Enterprise-Task 4

• Strengths: characteristics of the business, or project team that give it an advantage over others
• Weaknesses (or Limitations): are characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage relative to others
• Opportunities: external chances to improve performance (e.g. make greater profits) in the environment
• Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project

The Three Competitors 

FUSE 8

Fuse 8 are a big branding agency that originated in leeds but has since become based in london as well. They have some big clients and have now developed from a soul branding company to a Media PR Branding And Advertising Company. 

Stuart Hirst 

Stuart Hirst is a graphic design agency based in leeds, it tackles many design problems from branding to legal notice advertising. 

BrainStorm 

Brain storm is again a leeds based design agency with  predominate focus on branding and is much more specialist than the previous two companies looked at. 

TASK 4

Starting with Fuse 8 is the only company I am looking at which has expanded into two cities in the UK London and Leeds. Their client list is incredibly strong, and they have a diverse range of skill sets with in the company from event organisation to branding and web design. As well as being an award-winning agency, which undoubtedly has a side effect of bringing in business. The company employs a lot of highly skilled workers in there particular fields.

            Although Fuses 8 strengths are obvious there are certain things working against them. Being a big company with a highly skilled however small work force puts them at a sight disadvantage with a stretched work force as result of these client relationships can suffer due to time being spent elsewhere. This is something that is important in producing effect design in any format.

            It is as a result of this that I see from a personal perspective see an opportunity of putting emphasis on client relationships, and finding out exactly what the clients requirements are when in the early stages of a brief and as the brief develops.

            In terms of Threats to me Fuse 8 pose a big one, due to the size of there company and the client portfolio they have developed over a larger amount of time. Thus being able through there own brand identity to over power me in the market place when tendering for clients.

Stuart Hirst are again a large company, however with a more local client list that has to expanded massively, they put emphasis on creating a community feel with in the company, which can only improve employee moral and thus improve output. They have also go incredibly up to date systems and software that span a great deal of avenues, from marketing to branding and recruitment advertising which reduces the time spent per project, as a result these speeds up the design process and therefore means they can get more clients through the door.

            What Is a weakness with Stuart Hirst is that they have to sub contract much of there work which is either due to over selling the companies services trying to boost profits or them not having the space/skilled workers to carry out the jobs that they have advertised on there web site, this obviously costs them money and as a result of this reduces profits. This also means they relay on people out side of the company as result they are out of the design process thus things can go wrong, perhaps after it is to late, which again costs them money re doing it.

            As a result where I will be better and different to this company is by out sourcing nothing bar the print. And over a selective range of services instead of a large range that this company obviously cant deal with in terms of workload. This again will improve client relationships and not result in a loss of money due to outsourcing.

            The treat that comes from Stuart Hirst is also the opportunity I have to be better than them, with the large range of skills they posses as company this can only impress potential clients and as a result they may get business over me due to the impression it gives off to potential clients.

Brainstorm is a small branding agency of 6 people. They are a specialist work force that puts emphasis on strong client relationships. They have a diverse range of clients from multinationals to individual club nights in Leeds. The reputation is so good with there clients that they source most of their work through client recommendations.  They also don’t have a specific industry they focus in which opens up many more clients to them.

            Although having a broad range of clients can be considered a good thing, it can also be considered a weakness. This is down to brainstorm maybe never getting a strong reputation with in a certain field of industry. A bi product of this could be why they deal with incredibly small non-lucrative clients in certain fields.

            It is this that I small do differently, focusing largely on a certain field with a big market, and creating a good reputation will allow hopefully allow me to have a large market share of a lucrative market. Perhaps focusing on corporate identities such as banking.