Free coffee anyone…?

Few days ago I made some presentation material for my bosses… it is nothing wrong with it actually, I enjoy it because it indirectly update about the market situation. But when I go trough the material, I feel something missing here and there, and sometimes I really want to talk with a person in the industry to confirm that my analysis is right.

Funny enough the presentation material which I and several others made is actually for what so called “industry meeting” this meeting is run by an organization to collect expert /players in the industry to update everyone about everything in the market. So they invite players on banking, retailers, food, beverage, cigarette etc to discuss the business, which of course only for the very (snob.. :-)) big bosses. So I am sure that my big Boss now have very good bird view of the economic condition. Sometimes He/She pass me the information which is good.

Anyway… I am the kind of person that are not easily satisfied… now I want to have my own network. I will running a smalltalk session may be 4-5 person per session at the coffee shop every Saturday morning talking about everything in the Industry. The coffee will be on me, so you know why I can not afford bigger session ;-).

Since this Saturday I already have an appointment, I will start this session March 16th, Anyone would like to join please put your name and how to contact and the industry you are currently working in the comment, or simply e-mail me

I will be the host, introduce you to others, make you comfortable, pay the bill and hopefully we all can gain something, at the least, you will have few more friends / network and free a cup of Coffee

So join now let’s expand our networking

Cheers

Pall Mall Relaunch

I have heard the rumor that PT BAT Indonesia will launch a new brand this year… it seems that the rumor is not true, half true is probably more appropriate. In the past one week, PT BAT Indonesia was very busy re-launched the Pall Mall brand.

Pall Mall was Rothmans brand, licensed to and distributed by PT Java Tobacco for quite sometime in Indonesia, but the brand for some reason was not really successful. Now under BAT Indonesia, the brand is relaunched with the price range of around Rp.5.000 per pack.

The price range shows that BAT Indonesia targeting low class segment for this brand. This probably a good strategy for several reason :

• Rp. 5.000 is considered by many as magic / psychological price for lower class (Cigarette) segment
• Pall Mall is not new brand in Indonesia, it was advertised heavily by the previous owner, so it has some brand equity already
• The packaging is showing a high quality product

I think this brand will be a hope for BAT Indonesia to improve their overall performance as BAT’s other big brand, Ardath, which targeted to middle class (according to BAT annual report) is not performing very well , due to price increase and tough competition in the price range

So with this brand, BAT Indonesia will have two brands for lower segment (Kansas is the other brand for lower segment). It is very interesting to see how they differentiate Kansas and Pall Mall so they are not cannibalize each other, from the packaging Pall Mall will be more to young, hip class segment… if you see the pack it is hard to imagine that this is for lower class.

Will the brand more successful under BAT support..? we’ll see….

Three celular Mobile

This post may be not break the dawn, but I just got their ad copy, so here are their first ad…

Very interesting to see that they start with “bohong itu dosa”, this I think is their response to public accusation that they are not telling the truth about additional three times free / bonus. If you search trough internet you will find that they give free three time bonus (talk time or pulse) if you use it to other Three mobile phone users.

The ad does not say anything about the catch, but it does shows where the consumer have to go (or click) for further information (Their website is www.three.co.id ). So in legal perspective, they doing nothing wrong, but as the consumers, you are the judge whether you feel cheated / misinformed.  Hence I rest my case

Happy birthday Telkomsel…

I saw an advertising last two weeks it showing the use of mobile telecommunication, at first it shows regular mobile communication using SMS, MMS or Verbal… in the end of the ad it is showing how people with disabilities using the mobile communication with the help of 3G technology. Very touching ad to celebrate their Birthday…

So… Happy birthday Telkomsel… getting older eh…

Here I attached a song by AKON… enjoy…

Tukul for Hair coloring ads?

Admeter : 3 out of 10

Oh man…. I know Tukul is a now hot celebrity, and some brands are now using him for their ads. It just that I am bit surprise that a hair coloring product featuring Tukul for their ad? They probably want to boost brand awareness level and want to be seen as a cheap brand.

I personally think this will hurt their brand image more than do any good, If is it good for Tukul it will be good for you? I just don’t see the connection.  BTW who is their target market… male? female? both? any one want to comment?

Miss judged the market potential?

This year I am not going back to my home town for lebaran because of Lapindo Brantas thing and have chance to “enjoy” the quietness of Jakarta as well as the traffic jam in Bandung. anyway, when I was still In jakarta (just before lebaran) I have chance to go shopping in some Hypermarkets. To my surprise the stock for most of the items is very-very low especially the beverages. I can’t even find a singgle aqua gallon, nu grean tea, Milk etc…

Immediately I said… “What in the name of all the holly, the manufacturer are not prepared for this festive season” They should be aware and prepared for this, as lebaran is coming as sure as sun rise tomorrow morning.
Just yesterday I talk to one of my client complaining that I can not find their product during lebaran… he said that he missed judge the market potential in this festive season, not only him but most manufacturer are. He think that after the oil price increase almost double, consumers reluctant to spend money, so the manufacturer produce what he think it ” save” for lebaran. but yet they are all wrong… consumers are spending like crazy… buy anything they can find in big bulk, especially food.

