Tapping the New Source of Growth: New Marketing Strategy for a Heavy Equipment Distributor in the Nickel-Mining Sector

ABSTRACT: Indonesia which owns 23% of the world’s nickel reserves, is in the early phase of the nickel sector development, which affects the heavy equipment industry to support operations. PT Kaizen Distributor, Tbk is a seller of an Articulated Dump Truck (ADT) and the sole distributor of the Kaizen brand in Indonesia. To date, the corporate has focused only on sales to the coal and gold mining sector and is yet to conduct nickel-mining market penetration to the fullest. This is indicated by a decrease in the corporate nickel sub-sector contribution from 26% to 16% and instability of unit sales. While the current ADT competition is very competitive, therefore, the purpose of this research is to formulate a new marketing strategy to focus on the nickel-mining segment. The qualitative methods were used by carrying out observations, in-depth interviews, and utilizing supporting data from internal and external corporate reports. SWOT Analysis is a generic framework used for business environment analysis. The Positioning Maps and the Existing 4Ps Marketing Mix are used to assess the corporate’s positioning and strategies. As the research result, the corporate needs to develop strategies based on the relationship between the corporate's internal-external environment factors using TOWS and make changes in Positioning regarding more product variety and more attractive promotion campaigns. This repositioning is supported by the development of the Existing 4Ps Marketing Mix, such as by improving the features of existing products and proposing a larger capacity type, considering pricing strategies, increasing supply allocation, widening market area coverage, attractive maintenance packages, flexible financing, and product bundling package offers. Also, the addition of other 3Ps as a form of improvement is by evaluating salesperson’s competency in entering new markets, increasing the efficiency of customer surveys, and adding new product support points