SWOT Analysis Examples: 10 Industry Templates & Writing Samples
"I want to see other companies' SWOT analysis examples." "I need industry-specific samples." "I tried to write our own SWOT analysis but want to reference how others structure them and what level of detail to use." When you actually try to create a SWOT analysis, even if you understand the four-quadrant framework, you often get stuck on questions like "What level should I write at?" or "What kind of items typically appear in my industry?" Reading concrete examples is the fastest way to dramatically improve the precision of your SWOT analysis.
This article is for executives, business leaders, marketing managers, strategic planners, and new business managers searching for "SWOT analysis examples." We provide 10 industry-specific SWOT analysis examples (B2B SaaS / Restaurants / E-commerce / Mid-sized Manufacturing / Recruiting / Real Estate / Medical Clinics / Tutoring Schools / Automotive Industry Real Example (Toyota) / Personal Career Strategy), Cross SWOT analysis writing samples, three tips for improving your writing, considerations when creating industry-specific examples, and the next steps for strategy formulation. All examples can be directly adapted as practical templates for your own SWOT analysis.
Before diving into industry examples, let's confirm the basic structure of SWOT analysis and the value of learning from examples. If you mimic examples without grasping the fundamentals, you risk borrowing items that don't fit your company or missing industry-specific pitfalls.
SWOT analysis is a framework that organizes the current state of an organization or business using four elements: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are "internal factors" that the company can change through its own decisions, while opportunities and threats are "external factors" that the company cannot change—shifts in markets, society, competition, and regulation. When reading examples, checking whether each item is an internal or external factor helps you build the judgment criteria you'll need when writing your own. All examples in this article follow this division principle.
Reading SWOT analysis examples offers three benefits beyond what theoretical reading provides. First, you grasp the right "level of granularity." It's hard to get a feel for what to write under "Strengths" without seeing actual industry cases. Second, you learn "industry-specific themes." Restaurants focus on location and ingredient costs, SaaS on churn rate and NRR, manufacturing on capital investment—each industry has critical themes. Third, you see the "connection to Cross SWOT." Rather than just filling in four quadrants, examples let you observe how concrete strategies are derived from each item, making it easier to design your own SWOT to "deliver strategy, not just analysis."
When reading industry-specific examples, we recommend checking from three perspectives. First, identify "which items also apply to your company." Even across different industries, common themes like talent composition, data utilization, and brand power exist. Second, consider "what items are unique to your company." Just because something appears in an example doesn't mean you should copy it directly into your own SWOT. The right approach is to use examples as a "starting draft" and replace items based on your own circumstances. Third, imagine "what kind of strategy would emerge from Cross SWOT" while reading. The four SWOT quadrants are for "current state grasping," but reading with the next step (Cross SWOT: SO/ST/WO/WT strategies) in mind sharpens your strategy formulation.
Below are SWOT analysis examples for 10 industries and themes. All are samples based on "typical mid-sized companies" rather than real companies (Example 9 uses Toyota as a real-company subject, but the analysis is based on publicly available information). Each example includes representative items for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, plus the "Cross SWOT direction" you should consider for that industry.
This is an example for a mid-sized B2B SaaS company (annual revenue $10M-30M, Series B-C equivalent). Strengths: Industry-specific proprietary dataset, NRR (Net Revenue Retention) of 120% above industry average, domain expertise from founding members, API ecosystem with 30+ integrations, continuous referral-based acquisition of enterprise customers. Weaknesses: Lead acquisition plateau due to understaffed marketing function, legacy UI/UX inferior to competitors, delayed multilingual support for overseas markets, customer success concentrated on a few customers leading to high churn among mid-tier customers, knowledge concentration in development organization. Opportunities: Continued expansion of DX investment, surging demand for AI agent adoption, growing preference for vertical-specific SaaS, spread of no-code integration platforms, improved investment environment from overseas funds. Threats: Encroachment by horizontal mega-SaaS strengthening vertical features, redefinition of industry SaaS by generative AI companies, IT budget constraints among customer companies, rising engineer compensation costs, strengthened data security regulations. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy of "proprietary data x AI agent" feature enhancement leads, while WO strategy of marketing organization reinforcement to avoid losing vertical SaaS opportunities is urgent.
