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The man most responsible for changing the face of the
marketing services industry around the globe was scheduled to be in
Jakarta on Monday.
He is the man even archrivals like Procter & Gamble and Unilever,
BAT and Philip Morris, Citibank and HSBC, have all grown to admire,
entrusting his agencies to spend billions of their marketing dollars
around the world.
Twenty years ago, the world had at least 20 advertising agencies
renowned for their skills. Each had a personality, some with sharper
edges than others. Today, there are really four-and-a-half agencies in
the world. How many choices do marketers actually have?
Inertia is the usual excuse trotted out by marketers and agencies to
explain flat or even declining market shares. Yet, the very essence of
their roles is to fight that so-called consumer inertia by using their
"noodles".
A look at Indonesia's instant-noodles marketplace will offer some
lessons. Perhaps the single biggest market in the world, with just
about everybody eating them occasionally if not regularly, it is the
focus of many brands fighting to win share in a commoditized market.
Regardless of units or tons, the number of grocery buyers who buy Mie
Sedaap overtook Indomie only as recently as June 2005. That ended the
long and almost unchallenged reign of Indomie.
Was it the simple combination of parity product and lower prices that
won the battle? A defeat that took the victors a considerable time to
achieve could not have come as a complete surprise for the stakeholders
of the Indomie brand and its parent company. Why didn't they see it
coming?
When it comes down to choosing a brand of instant noodles, people are
promiscuous when options are available. Like that other staple, rice,
it always needs flavoring.
And if the flavors are packaged for convenience as they are with
instant noodles, all the more reason to try a new flavor, or even a new
brand. After all, this is not a decision that could break the bank or
hurt anyone in any way.
No wonder, just about every grocery buyer who bought noodles in the
last four weeks bought more than one brand. With most people buying
packs several times every week, the opportunity to veer off the beaten
path exists every day.
If this is the nature of the category, launching several brands on
different platforms would have been the best line of defense. Then, a
rotation of new flavors in tandem with all-time favorites within each
brand portfolio would keep the line fresh.
The instinct for promiscuity cuts across the country, across
demographics, across income strata. Despite the advent of new brands in
more recent times, why is it that two brands still dominate the
category?
As is often the case, time is usually on the side of market leaders,
but real winners can upset the kaki-lima. Apeing No. 1 might work for
No. 2 in the race, but every other entrant needs to find a distinctive
edge.
That's where reliable information, segmentation and common sense can
pay rich dividends. Here's an example, just to illustrate the point.
There are some 68 million grocery buyers in Indonesia. Most of them are
women buying instant noodles every week. While their Body Mass Index
says that only 15 percent of them are overweight, almost 50 percent
"would like to be able to lose weight". About 45 percent of them
believe that "a low-fat diet is a way of life for me."
Around 45 percent "always think of the number of calories in the food
I'm eating". Over 60 percent are "eating less red meat these days". If
ever there was an opportunity staring at a marketer in the face, this
has got to be one of them.
Yet, I don't recall anybody promoting a tasty low-calorie instant
noodle that "tastes even better with your favorite fresh vegetables."
How hard is that to do, or say?
These observations are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the country's
largest syndicated survey with over 27,000 Indonesian respondents
annually, projected to reflect 90 percent of the population over the
age of 14. The results are updated every 90 days.
If you're wondering what the connection is with Martin Sorrell and
"noodles", it is simply this: when he started off his current adventure
two decades ago, he knew what he was doing. I will never be sure but my
guess is he had done his research.
Researchers would have told him that any advertising is better than no
advertising, that even a pack-shot wins awareness.
If a whole lot of brand agencies churned out a whole lot of
advertisements for a whole lot of brands, he would win for as long as
he owned as many of those agencies as he could. Good, bad and
indifferent. Like consumers, marketers pick their flavors too.
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