PT. Syahid Global International is one company that engaged in the bottled water industry by selling mineral water product with the brand of Tirta One. The company has carried on sales to several cities, there are; Kuningan, Majalengka, Indramayu, Cirebon, Tasikmalaya, Tangerang, Jakarta and Bandung regency. But, the total sales of Tirta One has not met sales targets that set by the company. In this case, it is necessary to do research about positioning in order to know the attributes that are become the hallmark of Tirta One. Thus, these attributes can build the brand image of Tirta One and help the company to execute promotional strategy. The promotional strategy will introduce Tirta One into the public then improve the sales of revenue.
Through this research, positioning was conducted based on five variables that consist of 19 attributes. Variables that used in this research are product quality, product features, packaging design of product, product pricing and product brands. Variable of product quality consists of five attributes, namely; the freshness of mineral water when consumed, volume of mineral water in the bottle, the content of mineral water that healthy when consumed, the flavor of mineral water according to the customer taste, and attribute of mineral water comes ftom springs that can be trusted. Variable of product features consist of five attributes, namely; ease of mineral water products to carry everywhere, availability of mineral water products in various sizes, ease to open the bottle lid mineral water product, ease to close the bottle lid of mineral water product, and attribute of mineral water product have packaging seal that can maintain quality of the product. Variable of product packaging design consist of three attributes, namely; mineral water product have attractive packaging form, mineral water product have attractive packaging color, and the attribute of mineral water product have attractive label design. Variable of product pricing consist of three attributes, namely; the price of mineral water product according to the benefit that can obtain, the price of mineral water product more economical than the others brand, and the attribute of mineral water product have reasonable price. Variable of product brand consist of three attributes, namely; brand of mineral water product have trustworthy quality, easy to obtain the mineral water product, and the product brand existence of mineral water have been known.
Positioning in this research using Multidimensional Scaling that will generate perceptual map. Through the resulting of perceptual map can be known the advantages and disadvantages of attributes that possessed by Tirta One as well as to find out the closest competitor of Tirta One. Based on the result of perceptual map, known that Amidis become the closest competitor of Tirta One because both of the brands are in the same quadrant or the same competition area.
Recommendation that proposed in this study was presented based on the weakness attributes of Tirta One, as well as these attributes can support the positioning goal of Tirta One. Recommendations that proposed in this research, are; company need to set the selling price for all agents / distributors and stores, on the packaging label needs to be given information that Tirta One is hexagonal water (example: on the packaging label were contained the phrase "Water Hexagonal without inorganic minerals" and the tagline "Keep Healthy with Pure Water"). In addition, company need to create marketing communications program to communicate the existence of the product, as well as the benefits and advantages of Tirta One (example: make the company's website, product brochures, and the others).
Keywords: Positioning, Perceptual Map, Multidimesional Scalling, Mineral Water Product