An Entrepreneurial Project Report submitted by Nevan Defie

The following is a Project Report from a Level 10 student, after completing their Work Experience Programme. The main focus of this Project was to investigate a company, spot a potential problem, and develop strategies, from an Entrepreneurial viewpoint, in order to solve the identified problem.

Antika Raya:
Strategy Redefined

Antika Raya is a family company aimed at the karoseri^[1] market. Founded in 1976, the company started off with an anti-rust chemical solution service applicable to most trucks and other heavy vehicles. However, after discovering the decline of sales in 1979, the company decided to establish its own made karoseri. What makes this company different than any other company is its custom-service feature, where customers are allowed to order custom-added features into the karoseri with an extra cost. Their main goal is to gain trust from their customers, especially their regulars. They achieve this through giving the customers a royal service; an example is the fact that instead of customers going to the company to get their karoseri repaired, the company goes to the customers location to get the karoseri repaired.

In most cases, stated by Assistant Director, Ms Rifa, we can be publicly accepted as one of the best karoseri rated by the specifications of the products.

This is specification-ally true as they out-grade most of their competitors karoseri; however their statement is contradicting to their current situation where their regular customers are starting to decline and they are not attracting new customers. They are the main player in the karoseri market as they have been around for a very long time with their experience, but the fact that they have a decline in profit, is against the nature of a good service company.

Some theories explaining this situation are: the lack of efficient division tasks, lack of marketing, and failure to deliver good service. After interviewing Ms Rifa, she has confirmed that the current situation is a result of not having a good marketing system.

A good marketing system is crucial to advertising the company’s strengths. Without a good advertising strategy, no one will realize the true potential of the company in todays generation. This occurs because of the generation of the Baby Boomer^[2].

The generation of the baby boomer happened from 1946 to 1964. At their age of around 17, people born in that era would leave Indonesia to study abroad for education. Due to the international advancement in technology, they would simply bring portable devices to search the web. Now, with the first iPhone release, it is definite that their target market is people who really need portability and a more personal use. In that era of the first iPhone release, it is not a trend for kids to be bringing a smartphone. Mostly people who can produce money are the ones who are willing to buy such a device, which are the baby boomers, and since they have already been for around 30 or 40 years old, they have the ability to get money from jobs. From there on it is simple for one to find information from the internet, especially the famous google.com; sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee and searching for information on other companies can be a piece of cake and not a waste of time (because as said, Time Is Money). So the internet has finally grown into a market for information and access for people anywhere and anytime, and is the modern way to compete with other companies.

Until now, Antika Raya have not professionally aimed for the internet market and the online marketing strategy. Evidence shows, that when we go to YouTube and search the word karoseri, you will find none of Antika Raya videos, nor its company profile. Visiting their website would not give much information, as the website is not updated. If this marketing strategy of using only papers and brochures goes on, Antika Raya will lose its money to printing the advertisement and brochures, hiring salesman for spreading the advertisement, as well as the declining pattern of profit. One example is a businessman visiting sales member of the company; he visits him and asks about the company’s current features and information for a specific karoseri. This sales person then explains for a long period of time and has missed out certain information. Then another businessman visits and asks about the same particular subject, he spends another long period time repeating the same answer, missing out certain information, and on, and on. This can be a simple mistake, however what about each salesmen having to go through the same thing over and over?

So what Antika Raya should be aiming for is to increase their advertising and marketing in the internet market. We live in the 21st Century, the customers don’t come to us, but we should be the ones going after the customers, and apparently that door for the company to visit is the internet.

One benefit included would be the simplicity of advertising; a business man can simply go to their website, see the information they need and call if needed. A video would also be a really good start for this new marketing strategy. Not everyone understands the high specification that the company builds for its karoseri, however by seeing the karoseri in action can give the viewers a deeper understanding on the specialty of the karoseri and its features. Pictures and specification list is not enough, not everyone reads, but the 21st Century people that the public have grown upon are videos, and having a video is a huge improvement for attracting customers. This marketing strategy is also efficient – someone types the word karoseri company in Google and immediately the company Antika Raya appears in that page. There are other companies doing this method of marketing and advertising, and if Antika Raya is not going to improve its marketing strategy towards the internet, that who would take notice of the companys existence?

So this is why it is believed that the company Antika Raya should broaden its perspective towards its marketing strategy and that the internet market is the best place to start and catch-up with the era of modernization.