S.W.O.T.

l CLIF Bar is the market leader It has the best sales record in the overall nutrition bar market, and occupies 45% market share in the wellness bar market.（Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009） l CLIF Bar fits the general social trend More and more people want to have a healthy life style, and environment protection also attracts lots of attention. CLIF Bar’s brand image of organic and environmental friendly fits the general social trend.（CLIF Bar Book） l CLIF Bar provides more options consumers CLIF Bar has 16 flavors to meet different people’s needs （CLIF Bar website）. l CLIF Bar’s marketing strategy better fits its brand image. CLIF Bar seldom uses TV commercial or print advertisements, which states their environmental friendly image. It promotes its brand by sponsoring events and doing charity events. It also has a good performance on non-traditional marketing: iPhone apps ( effries, A. (2009). Kickin apps.    Oregon Business Magazine 32  (8), 20-25). l Consumer’s traditional perception is a barrier for CLIF Bar’s sales: Consumers’ traditionally connect nutrition bar with high calories, high fat, and snack, as the leader in the whole category, CLIF Bar also suffer from this conception (Primary Research:Interview). CLIF Bar is trying to enhance its market share in women market, but women usually connect CLIF Bar with a brand designing for athletes (Primary Research: Interview). l The whole nutrition bar category has a low market shar Only 14% in the whole population say they bought nutrition bar before, which shows the low market share of the whole category （Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009). l Inconsistent flavor. Although CLIF Bar has a lot of flavor options, but not all of its flavors available in every place. Its flavor reputation is varied among different consumer groups, and some consumers do not realize that CLIF Bar has several flavor choices (Primary Research:Interview). l  Large potential market The whole nutrition/energy bar market still has a lot of growing space. Right now only 14% of the whole population purchase nutrition/energy bars （Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009). l Growing wellness bar category CLIF bar belongs to the wellness nutrition/energy bar category, that is growing fast and attracting consumers from the other categories. The wellness bar category is the only one category that keeps growing among the three categories of nutrition/energy bar industry（Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009). l Number of competitors is increasing. New category is emerging, it has the same target consumers group with CLIF bar, and past two years its sales grew fast （Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009). l Competitors are following CLIF’s strategies. Main competitors try to get the market share, and their communication strategies have a lot of common points with CLIF bar’s strategies. More and more brands are sponsoring events and doing product placement. And several companies are sending the message that their bars are healthy. It increases consumers’ confusion about the difference among different brands （Mintel Nutrition/Energy Bar 2009).
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