PROPOSED MARKETING STRATEGY UTILIZING PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION (CASE STUDY AT SIG)

• Main Author: Kusumawardhany Lukito, Hanny
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/85968
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The cement industry is currently facing intense competition due to the lack of significant recovery in retail demand following the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with an increasing number of competitors. This has resulted in a surge in oversupply, reaching up to twice the demand, and a decline in utilization to 52%. In order to survive, cement companies release their own economy brands, including SIG. In 2020, SIG released its fighting brand in Java to fight the eco-brands, using their current premium brand from Sumatra, Semen Padang. SIG will also release Semen Merdeka in late 2022 to counteract market confusion about Semen Padang. The total number of brands to compete in the last decade has increased tremendously due to the rising eco-brand trend. In three years, SIG's fighting brand portion has grown to 24.6%, indicating a shift in the market towards more economical products. This situation is leading to a decrease in the SIG revenue, as there is no product differentiation between the premium and fighting brands. We conducted this study to explore potential solutions to help the company regain its competitive edge and improve financial performance by implementing a fighting brand strategy that incorporates product differentiation. The research address three critical questions: (1) What is the internal and external analysis? (2) What is the proposed recommendation for marketing strategy to increase for SIG through product differentiation of Fighting Brand? (3) What is the implementation plan for the marketing strategy? The investigation began by examining the cement market condition, evaluating SIG’s strengths and weakness, as well as the market’s opportunities and threats, using quantitative and qualitative approach to investigate internal and customer’s understanding about the difference between main brand and fighting brand, as well as the expected differences. By the internal and external analysis, the study proposed the new segmentation, targeting, and positioning to propose the new marketing strategy using marketing mix 4Ps through product differentiation for fighting brand to increase SIG’s financial performance. This study limited on retail market in Java, which is characterized by intense rivalry