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Team Project: Environmental Analysis

The Upside Down

College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University

OGL355: Leading Organizational Innovation and Change

Dr. B

November 7th, 2020

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Environmental Analysis of the World Wildlife Fund

The team has gathered information to analyze the environment of the World Wildlife Fund

organization. Understanding parts of the industry that could affect the organization such as the

entrance of the new competition and their capacity to change the market. As well as what exactly

the WWF’s target market is, and what strategies would be appropriate to make to gain a

competitive advantage over the competition. Lastly, the team analyzed other external factors that

could be a potential threat to the organization such as the bargaining powers of buyers and

suppliers, substitute products, and the industry rivalry; which are all included in Michael Porter’s

model for competitive analysis.

Industry Analysis

Typically, industry analysis is an in-depth assessment of an organization to evaluate key

points such as the market, the competitive dynamics, and potential variables that could pose a

risk to the organization. With the data acquired from this type of evaluation an organization can

adjust its strategies as needed to combat the competition and the changing market schemes.

Using Michael Porter’s Competitive 5 Forces Model our team will determine the impact of each

of the 5 forces including the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers,

the threat of substitute products, and finally rivalry in the industry (Harvard Business School,

n.d.)

Threat of New Entrants

New organizations can create a potential threat upon entry to the industry as these

competitors may affect the market share. This competition may also attain resources that are
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essential in their fight to break into the industry against their competitors. Though these entrants

have the capability of bringing something new to the industry they may face barriers such as

product differentiation, capital requirements, and cost disadvantages (Coulter,2013 p.65). These

types of barriers are considered high for new entrants which means that the threat is then lowered

for the existing organizations in the industry. For WWF, the industry of charity could be affected

by new entrants if the competition begins to dip into the same customers/donors that donate to

WWF. Directly inhibiting their funds for their conservation efforts.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

The bargaining power of buyers is weighted by consumers, which hold power over

organizations. As a fundraising organization, World Wildlife Fund’s buyers are the donors. The

donors hold high power because donations are optional and there is high competition with other

non-profit organizations. Furthermore, the low switching costs allow buyers to decide to move

their money elsewhere with low or none administrative costs.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

For the World Wildlife Fund, suppliers have low power. The World Wildlife Fund

markets apparel and accessories to donors, which requires they work with a manufacturer to

produce these goods. With various apparel manufacturing companies, the World Wildlife Fund

can scout to find one that can produce high-quality merchandise at lower costs.

Threat of Substitute Products

With high substitute threats for the WWF, there is the possibility that a more cost-

efficient choice is available. There is the possibility that better more suitable goods and services
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could be found within a different industry. Sometimes when one goes looking for alternatives

they might find that there are alternatives that offer comparable services maybe sometimes with a

little extra included.

There is a low threat of substitute products when we consider that there are often things

that may get lost in the cracks of switching over to a new option, you have to start from scratch

and build a new relationship. There is often a cost involved in switching, often this cost comes

with a high price tag. Customers also know and trust WWF most people grew up learning about

them in one-way shape or form, it is a name they know and trust.

Industry Rivalry

A high threat for the WWF is that there is pressure from other rivals such as the Nature

Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund (Barrett, 2020). Threats from these rivals can

limit the growth potential that the World Wildlife Fund is trying to achieve. Corporations such as

these found within the industry may have a way of targeting, appealing, or advertising to

customers and clientele differently. The threat that is posed by these industry rivals can be

diminished when the World Wildlife Fund is aware of what is working for their rivals. Then they

need to reflect and compare what they are doing and to see how they can improve and where

areas of opportunity lay. They need to reassess and see if what it is that they are doing to raise

awareness to the World Wildlife Fund is working. They need to see if they are correctly

advertising and if they are reaching out and hitting the target market they are aiming for.
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Target Market

After much research into our organization, we realized that The World Wildlife Fund has

a specific market. Although it may seem that they try to reach everyone, they are focused on

Generation Z or people who are between the ages of 18-25 (“MMA Case Study Hub:

#LastSelfie”, n.d.). Knowing this information on their specific target market allowed us to dig

deeper and gain an understanding of why they had chosen the market they did. We found that

this generation was mainly those surrounded by the era of social media and social networking.

We found that The World Wildlife Fund mainly operates using platforms such as Instagram,

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google+ (World Wildlife Fund - and the Power of Social

Media Channels, 2015). Through the power of social media we found “In the first few hours of

the campaign, thousands of people started sharing the messages, helping #LastSelfie went viral

around the globe (“MMA Case Study Hub: #LastSelfie”, n.d.). Within the first eight hours, there

were 5,000 tweets being viewed on 6 million Twitter timelines. After just one week, 40,000

tweets hit 120 million Twitter users, nearly 50 percent of the overall monthly total” (“MMA Case

Study Hub: #LastSelfie”, n.d.). With the use of social media platforms and hashtags, the WWF

organization is able to target its desired audience and provide the necessary information to keep

them supporting. Hashtags have also allowed them to gain new members by using hashtags

associated with their six ambitious goals: Climate, food, forests, freshwater, oceans, and wildlife.

