate Communications: An Inter-national Journal, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Orga-nizations, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Strategic Organization, andJournal of Public Relations Research. Educated as an economist, he received his doctoraldegree from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He regularly does consulting inthe field of communications management.

Alessandra Zamparini is lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Com-munication Sciences of Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland.Her research focuses on organizational identity and its implications for strategic andorganizational communication. She has published in Strategic Organization, Journalof Management Inquiry, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Interna-tional Journal of Strategic Communication, and VOLUNTAS: International Journal ofVoluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciencesand Economics and Management from USI and the University of Padua, Italy.