We conduct an Adobe SWOT analysis to gain insight into the company that impacts our lives, as every other software that we use today is an Adobe product.
If I ask you to list down some of the software that has made our daily tasks a lot easier, I am sure your list will include the name Adobe.
Imagine a world without Adobe. Every other software that we use today is the product of Adobe. For example, we can't even view a simple text file until we have an Adobe PDF reader. Besides that, some of the major designing and illustrating software that help professionals at work are the property of Adobe.
Due to the high significance of Adobe in our lives and to accompany our PESTLE analysis of Adobe, today we have decided to conduct an Adobe SWOT analysis to gain insight into the company that impacts our lives massively.
However, before we proceed further and carry out the Adobe SWOT analysis, we should look at the history of Adobe so that we know the beginnings of Adobe. Then, we can analyze how this software company has evolved over the years.
Today, Adobe has become a huge software company. However, the start of the company was relatively simple. In 1982, two guys named John Warnock and Charles Geschke left a research and development company to establish their own software house named Adobe in San Jose, California.
The software company soon developed a publishing technology called PostScript. PostScript gained popularity rapidly, and within a year, Apple got the license of PostScript for its Macintosh-compatible laser-writer printer.
This helped Adobe to become famous instantly; as a result, the software company grew rapidly. Moreover, in the future, Adobe and Apple worked together for some time, which helped the software company generate huge revenue.
Later in 1987, Adobe developed its first software, Adobe Illustrator. This software was a vector-based program that helped people create posters, logos, presentations, typefaces, drawings, and more.
After the success of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe developed software to help digital editors that could manipulate images. This software was called Adobe Photoshop.
Later Adobe developed much software that helped professionals in different fields. For example, Adobe Premiere helped video editors, while InDesign helped graphic designers in their work.
Besides developing these technical tools, Adobe also developed one of the most widely used software for sharing files and reading, Adobe Acrobat (PDF).
The software company kept working on its software, and in 2003 it finally developed Adobe Creative Suite (CS). This software had Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, etc. All in one.
This software became really popular among users, and the sales of Adobe increased significantly. In the coming years, Adobe kept introducing more software and expanded its operations.
After the software company observed significant growth over the years, Adobe developed a new corporate campus in Lehi, Utah, in 2012. The statistics of Adobe show that the software company is doing really well.
Adobe managed to generate revenue of $15.79 billion in 2021. Moreover, more than 26 million people have subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud. This shows the reach and demand of Adobe in general.
Besides providing software to the world, Adobe also provides employment to many people. To manage all of its operations, Adobe has hired 25,988 employees.
Now that we have discussed the operations of Adobe in detail, let's proceed further and carry out Adobe's SWOT analysis. However, before doing that, let's discuss what SWOT analysis is.
SWOT analysis is a technique used to analyze what internal and external factors impact the operations of a business. A SWOT Template highlights the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats an organization faces.
Let's proceed further and see what internal and external factors impact the operations of Adobe.
Strengths of Adobe
Strengths are the strong points an organization possesses that provide a competitive advantage. Organizations look forward to increasing their strengths so that they can maximize their share in the market. In this section, we will look at what strengths Adobe possesses.
1. Wide Range of Products
All successful businesses always offer products that belong to multiple categories. For example, Sony produces TVs, Speakers, Gaming products, Camera accessories, etc.
The reason for providing so many diverse products is to attract customers with different tastes. This technique helps the brand to increase its potential customers, which results in an increase in the market share and revenue.
Like Sony, Adobe also provides diverse software in different categories. For example, Adobe Photoshop is a software that helps photographers and photo editors in editing pictures.
On the other hand, Adobe Premiere provides all the functions a video editor needs to edit a video. By providing software of different categories, Adobe targets customers that have different tastes and belong to different fields.
2. Large Customer Base
Companies are always trying to increase their customer base since a high number of customers results in high profits. However, unlike small companies, Adobe doesn't have to worry about increasing its customer base.
Already millions of people use different software of, Adobe. According to the figures, around 90% of the world's professionals who belong to creative fields use Adobe Photoshop. Similarly, every other person uses Adobe PDF for reading purposes. Such a large customer base helps Adobe generate huge revenue and profits.
3. Global Presence
Any business wants to operate globally and have customers worldwide. Adobe is one of those few companies that generate revenue from all over the world. Adobe has customers all over the globe, which is why it generates revenue from different regions.
Adobe generates revenue from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa, and China. This pretty much makes up the entire world, doesn't it? Such a vast global presence benefits Adobe in generating revenue from all over the world.
Weaknesses of Adobe
Weaknesses are the shortcomings of any business that stops it from growing further. Organizations work to eliminate their weaknesses. Let's see what weaknesses Adobe possesses.
1. High-Priced Software
Customers are always looking to buy products that are cheap and good. So when we talk about the software provided by Adobe, we can surely say that they are of good quality, but what about their price?
