Category strategies in workplace skills training

For a workplace training provider facing the need to dramatically accelerate the shift to digital in the face of COVID-19 redeveloped their propositions to ensure a competitive offer in a fast-changing market.​

Our rigorous category-by-category review shaped a change programme spanning course content, pricing, duration, delivery channels and marketing, and was rolled out alongside major investments in digital and multichannel.​

Context

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit our client, a leader in their domain for workplace skills training, it put a sharp stop to their dominant classroom-based teaching model. The pressure was on to rapidly accelerate and expand their online and multi-channel offer.

Taking advantage of this moment, our client brought us in to review each category of courses on offer and ensure their propositions were addressing customers’ evolving needs, beating the competition, and driving profitable growth.

Approach

We focused on 2-3 categories of courses at a time, and set up joint teams with our client to include all the key subject matter experts and stakeholders. We reviewed the customer metrics, competitive offers, and detailed propositions for the core courses in each category. We worked with the client teams to develop and prioritise recommendations to adapt the propositions, including pricing, duration, delivery channels, content, and marketing.

Impact

The recommendations were integrated into an overall course proposition change programme and rolled out alongside major investments in the digital and multichannel offers. This enabled our client to navigate through the challenges of COVID-19 and emerge stronger and ready to turbo-charge growth​.