Answer 1.

Introduction:

Retrenchment strategies -> When ca company is going through losses, they may have to follow the
retrenchment strategies. These strategies enforce pressure to improve performance. The company may
start performing poor due to poor sales, some of the product or services are not performing well in the
market etc. To reduce the weaknesses that are forcing the company performance to go down
management may follow certain retrenchment strategies for eg- selling out the company, bankruptcy or
liquidation.

Concept:

Sell-out or divestment strategy: Divestment strategy is a form of retrenchment strategy the contains
trimming of the scope of the business. If a company has a weak market positioning and share and is
unable to pull the profits since long, then they might have to take hard calls like sellout. Sell out strategy
can still be a favorable decision if the buyer party has a well-planned strategy to bring the business back
on track and profitable. This also gives hope that the buyer company will have necessary resources and
plan to make the company profitable.

If the brand has multiple business verticals and plan to sell off a particular division which has low profit
potential, then this is called divestment. Example of divestment strategy is P&G as they decide to sell
more than half of their brands and rework on others to focus better and perform better. Similarly,
Citibank has to limit or shift the resources & investment from B2C model to B2B model. By providing
proper training to the resources, the same human resource can be used to establish the new model
under a capable leadership and guidance. Also, by compensating the monitory loss of employees their
anger can be balanced. The primary fear of an employee is layoff due to cost cutting or management
change hence that must be handles wisely so that employer branding does not go for a toss. Employees
are the brand ambassador of any organization and word of mouth plays a bigger role in such situations.

If require, then Citibank can onboard experts for establish and grow the B2B model followed by same
operational team but with proper training and development programs.

Conclusion:

Citibank is following the divestment strategy as they have decided to start B2B model. B2C model has lot
of competition in the market at present where it is difficult to survive with limited resources.
Alternatively, B2B model is comparatively new and has less competition. If the bank can launch new
products and services, they can take an edge over competitor and establish themselves as a leader in
B2B model.

Answer 2:

Introduction:

To answer this, one of the article available online claims that the brand value of IPL hiked by 7% even
during the pandemic. In 2021, the brand has gained more worth due to reliability and interest of
investors expecting good profits. Undoubtedly merchandizers suffered a hit due to nonphysical
audience, but the sponsors and franchisers leveraged the digital platforms to engage more audience. In
2022, so many brands collaborated to gain profits. The tata group won the title sponsorship which itself
is a giant brand backed by many business verticals like Air India, online retails etc.

Concept:

The IPL would be so insistent on continuing the series as sports fan are very loyal and they know that all
the limitations of pandemic will be overcome once the matches will start due to the cricket-crazy public.
They knew that cricket fans can go to an extreme extent to watch each match. Hence, they should
leverage the opportunity as the target audience is already set.

IPLs brand image will not get tarnished even if they don’t plan any series because they have already
established themselves and proved. However, they may face downfall due to lose of sponsorship
amount.

Missing a brand season would affect the brand financially. There are many people who are financially
dependent on them therefore monetary value is an important factor.

Conclusion:

Although there can be limitations due to any pandemic or natural crises by crises management plays an
important role in such situations. With better planning and strategies, the plan can be fulfilled keeping
some limitations in mind. IPL is a great example of this case. Although there were downfalls but still they
managed very well.

Answer 3.a

Introduction:

Strategy formulation is a critical process where investigation, decision making set a base for a company
to achieve the competitive advantage. A business strategy is a comprehensive approach that sets a path
for the organization to attain the objective and yearly goals. It helps to maximize the market share and
profit and minimize the competitive disadvantages. There are 3 types of strategy- corporate, business
and functional.

Concept:

• Corporate strategy-> This strategy revolves around the stability, growth, and retrenchment. This
describes a company’s overall direction for better growth and managing various businesses.
• Business strategy-> Business strategy comes in picture at the product or business level, this
helps to boost the company’s position by improving products, services etc. This strategy also has
2 categories- competitive and cooperative.
o Competitive strategy-> The kind of strategy where a company’s do any value addition at
their level. For eg- providing services along with the products.
o Cooperative strategy -> This is the strategy where a company collaborates with another
company for the betterment but not in the same business vertical.
• Functional strategy -> when a brand takes decision to improve the product USPs at functional
level so that they can have a edge in the market is known as functional strategy. P&G is a Master
of Marketing by creating a pull for their products due to better product functions and offerings.
Conclusion:

As the company’s head of strategy, to maintain the sustainability due to the pandemic, I feel all
above 3 strategies will play a major role. There must be a well-planned roadmap for the corporate
strategy so that the end goal and direction is clear to all. At the business strategy level, we can tie up
with any online booking app to offer better discount to increase the bookings. At the functional
level, there are many things which can work for e.g.- on call service while watching the movie.

Answer 3.b)

Introduction:

There are many brands those are leader in market and rule due to their competitive advantage for
many years but it is actually difficult due to sustain this for long due to tough market competition.
Market stability is always in danger due to short product cycle, latest technologies, new brands
entering randomly with full force, gorilla marketing etc.

Concept:

Hyper-competition & competitive advantage sustainability-

A company should always work continuously for the betterment of its products, services and
improve its competitive advantage. Companies should innovate new ways to reduce costs, do value
addition in their products, improve services for better customer experience.

As the strategy head, I would like to rework on the products and services to sustain in this
pandemic. These innovations can be a shift in the theatre screen to curved screen so that the
viewers can enjoy the screen time from anywhere in the auditorium. There are possibilities to
improve the sound system for better audio experience which can enhance the customer experience.

There are ways to explore the services which can provided on the seat during the show or in the
break. Seats and seating arrangement can be more comfortable.

Conclusion:

It is difficult to survive in the market without regular value additions and bringing new technologies
in the products and services even if the brand is the leader in that category. There are always
chances of threat as the competitor can come up with up with new strategy, incentives, products
and services. Therefore, one must know what’s going in the market and act fast with appropriate
solutions to maintain the market share.