Life Cycle Limbo
This stage occurs when sales begin to plateau or fall after a long period of stability.
What is post-maturity?
This strategy attempts to attract a new or broader target market and renew consumer interest.
What is repositioning?
Acquisition, development, maintenance and separation are the four stages of this cycle.
What is the employment cycle?
Expansion or renovation, changing locations and using emerging technologies are strategies within this business function.
What is operations?
These are the three possible paths available to a post-mature business.
What are renewal, steady state and decline?
A business changes its name, logo and visual identity to appear more modern and relevant.
What is rebranding?
This strategy develops the skills employees need when new technology or work processes are introduced.
What is retraining?
Operations repositioning is also known by either of these two names.
What is process-led or infrastructure-led repositioning?
A loyal niche customer base allows a business to continue operating without significant growth or immediate failure.
What is steady state?
New products and services, rebranding and changing promotional strategies are the three main forms of this.
What is market repositioning?
New KPIs, regular feedback and more frequent reviews are examples of changes to this HR process.
What is performance management?
A café moves to a busier location to gain more street presence and foot traffic. Identify the strategy.
What is changing locations/relocation?
Market saturation, disruptive innovation and changing consumer tastes can all cause this business problem.
What is a business a decline in growth/ entering post-maturity?
A zoo uses influencers and social media competitions to attract younger visitors. Identify the repositioning strategy.
What is promotional repositioning?
This occurs when a position is no longer required and is not caused by poor employee performance.
What is redundancy?
Reducing costs, investing in technology, selling unprofitable assets and completing a merger or acquisition are examples of this.
What is financial repositioning?
A video rental business ignores streaming technology and changing consumer preferences. Identify its likely post-maturity outcome and explain why.
What is decline, because it has failed to adapt to technological change and changing consumer tastes?
Explain the difference between rebranding and repositioning.
What is rebranding changes the business’s identity or image, while repositioning is the broader strategy of changing how the business is perceived to attract a new or broader market?
A retailer moves heavily into online shopping. Employees must now process online orders, operate click-and-collect and answer live-chat enquiries. Identify the most appropriate HR repositioning strategy and explain its benefit.
What is retraining, because it gives existing employees the skills required to support the new online operations and helps the business achieve renewal?
A post-mature hotel renovates its rooms and installs digital check-in kiosks. Identify two repositioning strategies and explain one likely benefit.
What are renovation and utilising emerging technology, which could improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, quality or competitiveness?