Task Four

Who else is out there- How good are they?


Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 4 of the enterprise module and your responses to the previous tasks, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.

Who am I competing against?
Look at my competitors, How many are there, how well are they doing, what do they do well, what could I improve on

What do they offer?
Strengths
What can I learn from the things they do well

What makes me better?
Weaknesses, what are they not good at

What makes me different?
Internal environment- My skills, my resources, my lifestyle
Micro environment- My network of friends and associates, competitors and other practitioners, my suppliers, my local community, stakeholders

What opportunities for your own practise have revealed themselves to you as a result of this analysis and evaluation?

I have looked at various studios in Manchester and applied the SWOT analysis to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Some of teacake designs strengths include concept design, identity, publications, posters, flyers, press advertisement and web design.

One weakness is that all their work in their portfolio is print based work. They have collaborated with design studios such as creative spark therefore the opportunity for me to work with them may arise, although their collaboration may be a threat to me.

Creative spark are a branding and digital agency.

Their strengths are that they have won various awards such as The Chip Shop award for best stationary design, the fresh award for best use of illustration and the DADI award for best in house website.

A weakness of theirs is that the website is packed with different things but is quite hard to navigate.

They work with mainly branding and web design whereas I can offer more print work and publications.

Some threats to me are that they have strong, well known clients, they offer a specialist service and are fully established.

Hemisphere are a design and marketing consultancy.

They have 21 years of experience, a good reputation and are nationally recognised.

Their website is quite dull and corporate and doesn't appear to be very fun.

Opportunities for me will be that I will have fresh, more creative ideas and I will be forward thinking and playful with my designs.

Threats to me will be that hemisphere have satisfied and loyal customers, they are well known and nationally recognised.  

SWOT