De La Salle Catholic University

Faculty of Economics
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT 1 , Session 2, 2005
Student Name : Davidson watuna

Student Number : 02041012

Class Day & Time : Tuesday & Thursday, 10.00 a.m

Class Lecturer : Fanny N Kwejaori, B.Bus, M.Comm.

Number of Pages: 11 Word Count: 1448 Date

Submitted: July 20th, 2005

I warrant that this assignment is my own work except for

reliance on the material that is identified and cited to accepted
academic practice.

Signed: Dated:

Markers Section Only:

Section Mark Comments

Final Mark ( /
25)
Table of contents

Executive
Summary………………………………………………………………….3
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..4
Segmentation………………………………………………………………………....6
Positioning……………………………………………………………………............6
Aspects of MS………………………………………………………………………..7-
9
Positioning……………………………………………………………………7
Product………………………………………………………………………..7
Price…………………………………………………………………………....8
Promotion……………………………………………………………………..8
Distribution…………………………………………………………………...9
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………....10

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………11

Executive Summary

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 In relationship with the topic about Marketing Strategy.
“Marketing Strategy of Honda Automobiles and its competition in the
market becomes the focus in this report.
Based on the information that has been collected, the fact shows
that the Automobiles market is highly competitive. The leader, the
challenger and the follower were high competitive companies.
Honda is one of the popular Automobiles factory in the world. In
this section talk about the marketing strategy of the former
Automobiles company and its superior quality in the market, especially
in Indonesia.
Besides that, they also use the marketing mix strategy. Included
special events for modification, service after sales (customer service)
and TV shows’ sponsorships also implemented in order to reach their
marketing objectives based on their plans, to be success in
competition, and maintain a leadership in the automobiles competition.

Introduction

In this globalization era so many automobiles companies are

exist in this world right now, and many type of product that they have
created and launch day by day in this world, also new innovation.
Whether it is begin from creating the product, and launching the

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product to consumer, until the product get its special image in
consumer mind.
To do all this things we need to do something that called
marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is a simple statement of your
overall plan for attracting prospects or customers. Because without a
plan, how would you know what action to take to accomplish your
goals? Moreover, without goals how would you know what you are
trying to accomplish? Sometimes people get confused about the
difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan.
Actually marketing plan is just more detailed description of your
marketing strategy. In other words, first comes the ‘general’ your
marketing strategy then comes the ‘specifics’ your marketing plan.
Honda as one of the famous Automobile factory, play an
important role in the world market. Below are the company profile of
Honda.

PT. HONDA PROSPECT MOTOR

Principle Business
Sole Agent, Assembler of Honda Automobiles & Component

Head Office
Jl. Gaya Motor I Sunter II, Jakarta 14330.
Phone (62) 21- 6510403, fax. (62)-6512487.

Factory Office
Jl. Mitra Utara II, Kawasan Industri Mitrakarawang,
Desa Parungmulya, Kec. Ciampel, Karawang 41361.
Phone (62) 267-440777, fax. (62) 267-440563.

Status
Foreign Capital Investment

Capital
US $ 70,000,000

Share Composition
Honda Motor Co, Ltd (51%)
PT Prospect Motor (49%)

Number of Employee
2.581 Persons

Working Days

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5 Day/week

Production Capacity
40,000 unit/year/2 shift (Body Plant)
160,000 unit/year/3 shift (Engine Plant)

Product Export
Engine Parts : Cylinder Head, Cylinder Block
Body Parts : Hood, Comp, Roof, Floor, Floor FR/RR
CBU : Stream

Export Country
Thailand , India, Philippine, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan & China

Total Area Land

512.500 m2 (51 HA)
Building 80.324,2 m2

Affiliation Company
PT MITSUBA INDONESIA
PT HONDA LOCK INDONESIA
PT INDONESIA NS
PT TOYO DENSO INDONESIA
PT INDONESIA STANLEY ELECTRIC

Aspects of Marketing Strategy

Segmentation
When the product is created, the company has to know what
type of product that they will sell, and to whom they will sell it
(Griffin&Ebert, Business 5th Edition). Honda as one of many
Automobiles factory, try to segment their product first. Segmentation
is the process of dividing the total market for a good or service into
several smaller groups, such that the members of each group are
similar wit the respect to the factors that influence demand (Stanton
William, Fundamentals of Marketing 4th Edition). Briefly, The main
segmentation of Honda is middle to high society. They prove it by
dominating the market share in Indonesia until 10.3% for national
market, and increasing the sales by 60.9% in 2005 , furthermore it
increase in sales every month.

