A field project has been conducted to get information to evaluate existing marketing strategy of Palapa Yunior and to recommend area of improvement that may support the goal achievement. Palapa Yunior goal achievement is to increase numbers of savers and saving amount that Sounds cost-justified.

Research was done qualitatively through focus group discussion with two variables; mothers of users and mother of competitive users. The quantitative research was done afterwards to the same group of respondent, with addition of children of users and children of competitive users.

The savings market showed a decreasing trend from the year 1997 to year 1998. Portion of funds move from savings to time deposit. Bank Duta savings market share also showed a downtrend from the year 1997 to year 1998. Palapa Yunior as one of savings product from Bank Duta was one of the weapons to reverse the downtrend. Although the actual result is not reaching the target yet.

Actual amount of money collected from Palapa Yunior was Rp.7.2 billion (as of June 1998) which has far from initial plan of Rp.107 billion. Actual number of savers was 50 000 (as of June 1998) which was far below initial plan of 214000. Bank Duta assumed that one of the Possible reasons of Palapa Yunior poor performance is lack of distribution channel. Research indicated that distribution channel is one of the negative aspects. However, according to our analysis the most critical factor is product positioning. Currently the positioning of this product is too general.

There is not enough differentiation from other savings in the market. This lead to the recommendation to reposition the product first before other improvement in the marketing mix strategy. This means that any changes in product type, pricing, distribution channel and promotion will not help before repositioning. The proposed positioning is "The exciting school savings for kids that offerr many prizes".

Other than that, pricing is one of the areas to be improved. Price of Palapa Yunior consists of initial deposits and interest rate. Initial deposit of Palapa Yunior is comparable with competitor so it should not be changed. The interest rate is subject to review. Since interest rate is not considered as one of the important values of Kid savings, Palapa Yunior can lower its interest rate and the extra money from this savings could be used to fund more gifts for children.

Research indicated the importance of both parents and teachers. This could be anticipated in the future to include them in the target audience in the promotion strategy. Palapa Yunior should influence parent as they are involved in the process of saving product selection. The promotion in the form of public relation must be done together with corporate Bank Duta to influence total public image which apparently being questioned by parents. Promotion through teachers is important too as teachers represent parents in the school. Palapa Yunior should elaborate possibilities to do ethical promotion to teachers to get their endorsement to children.

The other thing that supports the argument to reposition the product is the fact that Palapa Yunior has substantial brand awareness but low product trial. The target audience did not have strong reason to save their money at Palapa Yunior, which might be changed after repositioning.

The process of recruiting new user can be accelerated through improvement type of gifts and lottery's prizes. The attractive instant prizes (during first time registration) could increase number of trial. Bank Duta should appoint person in charge of gift management, since gifts are very important to new Palapa Yunior positioning. The task of this Gift Manager includes effort to make sure that the chosen material or character is the one dreamed by children are not irritating to parents and teachers.

Palapa Yunior could also add additional feature such as children education savings. Marketing staff of Palapa Yunior should evaluate procedures of Palapa Yunior banking to seek out which part of it that could be improved i.e. reduce queuing time, prizes timeliness and simplified benefit such as hospitalization insurance that is not highly sought after by children and hardly mentioned by parents. Bank Duta could discard this benefit.

Palapa Yunior distribution channel must be sharpened as resources are limited especially mobile cash unit. Bank Duta must evaluate and decide the number of mobile cash units services to each school to ensure high efficiency. Marketing staff could also use teachers as one of channel's alternatives.

Therefore, some of the action plans for Palapa Yunior improvements are evaluate total amount of saving per school. Bank Duta also has to determine new interest rate for Palapa Yunior. Bank Duta marketing team has to search schools whose students matching the primary target group: non users, parents of AB class.



Research Location: Bank Duta

Supervisor: Ir. Amalia E. Maulana, MM, MBA

Accepted on December 1998



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