This is an example for a 20-30 seat independent cafe in an urban station area. Strengths: Owner-curated house-roasted coffee, photogenic interior gone viral on social media, repeat customer rate over 60% from neighborhood, increased average ticket through limited original desserts, capturing competition-free hours through late-night operation. Weaknesses: Lost revenue opportunities due to limited seating during peak times, difficulty securing staff causing weekend operation instability, thin margins on some menu items due to over 35% cost ratio, no delivery infrastructure, lost connection with younger customers due to cash-only policy. Opportunities: Growing demand for weekday afternoon work usage as remote work takes hold, increased visits from distant customers via social media, establishment of third-wave coffee culture, demand for local community collaboration events, increased foot traffic from nearby redevelopment. Threats: Major chain openings nearby, rising raw material prices (coffee beans, dairy), continued minimum wage increases, commoditization of nearby competitors (mass-produced photogenic interiors), fixed cost increases from rent revisions. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy combines "house-roasted coffee x weekday afternoon work demand" into long-stay plan design, while WT strategy of premium menu shift and customer redefinition addresses cost increases and competition.
This is an example for a mid-sized apparel/lifestyle brand (annual revenue $5M-15M) selling through both its own e-commerce site and Amazon/marketplaces. Strengths: 45% repeat purchase rate above industry average on owned e-commerce, next-day shipping from in-house logistics warehouse, owned media function with over 100K Instagram followers, proprietary designer products, accurate customer understanding from accumulated CRM data. Weaknesses: Marketplace (Amazon/marketplaces) dependency over 50% of sales squeezing margins, rising new customer acquisition cost (CPA), shipping delay risk from warehouse capacity limits, no international shipping capability, slow site loading speed on mobile. Opportunities: Growing subscription apparel demand, maturity of cross-border e-commerce platforms, spread of AI personalization recommendation tools, growth of live commerce and short-video commerce, expanding interest in sustainable materials. Threats: Difficulty in ad effectiveness measurement due to 3rd-party Cookie deprecation, shipping company price hikes and delays, low-price offensives from overseas fast fashion like SHEIN, entrenched consumer price-sensitivity, marketplace fee revision risk. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy leverages owned CRM data for personalized LINE customer service and subscription introduction, while ST strategy of server-side tagging/CAPI implementation for advance Cookie regulation response takes priority from a digital marketing perspective.
This is an example for a mid-sized manufacturer with about 300 employees producing parts for automotive and industrial machinery. Strengths: Over 50 years of manufacturing know-how and ISO certification, long-term relationships with specific major OEMs, high yield from proprietary processing technology, location at a Chubu region cluster, stable retention of skilled workers through skills succession programs. Weaknesses: Sales concentration on specific OEM customers (top 3 = 70%), delayed digitalization (IoT/MES adoption), overseas sales below 10%, shortage of young engineers, aging equipment with stagnant renewal investment. Opportunities: New parts demand from EV/SDV transformation in automotive, semiconductor and industrial machinery reshoring, growing demand for decarbonization parts (lightweight, recyclable materials), government manufacturing DX subsidies, business opportunities from supply chain restructuring. Threats: Reduced demand for existing parts due to automotive industry structural change, raw material (steel, resin, rare metals) price and supply risks, price competition with Chinese and Southeast Asian manufacturers, exchange rate volatility, difficulty hiring successor engineers. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy focuses on EV/SDV-compatible new parts development and cross-selling to existing OEMs, while WO strategy prioritizes IoT-driven productivity improvement to capture reshoring demand—both critical for survival strategy.