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Positioning
Positioning is the act of formulating a marketing mix that locates
a product in the mind of consumers in relation to alternative product or
service offered by competitors with the aim of achieving competitive
advantage (Keegan, Prentice Hall International Edition), or in other
words is creating in consumer’s minds the image of the product. Honda
positioned their product as elegant, efficient, sporty, and friendly
environment. Because, positioning is not what you do to a product
(Marketing in Venus, Hermawan Kartajaya). Positioning is what you do
to the mind of the prospect. So positioning their product becomes an
important part in their marketing strategy.

Product
For the product strategy, they produce such as sedan, and
minivan. Product development strategy’s goal is to create customer
satisfying products (Kotler Philip, Marketing an Introduction 3rd Edition).
This strategy, of course has relationship with R & D Department, in
which they will develop one or more based on the product concept, so
the company must pay attention to the creation of the product, also
new innovation, either it should be creative or satisfy consumer needs
and wants. One of the strategy is Service After Sales involve 3 Years
Warranty (3 Years free Service and Spare parts). It means 3 Years
without any cost.

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 Accord

CR-V

Jazz Stream

Civic

City

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Price
Price is the money, or other considerations, exchanged for the
ownership of a good or services (Solomon & Stuart, Marketing 2nd
Edition). In case of Honda price strategy, it was priced higher based on
the cost and reachable and equal to its quality and performance as to
represent its premium image.
The company is brave enough to set their price higher than the
other similar product. The first possibility why the firm charges a big
price for its new product, if their product is high desirable and offers
unique benefits and the advantage is they are able to recover research
and development, and promotional cost. Second possibility is the
company really sure that there is a little chance that competitors can
get into the market quickly. So the company can set their price higher
than the other with less fear, and also to maintain the image of their
product.

Promotion
Promotion is a combination of personal selling, advertising, sales
promotion, public relation and publicity whose objective is to help the
company achieve its marketing objectives (Kotler Philip, Principles of
Marketing 8th Edition). In this case, for the promotional strategy, Honda
used via TV advertising using model presenters, magazines, and
newspapers. Also, special events such as, modification contest and TV
shows sponsorships were also implemented. All these action taken by
the company for several possibilities or reasons, such as: to introduce
their new product and gain awareness, to create image of their product
that they are the best, so that they can win the competition, and of
course become a leader in this segment, then gain more profit and the
other company’s objective.

Distribution
The importance of channels of distribution in the marketing mix
is simple: Customer must have access to your product or service to be

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able to purchase it (Russel Winer, Marketing Management 1999). Now
it is usually called distribution mix, which is the combination of
distribution channels by which a firm gets its products to end users
(Griffin & Ebert, Business 5th Edition). For the distribution strategy, the
cars were distributed through both the company’s concessionaires and
own representatives of Honda all over Indonesia.

Conclusion

So, as a conclusion generally Honda has done their marketing

strategy good enough through segmentation, positioning, and the
marketing mix strategy, in which it can help the operational manager
to make better decision in the future. It is proved by increasing in
market share and sales rate every month. Because it is supported by

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the image that exist in consumer mind of Honda and better market
strategy compare than others. Also continuous innovation and
development of their product to keep exist in the market competition.

Bibliography

Griffin W Ricky, Ebert J Ronald, 1999. Business, 5th edition, Prentice Hall
International Edition.

Keegan, Moriarty E Sandra, Reecon R Thomas. Marketing, 2nd Edition,

Prentice Hall International Edition.

Kertajaya Hermawan, Marketing in Venus, PT. Gramedia Pustaka

Utama.

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Solomon, R Michael, Stuart W Elnora, 1999. Marketing, 2nd Edition.

Stanton, J William, 1999. Fundamentals of Marketing , 4th Edition,

McGraw Hill.

Kotler, Philip, 1999. Marketing an Introduction, 3rd Edition.

Kotler, Philip, 1999. Principles of Marketing, 8th Edition.

Winer, S Russel, 1999. Marketing Management, Prentice Hall. Inc.

www.honda.com

www.honda-indonesia.com

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