CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Interview Analysis After 3 months collecting the data needed, the interview had been done to companies which are the customers of Krakatau Steel. There are PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari, PT. Eptco Dian Persada, PT. Bakrie Metal Industries, PT. Mitra Logam, and PT. Wijaya Karya. The interview was done separately by meeting the respondents at each office. 4.1.1 Interview in PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari PT. Dok & Perkapalan Koja Bahari (PTKB) has become a customer of PT. Krakatau Steel since 2007. Before that, they use steel products from abroad that obtained through imports. The reason why PTKB switch to domestic products dues to difficulties is in terms of entrance fees. As long as they become a customer of PT. Krakatau Steel, PTKB rarely changes product. This is because they believe that PT. Krakatau Steel is considered to have good quality in producing mills. As a company which constructs ship, PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari needs high quality raw material so that they can produce the good ship too. PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari finds that PT. Krakatau Steel has good quality in producing mills, so that is why PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari tends to be loyal to any product made by PT. Krakatau Steel. 33
When respondent was asked about her opinion for KS Plate brand, she replied that the company was aware of the signs on each sheet at KS Plate. Respondent finds it helpful by the marking of KS plate on each sheet because it can make their work easier. In the field, there are times when field workers take the materials carelessly, including plates. If the plate is not marked one by one, then the PTKB would find it difficult to report any plate that has been used along with its amount. Through marking made by KS Plate, the existence of a plate whether it has been used or not can be detected easily. The excellence of KS Plate is its customer perceptions about products from PT. Krakatau Steel. Until now, respondent knows PT. Krakatau Steel as a factory which produces high quality steel in the country. This made them become regular customer of PT. Krakatau Steel and forming a good perception of KS Plate itself. 4.1.2 Interview in PT. Eptco Dian Persada PT. Eptco Dian Persada (PT. Eptco) is a company engaged in civil/construction. It makes a building based on the orders. The company was incorporated in 1986. However, it was start to work on major project around the year 1994 by making the oil refinery for PT. Pertamina, Cilacap and MPS in Irian Jaya. PT. Eptco purchases its materials from PT. Krakatau Steel directly and does not use distributors. The material it usually needed most is roll bars, and PT. Eptco buys it from Krakatau Steel. The company rarely buys other products, such as plate products, unless the customers ask them to build something that needs the plate. 34
The experience that the company has in buying KS Plate is when they deal with Pertamina owned oil refinery project. At that time, they were also asked to make the drums and thus require plate as the materials. The plate products from PT. Krakatau Steel were selected to be made as drums. If talking about the perception of respondents on Krakatau Steel products, PT. Eptco replied that it believe with the right quality and size that PT. Krakatau Steel usually gave. Compared with similar products from different brand, the products from PT. Krakatau Steel is superior because others usually have tolerances/size of less precision. PT. Eptco gives the first priority for the delivery time whenever it purchases from another company, include PT. Krakatau Steel. It is because PT. Eptco is the company which directly connected to the end user and its job depends to the order given by the customers as end user. For them, the on time delivery is really important because they are running with the deadline given by their clients. It is very fatal if they were late in receiving the plate they bought, since it means that they also late in doing the project. 4.1.3 Interview in PT. Bakrie Metal Industries PT. Bakrie Metal Industries is a holding company which established in 2008. It sells metal products like pipes and heavy construction, but most of the product that it produces is steel bridges. Although PT. Bakrie Metal is counted as a company which just established, it has a big market size and able to reach both domestic and international market. Some of its clients are Perusahaan Gas Negara, Caltex, Pertamina, Jasa Marga, and ConocoPhillips. 35
PT. Bakrie has become the loyal customers of PT. Krakatau Steel. But in the past one year it stops purchasing Krakatau Steel products. Based on the procurement manager of PT. Bakrie Metal Mr. Endang Mulyana, the reasons why it no longer becomes a loyal customer of PT. Krakatau Steel are the bad delivery time and its inflexibility order rule. As a company which sells steel bridges as its main product, PT. Bakrie Metal buys its raw materials from other company like PT. Krakatau Steel. It means that whenever they get tender to build a bridge, it should order the materials so it can start its work. The problem occurs when the company orders its material to PT. Krakatau Steel which they think has a bad delivery service. The product they order cannot come on time so the work is postponed, cancelled to be worst. It is the biggest consideration for PT. Bakrie of not ordering product from Krakatau Steel. Another problem is the order rule in PT. Krakatau Steel which is a little bit complicated and not flexible at all. As a government company, PT. Krakatau Steel has different rule in accepting the product order and deciding the amount of product it produced. For example, it opens the ordering time only at the first week in a month. Then, the customers must pay the product they order on the next week. Next week after that is the producing time, and finally customers can get Krakatau Steel product at the last week in a month. This schedule is so rigid PT. Bakrie Metal could not match with it. 36
