Perpustakaan Digital ITB

Indonesia has the biggest logistic cost in Asia, approximately 24% of Gross domestic product. Railway transport is one of logistics mode that can provide not only low-cost fees, but also minimum risk of time delay and accident. PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), as railway service provider in Indonesia, develops retail courier service to support logistic sector, called Rail Express. Since its launching in 2019 Rail Express has been experiencing low market growth and penetration. Previous research confirms the brands that consumers know are more likely to be included in the consumers' consideration set to purchase. Therefore, Rail Express’ low and fluctuated sales volume and revenue indicates the needs to increase consumer knowledge towards the brand. One of the concepts that is able to elevate the brand knowledge is Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE). The objectives of the study are to establish brand awareness and brand image, and also to develop strategy that could build CBBE as an effort to acquire more customers. This study used qualitative method research with the consideration only limited people could fully comprehend Rail Express and also due to the nature of this research that needs in-depth information from internal and external environments. Accordingly, the researcher conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGD) attended by 16 participants that represent Rail Express target market of ecommerce buyer and seller to gain consumer insight. Then, in-depth interview was conducted to the management and staff of KAI to assess the external environment of Rail Express using PESTEL, Porter’s five forces, competitor, and consumer analysis; and internal environment of Rail Express using Resource-based View, VRI, marketing mix, and STP analysis. External analysis generates findings of opportunities and threats from external environment; while internal analysis generates findings of strengths and weaknesses of Rail Express. As the result, this study identified root causes of low brand awareness and brand image problems, which were categorized into ineffective communication, consumer negative associations, limited technology application, limitation on distribution channel, and limited product features. This study generated business solution alternatives by conducting Porter’s generic strategy and TOWS matrix. Then, thirteen business solutions alternatives were chosen by considering their relevancy to the root causes of problem. Accordingly, this study formulate three main strategies to build customer-based brand equity: first, integrated marketing communication (IMC) to establish brand awareness by increasing brand recall and brand recognition of Rail Express; second, brand image repositioning to establish brand image of Rail Express by developing brand associations related to positive image and technology; and third, improvement on existing marketing mix, i.e. product, distribution channel, and price strategies.