Competitive Advantage Strategies to Maintain Target Market

For companies to remain competitive in today's market they must ensure they have active

social media presents. WWF had success with previous ad campaigns. Our suggested strategies

are designed to increase WWF’s competitiveness within the digital sphere. We believe the
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weakness of WWF’s social media presence is a lack of constancy and engagement from the

community. While they do have a large following it does not appear that their following is very

active in promoting WWF content.

One strategy WWF should implement is to create a consistent social media presence. A

market analysis should be completed to discover when their target audience spends their time on

the different social media platforms. With that information, they should create posts on their

utilized platforms during those peak hours to encourage an increase in interactions and

engagement. Generation Z makes up the majority of the WWF target market who is known for

utilizing internet searches for knowledge more than any other generation. Posts, captions, and

hashtags should be geared toward this target market. For example, hashtags should be used like

#nature and #outdoors along with WWF specific hashtags to get visibility to the markets that are

interested in the same thing. We believe consistency will increase visibility. WWF needs to

research the other brands that their target audience is interested in and get their content visible to

people who are searching for similar things that relate to nature, outdoors, animals, and the

environment. Examples of these commonalities might include brands focused on social justice

movements, camping, sustainability, hydration, animal abuse awareness, etc.

We also think that the WWF needs to focus marketing energy toward expanding its reach to

Youtube and Twitch communities. Twitch.tv and youtube.com combined have a total of 4.2

billion hours watched in Q1 of 2020. (Valentine, 2020). This market has a high amount of

potential for the GEN Z and Millennial market. One way they can build its social media presence

is by initiating a partnership with Influencers who may have a strong fanbase, or followers.

Another strategy for the WWF would give them the ability to knock out two birds with one

stone; get its name out and make progress for nature reservation. The option would be to shadow
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the example of what YouTuber Mr. Beast and the Arbor Day Foundation was able to do.

Together, the two were able to collaborate and raise up to $20 million in a short amount of time

in 2019, and in fact, they are still receiving donations to this day! We believe they can achieve

something similar and as thousands of people tune in every day to watch their favorite

YouTubers and streamers. Partnered content creators can fundraise for their communities and

donate a portion of the proceeds to WWF. The gaming industry is known for hosting charity

streams which range from an hour to weeks at a time. Pooling content creators together for a

week-long charity event to raise awareness of the need for WWF and be used as a time to

fundraise and educate our audience of the need for WWF is one example of tapping into the

content creator market could bring to WWF’s competitive advantage.

We also recommend that WWF seek out a new partnership with Disney to produce a

documentary series that covers their initiatives within these contexts: climate, food, forest,

freshwater, oceans, and wildlife and the work that they are doing worldwide. We Believe this

would be beneficial for reaching a broader audience for those stuck at home because people love

a good documentary.

Conclusion

With a rank of 58 on Forbes list of largest U.S. charities in 2019 (Barrett, 2020) it is

imperative that WWF has a strategy to continue their growth and circumvent any market threats.

Using Porter’s 5 force model, different aspects of the organization's environment can be assessed

to help paint a clearer picture of what initiatives and strategies must be created in order to grow

and achieve success. Through this review, we learned that with various non-profit organizations

entering the picture and competing for donor money, the threat of new entrants, industry rivalry,
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the threat of substitute products, and the bargaining power of buyers remains high while the

threat of suppliers is low. As such, creating a social media marketing plan targeted at Generation

Z has allowed WWF to continue to grow. Further social media and virtual workshop initiatives

directed at this population will ensure WWF continues to pursue its mission of conservation by

continuing to spread its message and allow its buyers to feel connected to the WWF’s

conservation achievements.

APPROVAL: (sign off with initials by 12 pm AZ time

10/28/2020) - plan to submit by 5 pm 10/29/2020

Chelsea Sarah Jessica Daniel Michael Chanel Johnny

Velasquez Rivera - Gandara- Polley - Vega - Clarke- Tuon

- C.V SR JG DP MV CC
-JVT
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References

Barrett, W. P. (2020). America’s Top Charities 2019. Retrieved November 03, 2020,

from https://www.forbes.com/lists/top-charities/

Coulter, M. (2013). Strategic management in action (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Harvard Business School. (n.d.). The Five Forces - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness -

Harvard Business School. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from

https://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/business-strategy/Pages/the-five-forces.aspx

MMA Case Study Hub: #LastSelfie. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2020, from

https://www.mmaglobal.com/case-study-hub/case_studies/view/31740

Rebekah Valentine Senior Staff Writer Thursday 2nd April 2020. (n.d.). Twitch breaks 3b total

hours watched in a single quarter for the first time. Retrieved October 29, 2020, from

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-04-02-twitch-breaks-3b-total-hours-

watched-in-a-single-quarter-for-the-first-time-in-q1-2020

World Wildlife Fund - and the Power of Social Media Channels. (2015, February 24). Retrieved

November 07, 2020, from http://www.njedesign.com/world-wildlife-fund-power-social-

media-channels/