In our previous blog, we had done a step-wise SWOT Analysis of one of the largest computer vendors by unit sales, HP. Here we will be doing a detailed SWOT Analysis of Acer.

It is one of the top laptop brands in the world. It is also one of the world’s largest PC vendors by market share. 

Acer has aced its digital marketing strategies. It has successfully promoted its products on various online mediums and portals and has acquired a larger target audience. Digital marketing is a field that is emerging and growing due to everything becoming digitalized in the present times. Every organization needs to have an online presence to gain more recognition. If you want to learn what is digital marketing and how to use it to your advantage – check out our Free MasterClass on Digital Marketing 101 by the CEO and Founder of IIDE, Karan Shah.

This makes us eager to know how Acer has pulled such large success in its industry. Here we have done a detailed SWOT Analysis of Acer. But before diving into its SWOT Analysis let’s get a brief idea about Acer as a company, its products, competitors, financials, and more.

About Acer

Acer is a Taiwanese multinational hardware manufacturer, established in the year 1976 by Stan Shih, Carolyn Yeh, and George Huang. It has its presence in more than 160 countries and is one of the leading laptop brands worldwide.

Acer Inc is one of the oldest hardware manufacturing companies which has high goodwill in the market. It is known for its affordability and fascinating performance quality. It offers a wide range of products from laptops to Chromebooks, tablets to smartphones, and more. The Acer Predator series are some top best gaming laptops that it manufactures.

Acer’s has a mission to create and promote research-based knowledge, products, and services that can be used to improve learning across the life span. Its goal is to focus on supporting learners and learning professionals, supporting those who lead and manage educational institutions and systems, and supporting our learning society.

 

Quick Stats About Acer

 

Products of Acer

Acer is one of the largest PC brands in the world with some of the best products in the market. Following are some of the products that Acer provides:

• Laptops
• Desktops
• Tablets
• Air Purifiers
• Computer Accessories
• Backpacks

 

Close Competitors of Acer

Acer provides its products all over the world which creates a large competition for its products. Some of the top competitors for Acer are as follows:

• Dell
• Hewlett-Packard
• Asus
• Lenovo 
• Apple

 

Now that you have a brief idea about Acer, let us quickly dive into the SWOT Analysis of Acer.

 

SWOT Analysis of Acer 

 

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is an effective tool that helps every organization to assess these four aspects of their firm.

When companies conduct a SWOT Analysis, it helps them know their current position in the market, the performance of rival companies, and more. It also enables them to make the necessary changes and improvements in their business operations.

We will now proceed further and observe the Strengths of Acer.

 

Strengths of Acer

Let’s take a look at the key strengths of Acer that have helped it achieve great success and gain a competitive edge in the laptop market.

1. Cost Advantage – Acer provides laptops at a comparatively lower price than its rival brands. It follows a penetration pricing strategy. Acer has managed to appeal to a larger audience that has a lower budget for purchasing laptops. Acer has a competitive cost advantage over other brands, which is an essential factor.
2. Global Presence – Acer has an international presence in around 40 countries across the world. It has more than 7,000 employees. Having a global existence has helped Acer gain wider exposure, thereby enhancing its brand image and reputation.
3. Operational Efficiency – Acer has achieved great success in terms of its productivity and efficiency. It follows a low pricing structure, which means it operates at a low cost, which is why it can offer its laptops at a comparatively lower price.
4. Netbooks — Acer offers many netbooks and Chromebooks, which are also popularly known as mini laptops. It has succeeded in achieving wide acceptance of its mini laptops in the market. Acer is one of the leading brands which offers netbooks at a competitive price.

 

Weaknesses of Acer

Weaknesses of a company can be used against it by its competitors if they are not improved. These factors act as barriers to the rapid growth of the company and obstruct its operational efficiency. Acer needs to focus on its weaknesses and try to overcome them.

