Case 9e: Strategy options in a mature market Hester Nienaber, University of South Africa Siphlwe producer which worked as a planner in the strategy department of a leading South Atrican poultry has invested heavily in recent years to increase production capacity as ted the lower income market. She was currently studying part time for an MBA at her had decided to use her organisation as a case study for her research local university and project. Over the Over the previous year her organisation’s sales of the existing range of poultry products had remained stable and forecasts indicated that, unless something was done they were likely to decline. From her work in the strategy department Siphiwe was already aware that the South African poultry market was regarded as being mature oversupply of poultry was placing downward pressure on prices (Beeld, 2010; Smith, 2010) whilst, at the same time, producer inflation was rising faster than consumer infiation resulting in profit margins being reduced still further Not surprisingly, Siphiwe felt her research should look at strategies her organisation coul organisation had very little information about consumers poultry buying behaviours cther use to increase profit margins. Talking to her line manager, she discovered that her than for their own range of products. In addition, no secondary data were available as Statistics South Africa, the body responsible for official statistics, no longer published wholesale and retail sales figures. Siphiwe therefore decided that she needed to collect her own comparative data on consumers poultry buying behaviours for both her own organisation’s products and those of the competition. Her line manager asked her to ensure her organisation remained anonymous and suggested she called their company Cheeky Chicken. He also agreed that a sensible research question would be: To what other poultry producers’ products, and why? extent do customers poultry buying behaviours differ between “Cheeky Chicken’s” and
