INTRODUCTION

In the current era of globalization, marketing is very important, given the amount of competition that occurs between companies fighting to win consumers in every line and segmentation of consumers in a sales area. Marketing is one of the aspects that encourage the increase in sales volume of a company so that the company's goals are achieved. Consumers often make purchasing decisions by looking at the marketing aspects of an item or service carried out by a goods or service company. Therefore, knowledge about marketing is very important for companies to attract consumers to consume the goods or services we sell.

Science and technology in the field of transportation is always developing, in line with that, vehicles, especially cars as a means of transportation, are also experiencing development. The number and types of cars on the market are increasing in number, which causes competition among car manufacturers to become more intense, as well as competition among car dealers.

In connection with the above developments and economic growth and changing times, the behavior of consumers, especially car users, has also changed. This requires the ability of marketing personnel to find out how consumer behavior is as a reference for making corrections, improvements and innovations in order to win product marketing competition.

Companies to maintain their survival are often faced with the problem of the difficulty of seizing market share, this is due to the increasingly complex behavior or attitudes of consumers towards products, especially their ever-changing tastes (Mohamad, 2016). In addition, due to competition between fellow providers of goods and services. This is a challenge for companies, especially production and marketing managers to be able to overcome these problems. Every company, especially in the marketing department, must be able to market the products or services offered to the public.

In this case, marketing supports the company based on the marketing concept to be able to determine a marketing strategy that leads to the actual target market. Likewise, the changes that occur in these factors cannot be known in advance with certainty. The term strategy comes from the Greek, namely strategy which means the art or science of becoming a general. The concept of military strategy is often used and applied in the business world which follows the chosen environment and is a guideline for allocating resources and efforts of a company.

In order for the company to remain able to compete with other companies that sell similar products, the company's management must be able to manage the company well, so that consumers or customers do not switch to other companies and make repeat purchases continuously. For this reason, companies are required to better understand all the needs and desires of consumers or companies must be able to create products that suit the needs and desires of consumers. In addition, good marketing is also needed so that existing consumers become loyal and do not switch to other companies. The marketing concept states that the key to achieving company goals is satisfying consumer needs and desires (Suyanto, 2007). One form of marketing strategy that can influence truck buying decisions is the use of a marketing mix strategy that includes products, prices, distribution channels and promotions.

Commercial vehicles, especially trucks, play an important role in various business sectors in Indonesia, one of which is the logistics sector and the plantation sector. Indonesia has a large plantation area and has various types of plantations, such as oil palm, cassava and timber plantations. This plantation sector affects the sales of trucks, especially the medium-duty truck class, such as cold diesel. Trucks have an important role in the distribution of agricultural products from plantations to factories, so that the truck sales segment in Indonesia is plantation entrepreneurs in Indonesia as well as the logistics sector and other sectors that require vehicles to distribute their goods.

According to (Hasrina, 2017) in her research entitled The Effect of Marketing Mix on Toyota Yaris Car Purchase Decisions at PT. Hadji Kalla Urip Sumoharjo Branch in Makassar City found that the independent variables, namely the marketing mix (Product, Price, Distribution and Promotion) together had a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions and it was known that the product was the most influential variable on purchasing decisions.

Based on the results of these studies, the researchers want to know more about the influence of marketing strategies on purchasing decisions. This certainly attracts researchers to conduct research in an effort to further examine the influence of marketing strategies on customer purchasing decisions.

RESEARCH METHODS

The type of research used in this research is quantitative method research with survey research type. Quantitative methods can be interpreted as research methods based on the philosophy of positivism, used to examine certain populations or samples, data collection using research instruments, data analysis is quantitative/statistical, with the aim of testing established hypotheses (Sugiyono, 2012).

Survey research method is a quantitative research method used to obtain data that occurred in the past or present, about beliefs, opinions, characteristics, behavior, variable relationships and to test several hypotheses about sociological and psychological variables from samples taken from certain populations, data collection techniques with observations (interviews/questionnaires) that are not in-depth and research results tend to be generalized (Sugiyono, 2012).

According to (Sugiyono, 2012) the object of research is an attribute, nature or value of a person, object or activity that has a certain variation set by the researcher to be studied and then drawn conclusions. In this study, the object of research is the marketing strategy of Astra UD Truck which is focused on purchasing decisions for consumers or users of Astra UD Truck Lampung trucks. This research was conducted to examine the marketing strategy and consumer purchasing decisions and the magnitude of the influence of the marketing strategy on consumer purchasing decisions on users of Astra UD Truck Lampung car products.