This is an example for a mid-sized recruiting agency specializing in IT/SaaS industry (30-50 consultants). Strengths: Specialized consultants focused on IT industry, track record of closing high-class CTO/VPoE positions, matching precision from hiring former engineers as consultants, long-term trust relationships with companies, accumulated proprietary database. Weaknesses: Revenue instability from success-fee model, rising new candidate acquisition costs, capacity limit per consultant, long training period for junior consultants, outdated CRM with knowledge concentrated in individuals. Opportunities: Continued engineer hiring difficulty, growing in-house IT engineer demand, growth of side-job and contract-work matching market, demand for referral hiring support services, integration opportunities with AI recruiting tools. Threats: Penetration of direct scout services (LinkedIn, BizReach, etc.), increasing companies bringing direct recruiting in-house, rise of AI matching platforms, downward pressure on industry success-fee rates, departure of top consultants for independence or competitors. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy upshifts to high-class consulting-style services, while WT strategy transforms business model away from pure success-fee dependence (retainer-style, hiring partner positioning) is a medium-to-long-term theme.
This is an example for a community-rooted mid-sized real estate brokerage with 5-10 stores in urban areas. Strengths: Over 30 years of brokerage track record specialized in the area, strong relationships with local property owners, brand recognition through local media (flyers, area magazines), stable family customer base, stable revenue from over 1,000 managed properties. Weaknesses: Delayed SEO/UX improvements on owned site, lack of touchpoints with younger generation, low operational efficiency from individual-dependent sales methods, no data analysis talent, weakness in renovation/remodeling business. Opportunities: Suburban/rural relocation needs from remote work establishment, advancing transparency in real estate information, expanding renovation/used housing market, demand for inherited property handling, generative AI sophistication of property recommendations. Threats: Rising referral fees to major portals (SUUMO, etc.), entry of tech startups (brokerage DX companies), declining home buying intent from interest rate hikes, mid-to-long-term market shrinkage from population decline, real estate brokerage law revision risk. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy launches renovation/regional relocation packages leveraging community-rooted strengths, while WO strategy of major site redesign and rapid LINE/SNS customer acquisition for younger generation is key to maintaining competitiveness.
This is an example for a mid-sized clinic with internal medicine and pediatrics in an urban residential area (2-3 doctors). Strengths: 20 years of trust built with local residents, prime location 5 minutes walk from station, family customer retention through pediatrics, online booking and electronic medical records, Saturday consultation hours. Weaknesses: Aging doctors with no succession plan, chronic shortage of nurses and medical clerks, weakness in preventive care and elective treatment areas, limited new patient inflow from web, insufficient patient data analysis. Opportunities: Increasing chronic disease demand from aging population, regulatory expansion of online medical care, growing preventive care/health checkup demand, medical DX promotion subsidies for operational efficiency, opportunities to participate in community-based care systems. Threats: Revenue decline from medical fee revisions, new clinic openings nearby, continuous burden of regulatory adaptation (electronic prescriptions, My Number health insurance cards), difficulty hiring doctors/staff and rising labor costs, outpatient visit suppression risk from infectious disease outbreaks. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy adds online consultations/health advisory leveraging pediatrics and family customer strengths, while WT strategy of securing successor doctors and digitalization investment for management sustainability is the foundational theme for long-term survival.
This is an example for a community-based group instruction tutoring school focused on middle/high school entrance exam prep (3-5 classrooms, ~500 students). Strengths: Track record of acceptance to top regional schools, proprietary materials by veteran instructors, stable new enrollment via parent word-of-mouth, comprehensive self-study rooms and Q&A support, high participation rate in seasonal courses. Weaknesses: Instructor knowledge concentration (student departures when key instructors leave), delayed online instruction infrastructure, weakness in individual instruction course design, no CRM/progress management tools, opaque pricing disadvantageous in comparison shopping. Opportunities: Rising education investment despite declining birthrate, spread of AI learning tools and adaptive learning, social acceptance of online learning, demand for new areas like English and programming, after-school care and extended hours needs from dual-income households. Threats: Mid-to-long-term market shrinkage from declining birthrate, entry of AI-native learning services, regional market encroachment from major chain schools' online expansion, rising instructor compensation, rise of education subscription services. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy combines acceptance track record with AI adaptive learning into hybrid instruction model, while WO strategy of online infrastructure development to expand service area and capture dual-income family needs becomes the growth axis in a shrinking market.
