Although Indonesia’s economy performed fairly well in 2018, the FMCG market was stagnant as consumers have rationalised their FMCG consumption. Our new paper identifies the growth strategies brands can employ.
Venu Madhav, General Manager of Indonesia, Worldpanel Division, Kantar, explained, “2019 is an exciting year albeit a challenging one as consumers have become more discerning when selecting products and services. We have identified six strategies that can help brands to grow in today’s competitive market.” These are:
1. Building excitement through experience and leveraging many touch points
Experience is becoming more important than simply owning or consuming the product. Experience can relate to in-store engagement or the way consumers interact with the product’s communications.
2. Catering for convenience: everything on-the-go
The emergence of an urban lifestyle means that Indonesians are spending more time out of the home for work, study and recreation. As a result on-the-go convenience is becoming part of the shifting trend, allowing ready-to-eat and ready-to-drink product categories to grow, especially for out-of-home consumption.
3. Leveraging the rediscovered pride as an Indonesian
National pride has grown for several reasons, including the 2018 Asian Games and being home to more than half of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations unicorn start-ups. This is transferring through to more local references, values, flavours and ingredients in brand communications.
4. Breaking the clutter and being a stand out in the market
Depending solely on fame or saliency is no longer enough for brands. Consumers are seeking more meaning and difference. Brands need to align the right content to each audience and cut through the clutter.
5. Catering to different aspirations
The complexity of the Indonesian market today means that brands need to become much more targeted in their approach. Understanding different aspirations by segmenting on things like age group and income level will help drive brand growth.
6. Embracing digital
Indonesian consumers are living in a multi-screen world. Although TV still maintains the highest exposure, the internet has grown substantially with more brands using social media to connect with their consumers. Ecommerce, although small, has also grown substantially, from 2% in 2017 to 6% in 2018.
Fanny Murhayati, Marketing Director of Kantar in Indonesia, mentioned: “There is no longer a one-size fits all approach for Indonesia consumers. Brands need to understand their consumers in much more detail to be successful.”