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Fashion Merchandising Research Guide

What is SWOT?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that is used to assess the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in an organization, business or a project.  A SWOT analysis is particularly useful in identifying both internal and external factors that are essential in decision-making.

These three steps are typically used in constructing a SWOT analysis:

  1. Collecting information and data (company, industry/market, customers, news, etc.)
  2. Analyzing the factors
  3. Constructing the SWOT chart

The following chart is a sample SWOT analysis:

Remember, the SWOT analysis is meant to be an objective summary tool.  Any analysis which lacks good information will result in a biased viewpoint, and may cause you to reach the wrong conclusion.  Click HERE to find library databases that help you get high quality and sufficient information.