As an industry example, here is a SWOT analysis of Toyota Motor based on publicly available information (this is a general analysis from a third-party perspective, not an official company view). Strengths: World-class sales volume and global distribution network, accumulated hybrid technology and patent portfolio, manufacturing know-how represented by TPS (Toyota Production System), strong supplier network, brand assets of quality and reliability. Weaknesses: Late entry to BEV (Battery EV) market deployment, challenges against new entrants in software/SDV IT talent depth, slow decision-making due to massive organization, difficulty responding to intensifying EV competition in Chinese market, subscription/software billing model still in development. Opportunities: Long-term expansion of CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric) markets, leadership opportunities in next-gen energy like hydrogen and eFuel, emerging market growth, hybrid revaluation momentum, mobility business expansion as MaaS/autonomous driving infrastructure. Threats: Rapid growth of EV-only manufacturers like Tesla and BYD, Chinese manufacturer global expansion, tightening internal combustion regulations in various countries, semiconductor and battery material supply risks, tech company entry into mobility. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy establishes dominance in emerging markets/Southeast Asia leveraging hybrid tech and distribution network, while WO strategy accelerates investment in SDV/software and BEV/SDV catch-up through partnerships—critical themes that may decide competitive positioning over the next decade.
This is an example for an IT engineer in early 30s (working at a SaaS company, salary in $70K range) conducting SWOT analysis for career planning. For individuals, SWOT analysis becomes a powerful tool integrating "self-analysis" and "career strategy." Strengths: 5+ years of SaaS product development experience, hands-on TypeScript/Python/cloud skills, tech lead experience, English documentation comprehension, internal study group presentation track record. Weaknesses: Lack of management experience, thin specific domain knowledge, low external recognition due to limited output (blogs, OSS, conference talks), weak English speaking, lack of business backoffice knowledge (finance, legal). Opportunities: Strong demand for AI-utilizing engineers, expanding choice of full-remote/side-job-allowed positions, active cross-industry tech communities, increased Japan-base hiring by overseas SaaS companies, generative AI new domains. Threats: AI replacement of routine coding work, rapid rise of junior talent, tech hiring slowdown risk from economic downturn, competition with native English engineers, skill obsolescence from over-reliance on specific languages/frameworks. Cross SWOT direction: SO strategy gains external recognition through tech blog/talks in AI-utilizing areas, while WO strategy chooses next role (job change or internal position) that reinforces management experience and English speaking—keys to advantageously navigate the late-30s career inflection point.
Filling in the four SWOT quadrants alone doesn't produce strategy. To use SWOT as material for management or business decisions, you need "Cross SWOT analysis," which derives strategies from four combinations: Strengths × Opportunities (SO), Strengths × Threats (ST), Weaknesses × Opportunities (WO), Weaknesses × Threats (WT). Below are writing samples for the four strategies, using Example 1 (B2B SaaS) as the subject.
SO strategy is an "offensive strategy" leveraging your strengths to maximally capture external opportunities. The writing template is: "Leverage [strength element] and capture [opportunity element] to achieve [expected outcome (KPI)]." Sample: "Leverage industry-specific proprietary dataset (strength) × surging AI agent adoption demand (opportunity) to release an AI agent feature within 6 months that automates customer operational tasks, achieving 15% YoY increase in additional ARR from existing customers and 10% improvement in new enterprise deal closing rate." Since SO strategy involves concentrated resource investment, the key is selecting from multiple candidates based on "highest ROI," "hardest for competitors to imitate," and "alignment with long-term vision."
ST strategy is a "defensive strategy" using your strengths to minimize the impact of external threats. The template is: "Leverage [strength element] to avoid/mitigate impact from [threat element] by executing [specific measures]." Sample: "Leverage 30+ company API ecosystem (strength) to counter horizontal mega-SaaS encroachment on vertical features (threat) by strengthening industry-specific workflow integrations within 3 months and increasing switching costs for enterprise customers, maintaining annual churn rate below 2% for existing major customers." ST strategy isn't merely "running away" but uses strengths to repel threats, ultimately strengthening competitive advantage.