The prices of Adobe's software are very high. As a result, many customers cannot afford the software offered by Adobe, and they switch to alternative options. Such high pricing results in losing customers, which is not beneficial for the company.
2. Previous Data Breach
Many businesses had to deal with the problem of data breaches recently after hackers stole the classified information of their users. Adobe also experienced a data breach in 2013. As a result of this data breach, 38 million accounts got affected.
This impacted the reputation of Adobe adversely and developed doubts in the minds of its users. The damaged reputation of Adobe is a weakness since customers don't feel secure while giving their information to Adobe.
3. Doesn't Act Upon The Feedback
The biggest room is room for improvement. Companies interact with their customers and ask for their feedback so that they can improve the areas that are considered weak. However, Adobe works a little differently.
Many designers have complained over the years that Adobe doesn't take their feedback seriously and it doesn't add the features that they demand in its software.
This behavior of Adobe discourages the developers from using the company's software. If Adobe continues to do so, it will start losing customers rapidly.
Opportunities Present For Adobe
Every company gets some opportunities to do well in the future. However, not many companies can identify the opportunities ahead of them. In this section, let's highlight some of the opportunities for Adobe to grow in the future.
1. Mergers and Acquisitions
There are different ways to penetrate the market and increase the customer base. However, businesses use mergers and acquisitions to expand their market share. Adobe did the same to penetrate the market over the years. It acquired many companies and formed mergers with many businesses.
Now that Adobe has become such a significant name, it can further increase its market share by acquiring smaller companies and increasing its revenue by forming mergers with some big names.
2. Growth In Digital Marketing
As technological developments are taking place, digital marketing is experiencing growth. Each year, the US spends $232.70 billion on digital marketing. In the coming years, digital marketing is expected to grow at 17.6%.
This growth in digital marketing provides an opportunity for Adobe to grow. In addition, the growth in digital marketing will increase the demand for Adobe software. As a result, the company will grow.
3. Emerging Economies
Recently, many new economies have emerged that are currently growing. These growing economies provide growth opportunities to businesses. For example, India is one of the emerging economies.
People in India are now experiencing an increase in their buying power. Therefore, emerging economies such as India can prove to be beneficial for Adobe since now more people can purchase the software of Adobe.
Threats Faced By Adobe
No matter how big an organization is, it is always affected by the threats it receives from its external environment. Like any other company, Adobe also faces threats. Let's highlight some of the threats that Adobe faces.
1. Piracy Concerns
One of the main concerns of software companies is piracy. For example, Adobe spends billions of dollars to develop software and sets the price of that software accordingly. But unfortunately, most people choose to buy their pirated versions of the software instead of buying the original one.
The pirated software of Adobe is easily available on the internet and in markets, hurting Adobe financially. Furthermore, as exposure to the internet is increasing with time, Adobe's concerns about piracy have increased.
2. Russia-Ukraine War
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has forced many companies to seal their operation from Russia. Similarly, Adobe is one of the companies that have decided to suspend their operations in Russia.
This has caused the revenue of Adobe to fall since Russia is contributed significantly to its sales of Adobe. The war is still ongoing, and no one knows how much more financial loss Adobe has to bear.
3. Data Breach
Over the years, many companies have been subject to data breaches. Recently, data of 533 million Facebook users was leaked online, which created a huge problem for Facebook. In addition, Adobe faces the threat of data breaches since it has millions of users' stored data.
The entire process of purchasing software is carried out online. Hence, users have to submit their private data to Adobe. If this data is leaked, Adobe will face severe consequences in the form of lawsuits and penalties.
4. Competition
Businesses always avoid operating in highly competitive industries since high competition results in low profits. For example, Adobe is a renowned software company. However, other big companies offer similar products as Adobe.
As a result, Adobe cannot generate abnormal profits and has to constantly innovate to stay ahead of its competitors. A high number of competitors threatens Adobe since they can snatch the market share of Adobe anytime.
Adobe SWOT Analysis: Final Word
Adobe is one the biggest software company that offers diverse software. There is hardly any computer user who isn't familiar with the software of Adobe. Looking at the significance of Adobe in our lives, today we decided to carry out an Adobe SWOT analysis.
However, before doing that, we looked at the history of Adobe. After that, we highlighted the software company's current operations, which made us realize that Adobe is doing pretty well.
Then, we discussed the significance of SWOT analysis and made you guys aware of how to conduct a SWOT analysis. Then we proceeded further and carried out the Adobe SWOT analysis to see the internal and external factors impacting the operations of Adobe.
The results of a SWOT analysis can also be represented through a SWOT matrix concisely. Now that we are at the end of this article, we assume that you are fully aware of Adobe and the SWOT analysis technique. However, to further clear your concepts, do look at some of its examples.