The data collection method in this study used a questionnaire which is a method of collecting data by asking written questions that are arranged systematically to the respondents. Now (2017) a questionnaire is a pre-formulated written question in which respondents will record their answers, usually in clearly defined alternatives. This questionnaire will be given directly by the researcher through the distribution of online questionnaires using google forms, which are distributed through social media such as Instagram, Whatsapp, Line, and Facebook. In this study, the researcher used an online questionnaire method (google form) which was distributed through various social media.

Reliability Test is a tool to measure a questionnaire which is an indicator of a variable or construct (I. Ghozali, 2016). A questionnaire is said to be reliable or reliable if a person's answer to the statement is consistent or stable from time to time. The reliability test in this study uses the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient with the help of SPSS 23. The reliability test is shown by the Cronbach Alpha coefficient and can be processed with the help of SPSS 23.A if there is a statement that has the value of the Croanbach Alphaif item deleted greater than the Croanbach Alpha then the statement is not reliable and further testing should be carried out. The test results are said to be reliable if Croanbach's alpha > 0.6 and Croanbach's alpha value is greater than Croanbach's alpha if the item is deleted (I. Ghozali, 2016).

The data normality test aims to test whether the model in the regression, confounding variable or residual has a normal distribution. A good regression model is one that has a normal distribution or is close to normal. The method that can be used to test whether the confounding variable or residual has a normal distribution is by performing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test on the tested model which is calculated using the SPSS version 21.0 application. In the SPSS version 23 application to find out whether the data is normally distributed or not, it can only be seen on the Asymp line. Sig (2-tailed). If the value is less than the specified significance level, for example 0.05 or 5%, then the data is not normally distributed. And vice versa, if the value of Asymp. Sig is more than or equal to 0.05 or 5% then the data is normally distributed.

According to (Sugiyono, 2012), explaining simple linear regression analysis is based on a functional or causal relationship of one independent variable with one dependent variable. Simple linear regression analysis was used to test the nature of the causal relationship between the independent variables (X) which in this study were product, price, distribution and promotion to the dependent variable (Y) in this study the purchase decision, which was formulated in the following equation:

Y = a + β1X1 + β2X2 +β3X3 +β4X4 + et

Information:

Y : Buying decision

a : Constant

β1-β4 : Regression coefficient of each variable

X1 : Product

X2 : Price

X3 : Distibution

X4 : Promotion

et : error term

The t-test aims to determine the effect between the independent variable and the dependent variable partially. To find out whether there is a significant effect of each independent variable, namely: Packaging on one dependent variable, namely Purchase Interest, the significant value of t is compared to the degree of trust. If sig t is greater than 0.05 then Ho is supported. And vice versa if sig t is less than 0.05 then Ho is not supported. If Ho is not supported, it means that there is a significant relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable (Imam Ghozali, 2011a). The criteria in the partial test (t test) can be seen as follows:

According to (Imam Ghozali, 2011b) the coefficient of determination (R2) serves to measure how far the model's ability to explain the variation of the dependent variables. The value of the coefficient of determination is between 0 and 1. The small value of R2 indicates the ability of the independent variable to explain the very limited variation of the dependent variable. A value close to 1 means that the independent variables provide almost all the information needed to predict the dependent variable.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Astra UD Trucks is one of the companies that supply trucks in Indonesia. Since 1984, Astra UD Trucks has been the official distributor of Nissan Diesel in Indonesia. Astra UD Trucks has always been committed to providing leading transportation solutions through continuous product and service innovation. ASTRA UD Trucks' innovative products and services meet every challenge in the Indonesian trucking industry (Astra International UD Trucks Sales Operation, 2022).

Astra UD Trucks started in 1984 as the official distributor of Nissan Diesel in Indonesia under the Astra Nissan Diesel brand. Over time, Nissan Diesel was able to become one of the heavy duty providers from Japan that dominated the Indonesian market. This condition is also used as a milestone to provide the best service to Nissan Diesel customers. One of them is through the HERAN service package (Hemat Lebaran) during October to November 2006. This service offers repairs or maintenance at attractive prices for any engine modification. This service also includes a brake and clutch package which is provided at a very friendly price. To meet consumer demand for reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles at that time, in early 2007, Nissan Diesel Euro 2 was introduced as a more efficient and fuel-efficient product (Astra International UD Trucks Sales Operation, 2022).

Based on the table above, all of the statement items were answered positively by the respondents and the number was above 50% for each question. This indicates that respondents consider Astra UD Truck Lampung products to have a good and reliable image. In each item a statement regarding performance, service life, ease of maintenance. The beauty of the design and good quality, entirely no one answered disagree or strongly disagree or 0% of all respondents. Even those who answered neutrally on each question item were entirely below 8% or 8 respondents out of a total of 100 respondents. this illustrates that almost all respondents rate the products owned by Astra UD Truk Lampung well.

