Background
Scouts Canada has a legacy of more than a century, which has helped it to continue its operations smoothly, despite the economic and financial downturns based on low membership rate. Scouts Canada is a volunteer-led organization that is operational in various parts of Canada, which offers more than 600 scouting camps. Based on the industry specifications of Scouts Canada, its major stakeholders are defined by the children and their parents, who are the customers of the organization and a direct source of income generation. In addition to this, donors and volunteers are also considered as important stakeholders of Scouts Canada and have a significant impact on its profitability.
Problem Statement
With the passage of time and dawn of new customer expectations, Scouts Canada had to reposition its brand strategy and rediscover its brand values to meet the customer needs.
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Accordingly, the case study provides an in-depth overview of the changes adopted by Scouts Canada, in order to reinvent its brand image after the advent of the 21st century. SWOT Analysis Strengths The primary strengths of Scouts Canada are associated with the legacy and vast experience of the organization, in comparison to its competitors, in the field of scouting.
In addition to this, the brand image and brand name of Scouts Canada is one of its biggest strength, which it has developed it over time. A strong brand name enables an organization to gain a competitive advantage in the industry. Moreover, the old strategy of Scouts Canada to be environmental friendly is a great source of fulfilling its corporate social responsibility, which reflects as its strength. This is because; corporate social responsibility is another tool to enhance the brand image of an organization. Another strength of Scouts Canada is its large customer base that enables continuous revenues, which can be useful for bringing changes, upgrading to quality tools and accessories for camping and implementation of technological innovations. Scouts Canada revitalization strategy is an additional strength for the company, as it is focused on increasing customer awareness and exposure regarding scouting and
camping. Weaknesses There are only a few weaknesses associated with the current approach and strategy of Scouts Canada as most of the weaknesses has been addressed according to the new business strategies. Still, the biggest weakness of Scouts Canada is that it lacks innovation, and has no association with technological advancements and modifications, which attract the children. It is true that the core objective of Scouts Canada is to provide a memorable and adventurous experience to the children but a little touch of technology to facilitate the experience would not hurt its brand image. Instead, it will help in soliciting new customers. In addition to this, the ever declining customer base is another weakness of Scouts Canada as all the members have to leave the membership in a few years’ time. It is a weakness that Scouts Canada is unable to offer life time memberships. Opportunities Considering the opportunities of Scouts Canada, the organization has plentiful of options to expand its customer base and accordingly profitability. One of the great opportunities it has is associated with the word of mouth advertising that is done by the children who have been part of Scouts Canada. There is a cost of soliciting a new customer, which is considerably reduced with the help of individuals’ recommendations within the individuals’ social circles. Furthermore, with the advent of globalization in the 21st century, Scouts Canada has the opportunity to expand into the international markets, which have similar demographics such as the United States. Threats With the increase in flow of information and enhancement of digitalization of the world, it has become difficult to hide organizational objectives, strategies and competitive advantages. This has given rise to the threat of new entrants into any industry. Scouts Canada operates in an industry, which has limited differentiation strategies as any new company can devise and offer adventurous plans and market its through significant amount of advertising budget to establish a strong brand name. Moreover, the changing technological shift of the world has increased the inclination of the children towards technology as opposed to physical experiences. This can cause a decline in the new memberships of Scouts Canada in the coming years. Alternative Analysis Taking into consideration the current strategy of Scouts Canada to adapt a brand repositioning strategies, there might be other possibilities for Scouts Canada to increase its memberships. 1. One of the primary alternatives could be the increased advertising spend through new ways of marketing. Most of the children in the modern world, spend little time in front of the newspaper or a television, which restricts traditional ways of marketing to achieve its desired results. On the other hand, children spend a lot of time on the internet and social media websites, due to which digital advertising through Google AdSense and Facebook advertisements is the best way to reach a profiled target market. Moreover, augmented reality can be used to devise an online experience similar to the one experienced by children at one of the camps of Scouts Canada, to deliver an effective message. The advertising would have enhanced and strengthened the brand image of Scouts Canada, without revitalization of the whole brand. 2. In furtherance to the alternatives of Scouts Canada, experiential marketing could have been used to increase customer awareness and exposure. A camping experience for two days could have been offered in various cities of Canada, completely free of any charges, to children in the locality. This could have increased the flow of new customers through market awareness. Recommendations With the launch of the new strategy and brand revitalization of Scouts Canada in the 21st century, most of its weaknesses has already been addressed. Accordingly, it is recommended that Scouts Canada should induce technological innovations and advancements as its organizational strategy, in order to educate the children and maximize their experience. Despite the fact that the core objective of Scouts Canada is to provide an adventurous experience on the basis of interaction of children with natural environment, it is recommended that Scouts Canada should use laptops, and other geological meters and devices to help the children maximize their learning experience through additional information.
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helping thousands of people who are incapable of this power. Canada has been a leader
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