TOWS Analysis: Real-World Examples for Your Business

You might be familiar with the SWOT analysis concept but have you ever heard of TOWS analysis?

As a marketing professional, you’ll probably create a SWOT when you need to launch a new product or enter a new market. And while it’s interesting to know what your potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are, very few companies use this information the way they should.

In fact, most companies would stop at simply amplifying their strengths and maybe take up some opportunities. Because let’s be honest, if your company’s threat is that it might be prone to lawsuits, can you truly avoid it? If a weakness is that it’s not sustainable enough like Shein or Temu how exactly do you even make that work for you?

The TOWS matrix answers these questions.

What is the TOWS Analysis or Matrix?

The TOWS matrix combines everything you’ve learnt from your SWOT analysis and applies it to your business in unconventional ways. It is focused on curating strategies from the findings in your SWOT analysis. Now that you have your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, how do you apply them to the real world?

This matrix answers these questions through the four potential strategies you can employ; the maxi-mini strategy (ST), the mini-mini strategy(WT), the mini-maxi strategy(WO) and the maxi-maxi strategy (SO).

Maxi-Maxi (SO): Maximizing Strengths to Maximize Opportunities

In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the world was going sideways, pharmaceutical companies saw an opportunity to create a vaccine. However, to maximize this opportunity, they had to utilize their strength in research and development to come up with one. Companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna who were the first to develop this vaccine gained significant competitive advantage within this period.

This is a perfect example of using your strengths to dominate and take over opportunities. Unfortunately, while it is the best-case scenario, many businesses only focus on this type of strategy, leaving out others that are just as important.

Maxi-Mini (ST): Maximizing Strengths to Minimize Threats

In this area, you think about how you can leverage your strengths to minimize the external threats your company will encounter.

Coca-Cola was previously known for its high sugar content. That’s why people would automatically abstain from the company’s products when they wanted to cut down on sugar. This is a threat to the company’s revenue, customers and even its existence. Because what happens when everyone wants to avoid sugar?

Instead of spending resources in marketing the brand as a healthy drink (which many businesses would erroneously do), they utilised their strength in production to create a healthy alternative — Coke Zero/Diet Coke and all the other variations that exist.

This is a clear example of using the company’s strengths to minimize threats and it is just one section of the TOWS matrix.

Mini- Mini (WT): Minimizing Weakness to Minimize Threats

Think about all the worst-case scenarios for your business come true because that’s when you’ll need this strategy. The Mini-Mini seeks to reduce the company’s weaknesses in a bid to reduce the external threats it faces.

A great example of this is the CBS and Viacom merger. While both broadcasting companies were under the same parent company in the 70s, they split in 2005 and were doing fairly well as entertainment companies until recently.

With the rise in streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon, both companies had several weaknesses and a key threat — they were no longer competitive. So to save what was left of their companies, they had to merge again to minimize these threats.

Mini-Maxi (WO): Minimizing Weaknesses by Maximizing Opportunities

This primarily deals with using the opportunities you have identified in the market, to deal with any internal weaknesses you may have. It’s finding a way to limit your weaknesses by taking advantage of the opportunities available to you.

Dominos Pizza while not everyone’s favourite Pizza chain, was previously known for its slow processing and delivery times. This happened during the rise of online food delivery services and so, exploiting this opportunity, the company invested in an online rebrand.

In addition to improving their menu and building a mobile app, the company also used routing data to provide estimated delivery times. This helped them tackle their weakness and become a more sustainable/competitive brand.

Creating a TOWS Matrix to Improve Your Business

The key is simple — Are you protecting your business from a potential loss or at this time you need to create success? Depending on what you need, you can then choose a strategy to work with.

To do this, you need to first create a SWOT analysis, and then brainstorm on how you can link those points to the elements discussed in your TOWS matrix. Here’s a free template from the University of Wisconsin to help you build one out with your team.