Based on the table above, we can see that consumers who buy Astra UD Truck Lampung products are overall satisfied with only 1 person disagreeing that the decision to buy Astra UD Truck Lampung products is the right decision. Meanwhile, 91% of respondents agree and strongly agree that the purchase of Astra UD Truck Lampung products that they made was the right decision. Meanwhile, from the four statements given, we can see indications that consumers buying Astra UD Truck Lampung products feel satisfaction and pride and want to repurchase Astra UD Truck Lampung products.

The F statistical test is used to determine whether the independent variable (X) simultaneously has a significant or insignificant effect on the dependent variable (Y) with a value of = 5%. The results of the F test can be presented as follows.

This test can be performed as follows:

H0 : β1 = β2= β3= β4= β5= β6= β7 = 0 (there is no significant effect of independent variables on the dependent variable)

Ha : β1 ≠ β2 ≠ β3 ≠ β4 ≠ β5 ≠ β6 ≠ β7 ≠ 0 (there is at least one independent variable that has a significant effect on the dependent variable)

The criteria for accepting and rejecting the hypothesis are when F count F table, the null hypothesis (H0) is accepted and the hypothesis a (Ha) is not accepted. This holds true on the contrary that if F count F table then the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the hypothesis a (Ha) is accepted. Based on the tests carried out, the F table data was 2.20 and F arithmetic was 35.986.

Referring to the existing criteria, it can be concluded that F arithmetic > F table (35.986 > 2.20) and with this, H0 is not accepted and Ha is accepted. This means that simultaneously the independent variables have a significant effect on the purchase of Astra UD Truck Lampung products.

The results of this study indicate that the majority of buyers of Astra UD Truck Lampung products are entrepreneurs who reach 59%. Meanwhile, private employees are 19%, others are 18% and civil servants are 4%. This indicates that most of the respondents are buyers of Astra UD Truk Lampung products for their business purposes. The majority of buyers of Astra UD Truck Lampung products, 65% are Bachelors or S1. This also indicates that the results or answers to the questionnaire given by the respondents are answers that can be said to be academically good. In this study, there were also no respondents with elementary and junior high school education backgrounds, so the results given were categorized as good answers because it was certain that the respondents understood the questions well.

The promotion itself when looking at the results of the calculations carried out shows that the promotion variable has a t-count value of 0.452 < from the t-table value of 1.6616 with a significance of 0.652. These results mean that promotion does not have a positive effect on purchasing decisions for Astra UD Truck Lampung products. This of course can be used as a reference that the promotions carried out by Astra UD Truk Lampung need to be reviewed. Do not let the promotion budget issued is not commensurate with the results obtained because in this study it was found that promotion on purchasing decisions proved to have a negative effect. These results are not in line with (Wangko, 2013) which states that the results of the study show that product, price, place, and promotion have a positive and significant influence on the purchase decision of a Panther car at PT. Astra International Tbk-Izuzu Manado.

This study also shows that Astra UD truck Lampung has a marketing strategy that includes product, price, place and promotion is in a good position. This is evident from the available data that the company's sales also experience an increase over time, even though it fell during 2020. The increase in sales shows that the marketing strategy implemented is on the right track. The marketing strategy carried out is illustrated in the percentage increase compared to the quantity of promotions carried out.

Referring to the theory which states that a product can be said to be of quality if the product is able to meet consumer needs, in this case it is clear that quality is the result of interaction between producers and consumers. Consumers who determine the limits are producers trying to reach these limits through the production stage. If the desired quality has not been achieved, then the producer will try to improve the process so that in the next process the product quality can be increased until it reaches the desired limits. This research shows that UD Truck Lampung products are proven to be of high quality because in general they are able to positively influence consumer purchasing decisions.

CONCLUSION

Based on this research, it is also known that price is the variable that has the greatest influence on consumer purchasing decisions for Astra UD Truck Lampung products. Suggestions that can be given in this study include the following: Astra UD Truk Lampung needs to maintain the given price because it is proven to be the biggest determinant of consumer purchasing decisions. Astra UD Truk Lampung needs to review the promotions carried out because in this study it is known that promotions have a negative influence. Astra UD Truk Lampung must pay close attention, lest the promotion costs incurred only burden the budget without providing commensurate returns to sales. This is because although it is not the variable with the greatest influence, distribution also influences the repurchase of the products sold. For further research to be able to explore other variables that are not included in this study, so that the results obtained can be broader.

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