Complete SWOT Analysis of Saffola with Thorough Overview of the Company

Updated on: Nov 22, 2021

The blog previously written by our team focused on a strategic marketing mix of a brand that ties close competition with Saffola, known as ‘Patanjali’. However, this particular blog full-fledged pays attention to granting the SWOT analysis of Saffola – India’s most supreme edible oil

Saffola kicked off its marketing by introducing Saffola as a healthy cooking oil but later expanded its horizon to oats, honey, and salt. By advertising the product as a healthy alternative in cooking methods, Saffola swiftly seized the golden opportunity and caught the buyers in the Indian market.

Wonder how Saffola captured a huge portion of the market? The answer is Saffola’s marketing strategies. And in its marketing strategy, digital marketing has played a vital role.  

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Before we get started with the SWOT Analysis of Saffola, let’s first look up at the firm, its products and services, and its competitors.

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About Saffola

SWOT Analysis of Saffola - Saffola Advertisement Poster - IIDE

                       (Source: Google Images)

Saffola (inclusive under the brand “Marico India”) made its way through the Indian market during the 1960s. Saffola has been maintaining its winning streak of being one of the most well-known products for more than fifty years

Saffola is not considered to be a mere brand, but it is instead considered a way of living a life filled with health decisions and perfectly balanced fatty acids that excessively help reduce people’s cholesterol. It was, of course, none other than the founder himself that pitched Saffola’s marketing strategies to market the products as a healthcare cooking oil alternative.

The Marico company sells its established brands (inclusive of Saffola) in more than 20+ countries today. The brand in this day and age, in fact, by all means, is indeed India’s most supreme edible oil and is most probably being used in almost the majority of Indian households. 

              Quick Stats About Saffola

Founder Mr Harsh Mariwala
Year Founded 1960
Origin Mumbai, India
No. of Employees 1,631
Company Type Public
Market Cap Rs 69,474.24 Crore (2021)
Annual Revenue Rs 7,439 Crore (2020)
Net Income/ Profit Rs 1,043 Crore (2020)

           

Products of Saffola 

Saffola an FMCG with multiple other products other than just oil:

SWOT Analysis of Saffola - Image of Saffola’s Range of Products - IIDE

  • Virgin & Edible Oils
  • Oats, Noodles & Soya Chunks 
  • Beauty & Hygiene 
  • Pure Honey
  • Slim Shakes & Green Coffee


Competitors of Saffola

  • Fortune 
  • Patanjali 
  • Sundrop
  • Dhara
  • Emami
  • Mahakosh

Now that we understand the company in more detail, let us dive into the SWOT analysis of Saffola.


SWOT Analysis of Saffola

SWOT analysis of Saffola simply examines both external and internal aspects that influence and affect a company’s business endeavour. We’ll look at Saffola’s strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T). The SWOT analysis of Saffola is extremely useful for identifying areas for development, growth opportunities, and threats to a company.

SWOT Analysis of Saffola - SWOT Infographics of Saffola
Now first let’s begin with the strengths of the company from the SWOT analysis of Saffola

Strengths of Saffola.

  • India’s Leading Edible Consumer Oil: Saffola is quite famous and very popular with a high consumer following among the Indian market. Saffola is well known for dealing with a range of healthcare lifestyles. 
  • Effortless and Engaging Ad Campaigns: Saffola focuses best on excessive marketing through Ad campaigns. You must also learn Ad designing to create high-performing ad designs & campaigns for your business. 
  • Effective Social Media Marketing: The brand has had its fair share of success with social media marketing. The biggest pro and a unique one in this list would be Saffola’s website and its rich presence on social media platforms.

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  • Affordable Prices: Saffola has a target audience from every social stratum of society. Their affordable pricing system helps them reach a better number of consumers, which impacts their growth positively. 


Weakness of Saffola

  • Excessive Product Launches: Over the past fifty years, Saffola no longer associates itself with ‘edible oils’ only. Although it may not seem like a bad idea, producing products one after the other may make the consumers feel overwhelmed and not positively.
  • Competitor’s Price Fluctuation: Too many competitors in the market for the same product led Saffola to look after the prices of competing products and make changes to its products every time accordingly.
  • Excessive Wastage: As the increasing demand for edible oils, excessive shipping and distribution of oil can cause an increase in the number of damaged packets. As oil is a handle with care product, carelessness by labour will cause expenses for Saffola.       

Saffola has been doing great, and it is indeed to point out something specific because their strategies and the way the company executes them are not bad in the slightest.  


Opportunities for Saffola

There are certainly a few ways a brand could look at and would perhaps like to implement better strategies and touch more significant opportunities for their empowering development. Indeed there are a few ways Saffola could do the same to expand their empire. 

  • Market Expansion: Saffola and the Marico company have been doing good production-wise, and the scale isn’t low. Saffola product expansions to larger markets and rural areas in India would bring in both consumers and diversity in the company lookbook.
  • Consumer Requirements: With the target audience changing, the product requirements call for some changes as well. If only Saffola could somehow consider the demands and wants of today’s target consumer audience, the brand would climb higher ladders.
  • Entering in Youth Market: Till now Saffola is majorly dealing in food oil products. Saffola should now start launching some products for the youth of India. The product can be a healthy food item that can be advertised to the mom’s to purchase for their children.
  • Market in Rural Area & Villages: There are still some rural areas & villages where Saffola has not captured the market in terms of food oil. People of those areas still prefer to buy locally extracted oil. So, Saffola should start campaigning in those places.   


Threats to Saffola

No company or brand exists without having to deal with any threats daily in the markets. Let’s have a look at the dangers that capture Saffola into their spider webs. 

  • Fast-Moving Consumer Goods: There has been an increase in FMCG lately. These goods tend to cater to unbranded and confined or local goods at a much lower rate, which negatively affects brands like Saffola. 
  • Bargains: However, Saffola caters to customers appropriately; time changing leads to the increasing skills of consumer bargaining. To stop the issue of bargainings, Saffola could develop specific schemes to entice the target audience.
  • Low Price Competitions: There are many Saffola’s competitors in the market like Fortune, Dhara, Sundrop etc. which are offering edible oils with great quality at a lower price. This could be a threat for Saffola to lower its prices.  


This ends our thorough SWOT analysis of Saffola. Let us conclude our learnings below.

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To Conclude 

To conclude, Saffola remains the leading consumer edible oil that Indian markets highly prefer. Saffola has been stable in its promise to provide consumer healthy products, and they have not once drifted from their beliefs. 

Marico has been trusted for more than fifty years, and consumers continue to keep it up on a pedestal, and to a certain extent, the consumers are not wrong. The products that Saffola has to offer, cater to different things used in households while taking care of your health to the best of your abilities. 

Lastly, as you have read that big brands like Saffola are focusing on improving their digital marketing strategies. So, being well-versed in digital marketing is a requirement for all marketing enthusiasts in today’s shifting scene, which is vital. If you want to learn more and improve your skills, check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course.

If you enjoy in-depth company research just like the SWOT analysis of Saffola, check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

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

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Author's Note:

My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations helped the students from this course present this analysis.

Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience.

If you found this case study helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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