Figure 4.1 Researcher interviewed Mr. Endang from PT. Bakrie Metal Industries 4.1.4 Interview in PT. Wijaya Karya PT Wijaya Karya (Wika) established in 1960 and started its business as a product of nationalization of Dutch company. This company now becomes a company with four main business pillars to cope various scale of work. The business areas it gets into are construction, trade, manufacturing and realty. To do all those business, PT. Wika has more than one subsidiary, which are PT. Wijaya Karya Beton, PT. Wijaya Karya Realty, and PT. Wijaya Karya Intrade. To order products from Krakatau Steel, PT. Wika has to follow the schedule given by PT. Krakatau Steel, but it makes no problem for PT. Wika. It is because PT. Wika has subsidiaries that need materials, and its production time has been adjusted with order schedule. Although the company sometimes order the materials to other steel producers because of the large amount of steel they needed, PT. Wika still becomes the loyal customer of PT. Krakatau Steel by ordering product in larger number than other customers of PT. Krakatau Steel. 37
PT. Wika is a loyal customer of PT. Krakatau Steel and often purchases products from Krakatau Steel in large number. It is because PT. Wika considers PT. Krakatau Steel as its main suppliers. Based on the interview with Mr. Wawan Lombu, manager of PT. Wika, they are satisfied with Krakatau Steel products and its new KS Plate brand so far. 4.1.5 Interview in PT. Mitra Logam Perkasa PT. Mitra Logam Perkasa is one of the customers that have bought product from PT. Krakatau Steel in a long time. As stockiest, PT. Mitra Logam apparently feels no dissatisfaction by having the plate products of PT. Krakatau Steel which are being branded. So far, there is no significant difference between selling plate that has been branded which is KS Plate with the previous plate product from PT. Krakatau Steel that has not been branded yet. It seems that brand is not the problem for the stockiest too. Since PT. Mitra Logam never did the fraud by mixing KS product with another similar product from different companies, it is not having its profit decrease by selling plate which has been branded, in this case, KS Plate. But the only thing that PT. Mitra Logam concerned is its decreasing customers. Lately, customers are buying the product directly from PT. Krakatau Steel and do not search for the stockiest first. It is because they need the customized product that stockiest does not have. Ordering system is the next thing that becomes the priority for PT. Mitra Logam Perkasa. As an industrial business, PT. Krakatau Steel sells its product to another company which resells or processes the product and sells it to end user. It makes the ordering system becomes important because 38
when those company ready to distribute the product they purchase to the end user depends on the time they order the product to PT. Krakatau Steel so they can get their order produced. If the ordering system is complicated, they are hard to get the product they want to sell and it affects their sales. 4.2 Overall Analysis 4.2.1 KS Plate Brand as Original Product Guarantee The background of this research is to find out whether the problem in the distributor can be solved by introducing KS plate or not. Based on the interview, PT. Krakatau Steel has successfully solved the distribution problem by launching its KS Plate. Four of five respondents who have been interviewed say that they already saw the plate that branded as KS Plate. They think they can differentiate the plate which has been stamped and which one is not. It is because on each plate, there is stamp which contains the logo, plate size, registration number, and barcode on it. It is quite impossible for the stockiest to make a fraud since they need to spend extra cost if they want to stamp the unbranded plate and mix it with KS Plate. The respondents also feel that the plate that has been stamped has an exact quality just like what PT. Krakatau Steel promised, with almost zero tolerance and all. It makes them quite sure that by having plate that has been stamped, they can get the original product of PT. Krakatau Steel and there is no more fraud done by distributors. Not only solve the problem cause by distributor, KS Plate also gives the added value to customers by making them easier to work using KS Plate. Its 39
stamp makes customer easy to track which plate they had used and which plate they need. For example like PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari which is so excited and ask PT. Krakatau Steel to brand all of its product and not only the plate product. Other customer response the same, but some of them not too excited since they usually they repainting the plate so that they cannot see the stamp. 4.2.2 Customers Perception Overall, all company think that KS Plate as a brand can increase the value of PT. Krakatau Steel plate products. They feel fine to pay more for the product with brand, and they think that KS Plate is product with high quality since it suits the national standard of Indonesia for the steel tolerance. Since all of the companies that interviewed are the customers of PT. Krakatau Steel and have been purchased KS Plate before, they all are know the KS Plate. At least, they know that PT. Krakatau Steel has launched its plate under the brand of KS Plate. It proves that KS Plate has been recognized by its customers. It turns that all of the customers have a good perception about KS Plate. They all already know that PT. Krakatau Steel always produce the product with high quality, and after they purchase KS Plate, their opinion about it is still the same. All of the respondents directly say that they 100% trust with the product quality. Then, the respondents are asked about how the market response to KS Plate brand. All companies agree that PT. Krakatau Steel decision to make a brand for its product is important. They all know the added value from the product which already has brand, and they are ready to pay more for it as long as it still has benefits for them. 40
