We are now 2 years into the pandemic and consumers in Indonesia are getting used to the ‘new normal’ way of life. That being said, people are gradually getting back to their pre-pandemic lives with some slight differences. While mobility is improving and some new habits will continue to remain relevant; which will result in changes in consumption habits on the Indonesian consumer.
FMCG brands in Indonesia are accessing more consumers by focusing on what resonates most with their targets. The Most-chosen brands this year are the ones that have been able to fine-tune their strategies to be more consumer-focused, despite the ever-evolving situation; such as the accelerating growth of Culinary Categories, the comeback of Beauty, and the slower pace of Stay-at-Home categories.
We are proud to see an optimistic picture emerging from our annual Brand Footprint study. In this year’s report, many companies in the Most Chosen Brands line-up are showing exceptional growth. We will share their stories and insights in this report which can inspire you to apply for your brand and create further growth.
All the top 10 most chosen brands in Indonesia have more than 65% penetration, suggesting that shopper recruitment is the key factor to being on top. Growing a brand’s buyer base is crucial. However, when penetration has reached most of the population, improving purchase frequency becomes the next way to unlock growth. Those brands which survived the pandemic and stayed on top did so by getting closer to consumers’ hearts and understanding their concerns and needs.
Indomie, the instant food brand maintains its leadership and continues its legacy, sitting as the most chosen brand in Indonesia. So Klin, detergent brand, is the most chosen brand in the Homecare sector. It has taken advantage of consumers' concern for hygiene which increased during the pandemic by launching new variants with antibacterial properties.
Meanwhile, Royco, the food flavouring mix brand, remains a top choice for consumers. It has worked to expand its reach, branching out to healthier mushroom-based broth options. The brand has also consistently communicated its support for home-cooking activities, which have become more popular since the outbreak of the pandemic.
In conclusion, having a solid penetration base remains essential for brands to win out. Agility certainly has its place in this: it is a survival behaviour and has seen brands through tough times during the pandemic. It is vital brands keep innovating and developing products to fit in with changing customer needs, so they can continue to create growth.
Although we are in less of a changeable period and slowly return to ‘normal’, healthy habits that we picked up during the pandemic do remain. From hygiene concerns to appreciating more moments spent at home, these habits are reflected in Indonesia’s sectoral growth.
Home Care and Personal Care are thriving on this opportunity as the demand for hygiene-related products grew. The fastest-growing Home Care brand, Mama Lemon, has been successful in recruiting buyers who were diversifying the use of their dishwash.
Reaching far beyond the traditional sense of a dishwash, Mama Lemon stressed the importance of washing food supplies, bringing more awareness to overall hygiene and creating new needs. Nuvo and Giv are also riding on that same wave by offering added anti-bacterial benefits with products.
As home cooking continues, with more time spent at home, pantry-essentials brands such as Sasa (MSG) and Heinz ABC (sauce, canned food, syrup) saw a surge in new buyers. We see a similar trend within instant coffee brands such as Top Coffee & Torabika, as consumers start to realize the convenience and affordability of making coffee at home. Food & Beverage is also recruiting younger shoppers through new variants introduced throughout the year that match with social trends.
So, what do these fast-growing brands have in common?
Well, they continue to adapt to changing needs and behavioural trends to leverage growth opportunities. On top of that, they support their launches with relevant marketing and communication efforts to extend their brand and product reach.
Among all beverage types, instant coffee continues to win out as the most chosen beverage in the Indonesia market. The high demand, alongside availability and affordability, means it reaches more than half of the population. Though Kapal Api still leads the category, Top Coffee saw the fastest growth, with a CRP uplift of 14%. The brand’s success can be linked with their efforts to improve relevancy with their latest assortment, palm sugar flavour, which has successfully recruited an additional 2.9 million shoppers from various audience and regional groups. On the other hand, Aqua maintains its position in the top five, with improved purchase frequency.
In the Dairy and Dairy Substitution sector, most brands have managed to maintain their ranking from last year, benefitting from a large buyer base and CRP. This suggests dairy products remain popular with consumers, staying relevant as something nutritious that supports a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, Bear Brand has managed to climb to the top 5, moving up two positions from last year. Its ability to expand its buyer base, recruiting more than 6 million buyers, meant the brand was a standout success in 2021.
Four out of five of the most chosen brands in the food sector come from basic pantry essentials. The mature penetration ensures their availability across channels. Proximity became the main channel for purchase in this category especially ‘mom and pop’ style as small independent businesses and peddler style stores are seeing double-digit value growth. Looking outside pantry-essentials brands, we see that Roma from the biscuit category secured 4th position, growing 5%. We can attribute their growth to innovation, as they have experimented with new assortments, including the marketing of Roma Wafello, expanding their products line with wafer-style biscuits in a unique-feeling Italian Style.
Having gone through two waves of the outbreak in 2021, Hygiene has maintained and grown in importance throughout the year. So Klin was the 2021’s most chosen Home Care Brand. Its CRP grew by 6%, which we can attribute to innovations such as So Klin Antisep variant and its affordable price point. Meanwhile, Unilever’s Rinso managed to join the top 5 this year, climbing up one place from last year.