WO strategy compensates or overcomes weaknesses to avoid missing external opportunities. The template is: "To capture [opportunity element], overcome [weakness element] through [specific measures]." Sample: "To capture continued DX investment expansion and surging AI agent adoption demand (opportunity), overcome marketing function understaffing (weakness) by hiring 2 SaaS marketing professionals and contracting with 1 external partner, increasing lead acquisition by 30% quarter-over-quarter and reaching 50 SQLs (sales-qualified leads) per month." WO strategy requires upfront investment with delayed results, so executive commitment and a medium-term roadmap determine success or failure.
WT strategy minimizes damage in areas where weaknesses and external threats overlap. The template is: "To minimize overlap between [weakness element] and [threat element], decide on [withdrawal/scaling/partnership]." Sample: "Given the overlap between delayed multilingual support (weakness) and overseas SaaS vendor entry into Japan (threat), freeze independent overseas expansion for now, switch overseas approach to reseller model via global alliance partners, and concentrate investment on deepening domestic customer relationships (NRR improvement)." WT strategy often involves psychologically difficult decisions (withdrawal/scaling) and requires the calm to overcome sunk-cost attachment.
Building on the industry examples and Cross SWOT writing samples above, here are three tips to elevate your SWOT analysis precision by another level. These are practical points often cited in real-world example-creation as "things that dramatically improve quality when applied."
The most impactful tip is to make each item concrete with "numbers and proper nouns." Instead of "strong sales capability," write "35% closing rate for top 3 products (industry average: 22%)." Instead of "strong brand," write "20K monthly branded searches, 45% inquiry rate via organic traffic." Including numbers makes item importance (impact) immediately clear, dramatically simplifying prioritization and Cross SWOT strategy derivation. When you don't have numbers at hand, approximations work fine. Even placeholder values with the premise "I'll replace with accurate numbers within 6 months" change discussion quality.
The most common pitfall in SWOT analysis is creating items based purely on internal subjective views. Significantly improve objectivity by always including "compared to competitors" for strength items and "from the customer's view" for weakness items. For example, when writing "high support quality," adding competitive comparison like "30% faster initial response time vs. 3 competitors" changes the meaning. Similarly, "UI/UX needs improvement" becomes actionable when written from customer perspective like "top 5 pages where customer surveys cited usability issues." When possible, gathering objective data from customer interviews, NPS, competitor IR documents, and external tools like Ahrefs/Semrush dramatically increases discussion credibility.
The advanced version integrating Tips 1 and 2 is quantitative data backing. Tag each SWOT item with data sources from internal/external sources: Google Analytics, Search Console, GA4 event data, CRM deal data, help center inquiry data. Write items like "Strength: 45% repeat rate via owned e-commerce (GA4 purchase frequency event) / Customer LTV $1,200 (CRM transaction history)" with data sources annotated. This ensures reproducibility for review 6 months or 1 year later. In digital marketing, the 2026 standard is incorporating Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and attribution analysis results into strengths/weaknesses, making elements like "ad channel-level contribution" and "organic traffic business contribution" quantifiable in ways that were previously subjective.
Here are three often-overlooked considerations when creating your own SWOT using industry examples as reference. Most failures from copying examples directly stem from missing these perspectives.
Industry-specific examples are written assuming "typical companies" in that industry, so they rarely fit your company directly. Use examples as starting points but always rewrite items based on "your unique strengths, weaknesses, and market environment." For example, while Example 1 (B2B SaaS) lists "industry-specific proprietary dataset" as a strength, your strength would be different if you're a horizontal SaaS. The right approach: mimic the example structure (description level and item granularity), but completely rewrite content with your own facts.
