The Strategy of the Tourism, Automotive and Pharmaceutical Industry in Facing New Normal Era of COVID-19

Oleh Adi Permana

Editor Vera Citra Utami

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - School of Business and Management (SBM) -ITB held its 11th webinar series with the theme "Adapting Marketing Strategies in the New Normal Era By Getting Inside the Consumer Brain" on Saturday (14/11 / 2020) virtually. The webinar was opened by Prof. Dr. Aurik Gustomo, S.T., M.T., as the Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs at SBM-ITB.

"Currently, four phenomena affect life in the business environment, namely the Black Swans Effects such as COVID-19, digital transformation, intergenerational approach, competition, and cooperation," Aurik said. He also emphasized that these four phenomena will influence strategy in business.

The first speaker, Titus Indrajaya, as Deputy Chair of the Banten Regional Association of The Indonesia Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA), explained the tourism sector strategy in the new normal era of COVID-19. The methods involve comparative, competitive, and cooperative. "For a comparative strategy, companies must take advantage of unique resources to become the best in tourism to compete for both domestically and internationally and achieve the best value," he added.

Titus revealed that in a competitive strategy, companies should focus on managing the tourism portfolio, providing excellent service to tourists, and differentiating in providing tour services. The last approach used is cooperative, which is to make partnerships between tourism actors.

The next speaker from the automotive industry was Harold Donnel, Head of Brand Development and Marketing Research at PT Suzuki Indomobil Sales. He said that Suzuki is currently in an uncertain and volatile situation because of the pandemic. To face uncertainty, Suzuki has a strategy by mapping the regional economic crisis and macroeconomics and policies, then predicting buyers' reasons for buying a product.

"From this uncertainty, we transfer it to a volatility situation where we balance supply and demand, make it easier to manage resources. Also, we use future technology that adaptable for the current situation," Titus said.

The last speaker, Sri Hartono from the pharmaceutical industry, explained the strategies pharmaceutical companies can use to adapt and recover in the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy is to re-mapping the product portfolio based on market changes, reorganize the structure, and find income from other sources. The next plan is digital analytics for looking for new and competent talents. Dr. Mustika Sufiati Purwanegar, the chairwoman of the Business and Marketing Strategy Expertise Group and the SBM-ITB Business Neuro Lab director, revealed business ideas amidst pandemics. She explained that the businessmen should make an approach to gain insight from the consumers' brains.

Mustika also stated there are behavioral changes amidst pandemic. "Consumers tend to think irrationally caused by stress and fear of COVID-19, so we need to understand them and accommodate their needs," she stated.


Reporter: Deo Fernando (Entrepreneurship, 2019)

Translator: Billy Akbar Prabowo (Metallurgical Engineering, 2020)


scan for download