Sime Darby - Segmentation, Target Market and Positioning of Company

SEGMENTATION, TARGET MARKET AND POSITIONING OF COMPANY

BACKGROUND

The following is the analysis the segmentation, target market and positioning strategies of Sime Darby. Sime Darby is a major Malaysia-based multinational conglomerate involved in 5 core sectors: plantations, property, industrial, motors and energy & utilities. Sime Darby was founded in 1910 and grew to become the largest conglomerate in Malaysia. Sime Darby Plantation (SDP) is the agricultural division of Sime Darby Group and with the merger of Sime Darby Berhad, Golden Hope Plantations Berhad and Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad in 2007, SDP  is one of the world’s largest palm oil producers with 2.4 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) annual output. The marketing plan will address the turbulence of business environment in which SDP operates and the decision about changing the marketing mix, formulation of segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies of the company to succeed and reflect new strategies suitable for the changing environment.

SEGMENTATION

Markets consist of buyers, and buyers differ in one or more respects. They can be divided by demographic factors, geographic factors, and behavioral factors or by psychographic factors. Any of these variables can be used to segment a market. Seller can be design a separate product or marketing program potential customer. Sime Darby has dividing their market into demographic factors and geographic factors. As geographic factors, Sime Darby plantation operates in Malaysia and Indonesia in this region the headquarters is in Malaysia. The demand for palm oil is mainly from China, India, Indonesia and the European Union due to its cholesterol free wholesome goodness and reasonable price. The palm oil is mainly used as cooking oil, shortening and margarine while palm kernel oil is used as the raw material for non-edible products such as soaps, detergent and cosmetics. Sime Darby has extensive trading and manufacturing interests in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, and Australia. It also operated in several countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, United States and etc.  The palm oil also is used as feedstock for biofuel recently. The products by SDP are to cater the business to business (B2B) segment that is demographic factor. Sime Darby is an international conglomerate involved in many types of businesses ranging from aerospace to tourism. Plantation sector remains the most important sector for the company. In the plantation, Sime arby operates palm oil and rubber plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Liberia. Plantations are Sime arby’s largest revenue generator, accounting for the majority of the group’s profits in recent years. Sime Darby is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world, supplying about 2.47 million metric tons or 5% of world supply. The company has a total planted area over 500,000 hectares and a land bank over 900,000 hectares. About two-thirds of the Sime Darby’s palm oil production comes from Malaysia, and one-third from Indonesia. The company’s recently developed estates in Liberia were not yet in production as of 2012. A related company in the Sime Darby Group, Sime Darby biodiesel Sdn Bhd, produces biodiesel from crude palm oil. The another sector are property, Sime Darby property is involved in the property development business in eight countries, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, people’s republic of china, Australia and united kingdom. In the industrial, Sime Darby is involved in the purchasing, leasing and selling of industrial equipment such as caterpillar inc. and class heavy duty trucks and tractors. Sime Darby also involved in motoring that has dealership in eight countries. It owns auto Bavaria in Malaysia, which sells BMW and MINI. With partnership with Ford, it sells Ford’s cars and trucks together with the land rover brand. Besides that, it is the main dealership of Porsche and Alfa Romeo in Malaysia. It is also a major BMW dealer in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India and Thailand. In southern China, the company sells BMW and Rolls-Royce. In addition, Sime Darby co-owns Inokom Corp Bhd, a joint venture with Hyundai motor company which assembles and sells Hyundai vehicles in Malaysia. In the energy and utilities the company is an oil and gas services company which provides equipment for exploring oil and gas assets in the south east Asia region. The company is also an independent power provider in Malaysia and Thailand. The company also provides engineering services in the system integration and sales sectors, security and oil and gas sectors. Sime Darby also involved in the healthcare division has a hospital and college of its own. The Sime Darby medical centre, formerly known as subang jaya medical centre and its college, formerly known as SJMC Academy of nursing and health sciences, was established in 1995.