For example like PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari. It finds it helpful by the marking of KS plate on each sheet because it can make their work easier. In the field, there are times when field workers take the materials carelessly, including plates. If the plate is not marked one by one, then PT. Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari would find it difficult to report any plate that has been used along with its amount. Through marking made by KS Plate, the existence of a plate whether it has been used or not can be detected easily. Customers are asked about the differentiation between KS Plate and similar product from other companies to know its strengths and weaknesses. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a brand can help company to position the brand clearly. If the positioning has been correct, it also must be well communicated to customers so then they can manage their brand carefully. The excellence and shortage from KS Plate and similar product from other companies is summarized in Table 4.1 Table 4.1 Differentiation between KS Plate and Competitors Excellence KS Plate The product has accurate thickness and meets the national standard (SNI) Cheaper price (with better quality) Shortage Does not provided in complete variant (if the customer buy through distributors) Competitors The variant is easy to be found The product has more tolerance and does not meet the standard of SNI The price offered is relatively higher 41
All respondents believe that KS Plate has excellent quality; there is no doubt about it. Since PT. Krakatau Steel standardize all its products based on SNI (Standar Nasional Indonesia) which has accurate measurement in producing the steels. That makes its customers easier to make further processing of the steel they purchased. It also has very small tolerance or around zero percent tolerance. Compared to its competitors which cannot give better standardization (around 5% tolerance), KS Plate leads in quality. Price also becomes KS Plate distinction. When competitors sell their product in range IDR 7,000 8,000 for each plate, KS Plate can make it around IDR 6,800. For a product which has a quality as well as KS Plate, it considered as the cheapest yet really satisfying. It makes company like PTKB becomes the loyal customers of PT. Krakatau Steel. The excellence of KS Plate is its customer perceptions about products from PT. Krakatau Steel. Until now, respondent knows PT. Krakatau Steel as a factory which produces high quality steel in the country. This made them become regular customer of PT. Krakatau Steel and forming a good perception of KS Plate itself. 4.2.3 Influence of KS Plate Brand on Customer Interest to Purchase As explained at Chapter 2, in business market there is a bond between company and its customer because of their long term relationship. The bond is formed as intangible things that influence the customers perception about the company, which largely impact the customers perception about brand too. So, even KS Plate is the new brand, the perception comes from customers about this brand almost all effected by their perception about PT. Krakatau Steel as company. 42
The typical industrial firm is that it probably has no more than a few hundred of customers. It becomes a common for industrial marketers to derive a major portion of their profit from relatively small number of customers. That makes branded industrial products and services often included as a part of the product offering. Based on all 4 companies that had been interviewed, all of them think that KS Plate brand made by PT. Krakatau Steel must have good quality. It is because until now, Krakatau Steel is known by its quality. It is proved after they purchase the product, which its quality matches with their perception. So, based on the product only, the customers have a good perception about it. But when the respondents are asked about the image of PT. Krakatau Steel as a company, almost all of them are complaining. Table 4.2 Differentiation between PT. Krakatau Steel and Other Steel Excellence Producers Shortage PT. Krakatau Steel Good product reputation Inflexible schedule and rules to order Poor delivery service The ordering quote Competitors Simpler ordering rules The company s name is not as big as Krakatau Steel The biggest complaint comes from PT. Eptco. As a company that works in construction area of business, it usually needs steel to be delivered fast. It is because the project they are taken based on order from its client and the 43
client is the one who decide the deadline. If they were late receiving the materials, the project would not be started. Unfortunately, PT. Eptco finds that PT. Krakatau Steel is quite bad in handling the delivery. This company image affects customers perception about PT. Krakatau Steel so that PT. Eptco tends not to buy KS Plate for the projects that close the deadline. Another complaint comes from PT. Bakrie Metal Industries. It has problem with ordering policy in PT. Krakatau Steel. As a government company, PT. Krakatau Steel has an extensive bureaucracy to avoid the internal deception. So, there is schedule for Krakatau Steel customers in ordering the products. For example, the ordering date in PT, Krakatau Steel is opened only on date 1 5 in each month. Then, the payment system should be done by L/C (Letter of Credit) which makes it more difficult for customers to pay. These problems also affected KS Plate brand indirectly, since a company which feels dissatisfy was stop purchasing the product from PT. Krakatau Steel and buy it from competitors. When the customers were asked whether they want to consider KS Plate at the first time whenever they think about steel plate products, three customers which are PTKB, PT. Bakrie Metal, and PT. Eptco say yes, the other says no. But if they are asked whether they always consider to buy KS Plate at the first time whenever they think they want to buy steel plate products, only PTKB which says yes. In this case, image of PT. Krakatau Steel as company has failed KS Plate for achieving its brand resonance. Although KS Plate gains a very good response from the customers, it cannot enhance the customers will to purchase the plate from Krakatau Steel. It is because the factors that had by PT. Krakatau Steel which it lack in it; delivery time and ordering system, which are the customers priority in 44
selecting the suppliers. Apparently, to increase the customers interests to purchase the plate from PT. Krakatau Steel, the company should make some improvement that can balance the brand equity of KS Plate as product and build the excellent performance for the whole image of PT. Krakatau Steel as a company. 45