It is the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. Once key issues have been identified, they feed into marketing objectives. It can be used in conjunction with other tools for audit and analysis, such as PEST analysis and Porter's Five-Forces analysis. It is a very popular tool with marketing students because it is quick and easy to learn.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. For example, a strength could be your specialist marketing expertise. A weakness could be the lack of a new product. Opportunities and threats are external factors. For example, an opportunity could be a developing market such as the Internet.