1. Performance – Acer laptops are low in price, which appeals to price-sensitive buyers. Overall, they contain ordinary processors and hardware components. It causes customers to have a poor performance experience with the laptops, thus failing to meet the customer expectations. Acer could try to manufacture high-end performing laptops with faster processors to have better competition with its competitors.
2. Presence in B2B Markets – Acer laptops are not so highly present in B2B markets compared to its competitors. It is because of their average and ordinary performance, which fails to support the high-level requirements of businesses.
3. Low Perceived Quality – When customers find that your products are low-priced, they tend to associate them with low quality. It is a common psychological effect that customers have on brands that offer relatively cheaper products. Improving the quality and performance level of its laptops can enable Acer to increase its profit margin. Thus, eliminating the perception of a low price = low-quality mindset. 

 

Opportunities of Acer

Acer laptops have great scope to constantly develop and enhance their laptops based on the latest technology. The factors listed below could be a turning point for Acer.

1. Favorable in an Economic Crisis – Acer laptops, being low-priced, tend to have a good advantage over its competitors during an economic crisis/slowdown. People will prefer buying low-cost products because the financial situation is not good. Considering that they are suffering from pay cuts, they would rather play it safe.
2. Premium Product Line – Acer produces the most economical laptops. But it could offer an additional product line of premium laptops to increase its potential and loyal customers. It would help to cater to a group of premium users who have higher performance level requirements. Thus, Acer would be serving a variety of users who can choose between low-priced or high-priced laptops based on their needs.
3. Gaming and VR – There has been an increasing trend in demand for gaming and virtual reality. Technology has made it possible to implement VR in almost every type of industry. Therefore, people prefer purchasing gaming laptops containing an immense and powerful processor to handle the gaming requirements of higher speed, huge memory capacity, better graphics, and much more. 

 

Threats for Acer

The threats are all those factors that could interrupt the smooth workflow and could negatively impact the business operations in the future. Constantly monitoring and anticipating the threats to a business thus enables a firm to take wise decisions about the future to eliminate the likeliness of those threats.

1. Stiff Competition – Acer faces tough competition because of its competitors like Dell, HP, Apple, Sony, and others that comparatively offer better and higher-level performing laptops. Acer would have to improve the overall efficiency and performance of its laptops. Thus, enabling it to be in a better position while competing with other brands. 
2. Low Margins – If Acer continues to operate at a low-profit margin, it could affect its investment opportunities. It could also affect its ability to upgrade its laptops with better features in the future due to low investment possibilities. Penetration pricing strategy is a suitable strategy to follow in the initial years after the brand gets launched. Once it gains recognition and goodwill, it can use this to its advantage to increase the prices.
3. Rise in Smartphones and Tablets Industry – The smartphones and tablets industry has been on the rise. It has negatively affected the laptops and PCs industry. Smartphones and tablets are developing to such a great extent that many people can now manage without a laptop because smartphones provide extremely high-end features. It enables users to do almost everything that they used to do on laptops and PCs earlier. Even the most impossible apps like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel are now accessible and usable on smartphone devices.
4. New Entrants – Several new laptop manufacturers are stepping into the laptop industry. They are offering highly efficient laptops that deliver powerful performance and contain higher battery life. Some of these laptop manufacturers include non-branded companies. Customers who cannot afford expensive laptops will automatically feel drawn to such laptops. It is because these laptops are inexpensive but at the same time provide good overall performance. It could cause Acer to lose its customers to such other brands.

 

With this, we reach the end of the SWOT Analysis of Acer. this helps the company to know its position in the market and what it should improve in its business.

Conclusion

On the study of the SWOT Analysis of Acer, we know that it is one of the largest laptop brands in the world. It has successfully expanded to various countries and also managed to diversify its product portfolio. It has opportunities like introducing premium product lines and the innovation of gaming and VR in the industry. It still has some flaws that it needs to look out for.

Lace of presence in the B2B market and low-profit margins create a problem for the company to operate. Thus it needs to increase its presence in the B2B market which will help them to get large sales and improve its profit margins. It can use the latest digital marketing tools to directly advertise its products to potential customers with ease as most people are online nowadays. Digital marketing is something that every business should have. If you are interested in learning and upskilling, check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course to know more.

If you would like to read such detailed analyses of companies, find more such insightful case studies on our IIDE Knowledge portal.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and do share your thoughts on this case study in the comments section below.