When reading examples or writing your own, clarify "as of when" the analysis applies. Standard practice: write strengths/weaknesses as of the present moment, opportunities/threats with about 3 years of future projection in mind. Mixing time horizons obscures "items strong now but weak in 3 years." When creating examples, clearly label the header like "Analysis for 2026 / next 3 years strategy" and operate with the premise of half-yearly or annual reviews.
SWOT analysis is powerful but doesn't stand alone. To improve coverage of opportunities/threats, the standard practice is combining with PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) and Five Forces analysis (industry competitive structure). For improving strength/weakness precision, 3C analysis (market, competitor, company), value chain analysis (internal activity chain), and VRIO analysis (economic value, rarity, imitability, organization) are effective. When reading examples, conscious of "which framework derived this item" reveals the prerequisite analyses you'll need when writing your own.
After reading industry-specific examples and creating your own SWOT analysis, here are the next steps to further elevate strategy formulation quality. These actions help avoid "analyzing and stopping" and make SWOT function as a decision-making tool.
Once SWOT four quadrants are filled, always proceed to Cross SWOT (SO/ST/WO/WT strategies). Then convert each strategy into action plans documenting "when, who, what, with what budget, against what KPIs" execution will happen. Without action plans, strategies remain unexecuted and forgotten. Setting a rule that management meetings and business plans must include the integrated set "SWOT → Cross SWOT → Action Plan → KPI" prevents organizational descent into "analysis for analysis's sake."
Always tie KPIs to action plans. Design KPIs matching each strategy's nature: SO strategy uses new ARR or market share, ST strategy uses churn rate or retention, WO strategy uses lead acquisition or hiring fulfillment, WT strategy uses minimized loss from withdrawal. Review KPIs monthly/quarterly to incorporate ongoing strategy effectiveness evaluation. Reviewing the SWOT itself every six months and updating strategies based on changed strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats—operating it as a "living document"—is the decisive step that transforms SWOT analysis from static framework to a battle-tested tool.
For digital businesses, SWOT analysis precision directly relates to the quality of marketing and effectiveness measurement infrastructure. Build first-party data acquisition foundations through GA4, Search Console, server-side tagging, and CAPI, and quantify each channel/initiative's contribution through Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and attribution analysis. This lets you understand SWOT's "strengths (effective channels)" and "weaknesses (inefficient channels)" with objective data. In the strengthening Cookie regulation environment of 2026, the importance of MMM not dependent on 3rd-party Cookies is growing, and integrated strategy design combining SWOT × MMM × attribution analysis is becoming standard among digitally advanced companies.
SWOT analysis is a framework that organizes the current state of an organization or business using four elements—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats—and connects to strategy formulation. When actually writing one, you often get stuck on granularity or industry-specific topics, but reading industry-specific examples as a "starting draft" and rewriting with your own facts dramatically improves SWOT analysis precision in a short time.
The 10 industry examples introduced in this article (B2B SaaS / Restaurants / E-commerce / Mid-sized Manufacturing / Recruiting / Real Estate / Medical Clinics / Tutoring Schools / Automotive Real Example (Toyota) / Personal Career) all comprehensively cover typical strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each industry. Starting from the example closest to your industry and overwriting items with your specific circumstances is the fastest path to high-quality SWOT.
Beyond just reading SWOT analysis examples, proceeding to Cross SWOT (SO/ST/WO/WT strategies) and converting to action plans and KPIs is when SWOT first functions as a management tool. Combining the three writing improvement tips (numbers and proper nouns, competitor and customer perspectives, quantitative data backing) and integration with other frameworks (PEST, Five Forces, 3C, VRIO) lets you operate SWOT analysis—a framework used for over half a century—as a battle-tested tool even in the 2026 management environment.
NeX-Ray provides analytical infrastructure centered on Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and attribution analysis, backing SWOT analysis "strengths/weaknesses" with ad/channel-level contribution data and extracting "opportunities/threats" from market data. After creating your SWOT analysis from industry examples as starting points, design data-driven backing and connection to strategy/initiatives in an integrated way, upgrading from "SWOT for analysis" to "SWOT that drives decision-making."
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