Lsm Swot

Strengths

* Since the main offerings are digital products, then there is very little need for storage rooms or staff to keep track of stock, keeping costs down as a result.

* Much of the advice given comes down to personal experience and knowledge, which is something unique to LSM.

* Smaller product range simplifies choices for customers and is less overwhelming

Weaknesses

* low product differentiation, meaning that competitors can easily copy product and service offerings without fear of penalty

Opportunities

* The finical market is ever shifting and due to the recent GFC people are more conscious about their everyday expenditures than ever before, resulting in an increasing market in the financial advice sector.

* As people are discovering the potential of the internet it opens up more of the internet market:

o Blogs have been becoming more popular at an increasing rate. As stated by Thomas Johnson and Barbara Kay people who read blogs rated them more credible than other forms of media.

o Twitter is becoming increasingly popular. At launch twitter took 3 years to send 1 billion "tweets", now 1 billion tweets are sent ever 6 days (Dick Costolo, 2011).

o Facebook has over 800 million active users with over 70 languages being used on the site (Facebook 2011).

Bing able to fully harness this market would result in unprecedented number of customers and market share.

Threats

* The internet is a huge library collection filled with invaluable recourses about any given subject, and to top it all off it's free. Oversaturation from free resources might be damaging to customers numbers who are unwilling to pay whilst there is an abundance of information on the internet.

* Competitors, be it rival companies or magazines, will have very similar merchandise as LSM. Magazines (from financial to everyday women magazines {appendix 1&2} ) are constantly running tips and tricks to save money which could be very similar to those used by LSM

Nature of value creation and delivery system

LSM offers money management software in the form of 4 unique products. These are the Goal planner, money tracker, 28 day money challenge and the spending planner. These products are all meant to help customers improve their finance and save money. Also further value is added to the customers with the inclusion of eBooks, twitter and blogs as well as run downs and commentaries on significant events in simplified terms so that they are easily understood.