Similarly, growth seen in Indonesia’s Personal Care sector has risen in tandem with the increased need for hygiene. One brand that continued to stand out this year has been Nuvo, which has moved up the rank by successfully pulling in 560K new buyers. Consumers are especially drawn to its convenient and pocket-friendly hand sanitizer, designed to minimize dryness from over-sanitizing.
The fastest-growing (CRP) brand within the top 50-100 most chosen FMCG brands.
First introduced in Indonesia decades ago, Bear Brand has been close to consumers’ hearts, especially when it comes to health recovery. During the pandemic, Bear Brand expanded beyond health recovery and into health protection as well. Through their campaigns, Bear Brand communicates its purity proposition by reminding consumers of supporting a healthy lifestyle and maintaining strict health protocol in the "New Normal" phase.
Bear Brand also suggests that it is suitable for many occasions, not just health recovery – as moments of consumption are clearly visible in the communication of having Bear Brand as daily consumption for various occasions - resulting in more than 6 million new shoppers buying Bear Brand this year.
In 2020, Bear Brand earned a significant CRP growth at 20%. This continued in 2021 with even greater growth, at 35%. The result is a remarkable rank progression, going up from 73 to 54 between 2020 and 2021. The success of Bear Brand as a family’s choice in the dairy category is also present in other markets in Southeast Asia, namely the Philippines and Malaysia.
Indomie has been close to consumers’ heart in Indonesia for 50 years. In this exclusive interview, Axton Salim, the Director and Chief Marketing Officer of Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, shares his insights upon Indomie’s success as the incumbent Most Chosen Brand in Indonesia.
How does Indomie plan to commemorate the milestone of being a daily brand in Indonesian households for 50 years? And what does it mean for Indomie as a brand? 50 years is a long time. We have been present in the life of baby boomers, gen X, millennials, and now gen Z. We are grateful for everyone who’s been part of the journey: co-workers, partners, and especially consumers. It’s really humbling to see what’s started as a staple food with taste of Indonesia, now it’s part of global pop culture.
As a brand that’s been going along with several generations, we have to stay consistent for our consumers who have been loyal to us from the beginning. On top of that, we also need to be relevant to the youths, to the future. We need to understand how the younger generation is changing. They’re more digital native, they grew up in a hyper-connected world. Moreover, with the pandemic, digital adaptation is made here-and-there across generations.
This adaption is not only revolving around the engagement with the community, but also the core of the business itself, like supply chain and R&D for instance.
Over the years, we see that Indomie has been agile and innovative with its variety and flavour launches. What propels Indomie to explore these kinds of innovations? One of our main goals is always to continuously deliver new and meaningful experiences to our consumers. Innovation is just one of the ways we try to embody this spirit. In recent years, the rise of social media and other digital activities have allowed us to have direct conversations with our consumers. It’s let us pick up on flavour suggestions and trends straight from the consumers themselves. Of course, all the information we collect needs to be validated with research and data. I’m glad that most of our new flavours are welcomed with lots of enthusiasm – looking forward to more innovation and excitement to come.
Indomie is the No. 1 Most Chosen FMCG Brand in Indonesia and among the top 10 on the planet. How does Indomie win its place among the Most Chosen Brands? The fact that Indomie has kept its spot as the Most Chosen Brand in Indonesia, to be the only Asian brand that is featured in the top 10 global rank is very important. It is the pride of Indonesia, and we’re so grateful to have a presence in over 100 countries, spanning many regions and continents.
As a brand, we always try to understand consumers’ needs and wants. Something we focus on is product customisation, ensuring the products land well in different countries but that they still retain the essence of Indomie. Countries have different flavours, different cooking methods, different serving sizes that we need to bear in mind.
One good example comes from the Nigerian market, where we offer packages of 210 grams. This in the size of A4 paper, and is actually three times bigger than the normal pack. This variant came about because we understand that Indomie is often served as shared meal, so it comes as a family pack in this market.
We also acknowledge that the ecosystem built the brand. As one of the many honourable mentions, we are thankful for Warung Indomie (Warmindo), Warmindo’s network in Indonesia and on the other side, all the stalls that sell Indomie across of the globe. The business setup works well, as consumers can enjoy meals and the Warmindo network can see business growth. It certainly plays a great part in Indomie’s success.
With a half-century existence and more competition coming to the market, what initiative will Indomie undertake to stay ahead and prepare for the future? For me, I’m always inspired when I get personal message from people about their experience with Indomie. It might be customers sharing that Indomie is their go-to food when they are away from home, how they survive long nights for study or for work, how they fuse Indomie into their entrepreneurial journey, or how they help people in need with our products.
For Indomie, being future-proof is not only about staying relevant to consumers, but also about staying close to consumers’ hearts. For us, the way we stay relevant is through accurate and reliable insights: it’s absolutely key. Our engagement with Kantar has become essential for us to understand consumer trends and how to appeal to consumers’ heart and minds. Agility is also important to us.
We need to keep our campaigns creative and meaningful, whilst being innovative in our supply chain. We want Indomie to be a brand that consumers continue to love and remember for its taste, consistent quality, and innovation. At the end of the day, our goal is to create a product with that comforting feeling of home that can be felt in any part of the world.