But what make them missed judge? Hypothetically it goes like this : First when the oil increase in the end of last year, the consumers are not spending as much as before for most product category, so the economic is really slowing down, manufacturer are adjusted their production, until March / April the consumption is even lower so the manufacturer are again adjust their production. May - August the consumption is stabilized or only slightly increase this make manufacturer’s morale down, and they have no confidence in producing more product for the festive… so they going for the “save assumption” (if you are the brand manager, you probably afraid losing your job if your product does not sell). It turn out that the consumer spend “everything” they save in the past one year. The manufacturer can no longer produce more product, and they bite their tongue knowing that their product is stock out for few days.

So what is the potential lost for them… according to my few clients… they said that now they are very confident that they can sell 25-35% more of their product if they know this going to happen.

Indonesian Economy is now back to pre-Asian crisis levels

Market confidence in the Indonesian economy is back to pre-Asian crisis levels, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said, you can read it here It is good to know that we are now back to business aren’t we?

For those who do not know what is the economic crisis… simply put, price of most of the goods are increasing by 3 folds especially imported one, while your earnings are remain the same. So you can not buy as much or as the same quality product that you usually buy, the manufacturer have to cut the production because lesser buyer, it means more lay-off, it also means lesser people have a job, it means more pepole have no money, it means lesser product that they could buy and so on and so on…. it was on year 1998 by the way… really glad to know that we are back yea…

This is what she said:

 

Indonesia is focusing on implementing good governance practices as part of its strategy to attract investments, she said at a reception hosted by the Jakarta Stock Exchange and the Indonesian delegation to the IMF/World Bank meetings last September 17.

“Indonesia is the last country among those affected by the Asian financial crisis to return to normalcy, and in this case is recovering and we are picking up even stronger. Last year, GDP growth was 5.6%. This is despite the fact we had to handle the most difficult time with a lot of natural disasters and increasing oil prices very suddenly, which we had to deal with on the budget side,”

“Macroeconomic stability has returned, creating very strong confidence at this stage and we are ready to pick up to a more broad-based growth. The Indonesian rupiah is also stable at around 9,000 to the US dollar and inflation and interest rates are now both at a declining path,” she said.

Me myself still feel that it really hurt… till now…

Miss Universe ? :-D :-D :-D

This just for fun ok… if you have no sense of humor please leave NOW!!!

For those who do not know… , we are represented by Nadine chandrawinata in the world miss universe contest. Sorry guys you have no say whether you agree or not. Mustika Ratu is the one who choosing it for you like it or not.

The contest itself is run by Donald Trump, a flamboyant businessman. As you expect, this contest for donald trump, or mustika ratu, is a way to make their pocket fatter, so if they say that they do it for this country, I will have very very big doubt
Mustika Ratu has been trying with all their might and lobby to send “their” miss Indonesia to the miss universe. This year they “use” Wardiman Djodjonegoro, a senior politician as their first line lobby spear head.

I do not interested in the politic debate, but I agree that Nadine is very-very beautiful, tall and got most of the thing that man want in a girl (at least physically).

But when I saw the interview, frankly, I feel different, a big different then I just see her picture, I hope that I never heard of the interview. Well… you judge yourself lah… but I warn you, better not hear it… please…please…

Is it too late??? well… tough luck bro..

Private Lable - a retailers secret weapon

Private lable or some says as house brand is the brand that produced by retailer to compete with the existing brands, this private lable usually only available in the respective retailer chain.

Private lable will give retailers bigger margin than if they sell it for other manufacturer because they do not have to spend heavily on the marketing campaign. Just produce the brand, pricing it below competitors, give better and bigger space than current brand and see if the consumer will choose the brand. The actual implementation is slightly more complicated than above, but the cost of space is relatively cheap if not free for the retailer, afterall its their store, they can do anything they want.

We see private lable is coming in Indonesia, some of the big chain already offering private lable in their store, Makro has “ARO”, Hero has “Hero save”, Carefour has “Carefour” and “Paling Murah” and Hypermart also has one (sorry forgot what it is) while Alfamart and Indomart will probably also having private brand in their mind

World cup TV rating in Indonesia

For those who want to know the TV rating for some of the World Cup match, ACNielsen just distributed a press release regarding the world cup aftermath. Surprisingly, the grand final only rank 16^th behind other matches. I think this because the match was at 2 AM, and not (my) favorite team played . The highest rating goes to : Argentine VS Germany. Following is the rating ranks

• Greman VS Argentina  (16.0)
• Argentina VS Serbia monte (14.1)
• Brazil VS Ghana ( 13.9)
• Ecuador VS Germany (13.1)
• Serbia M VS netherland (13.1)
• Czech rep. VS  Italy (12.
• Portugal VS Iran (12.7)

For more information contact ACNielsen Indonesia