Lay’s spearheads Bowl – Bag in Thailand

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29th March 2018

Lay’s in Thailand has always been spearheading innovation in the snack category in the Southeast Asia region and beyond. The snack brand of PepsiCo has recently introduced Lay’s Bowl – Bag (เลย์ โบว์ล แบ็ค) in Thailand.

First introduced in the UK

The bowl bag format was first launched by PepsiCo in the UK in 2016 and was claimed as the world’s first for sharing snacks. The Walkers Tear ‘n’ Share is described as coming “in a unique bag that turns into a bowl so you can open, share and enjoy right from the pack with your friends and family.” The product also comes with a thicker cut crisps.

Photo credit: Walkers – PepsiCo UK website

A similar product was launched by Lay’s Nordic in 2017.

In Thailand, bowl-bag comes in three flavours including nori seaweed and is priced at THB 39 per pack. Just tear the top packaging to enjoy and share it with friends and family.

Lay’s has been innovating with packaging in Thailand including having the resealable option for family pack and smiley face. The bowl-bag is seen as a continuation of the brand’s innovation in packaging to make Lay’s relevant to Thai consumers.

Lay’s family pack with Sealstrip. Photo Credit: Minimeinsights.com

Yakult Light debuts in Thailand

By

Tan Heng Hong

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29th March 2018

Yakult light Thailand — Photo Credit : Facebook ยาคูลท์ ขอนแก่น Yakult Khonkaen

Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. has introduced Yakult Light in Thailand in March 2018. Thailand and Indonesia are a handful of the markets where the low sugar option was previously not available. The Yakult Light will have 1.75% sugar content.

In China, Yakult introduced its low sugar Yakult Light in January 2016 with 70% less sugar (4.5g per 100ml bottle) than the normal Yakult and with added calcium and vitamin D. Yakult China announced a revision of its suggested retail price in January 2018 raising the price to RMB 12 (5x100ml) for Yakult from RMB 11 and to RMB 13 (5x100ml) for Yakult Light from RMB 12.

Yakult Thailand’s performance has been mediocre in the past few years. The key competitor is Betagen.

Ingredients in AEON’s Latest Initiative Provides the Perfect Recipe for Job Seekers

By

Tan Heng Hong

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28th March 2018

Government-supported AEON programme offers job opportunities for Malaysians who are interested in a career in the baking industry

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 March 2018 – AEON CO. (M) BHD. becomes one of the leading retailers in Malaysia to introduce the AEON Bakery School programme, an initiative that grooms and trains individuals to become certified bakers. Students who successfully complete the programme will be offered employment opportunities by AEON at their outlets nationwide.

The AEON Bakery School aims to further AEON’s efforts to continue grooming the young talents from various family backgrounds, as well as provide an opportunity for Malaysians with a knack for baking or for those who want to acquire a new skill. This is in line with AEON Basic Philosophy, which always emphasizes on Peace, People and Community.

Managing Director of AEON CO. (M) BHD., Shinobu Washizawa said: “This initiative to provide guaranteed employment in AEON is our endeavour to support a niche division of the food segment in the country. With breads and other baked goods fast becoming a staple in our diet, we want to equip the industry with qualified bakers who are able to meet this demand. We believe that this programme can provide individuals, especially those who have high passion in bakery or desire to develop new skills the necessary training and support to secure a future in the industry.”

Endorsed and supported by the Department of Skills Development under the Ministry of Human Resource, the programme will be conducted by qualified professionals with over 22 years of working experience under AEON’s Merchandising Bakery team and AEON Food Processing Centre. These divisions are responsible for providing trainings to new bakers, creating new recipes as well as managing the production, preparation, handling and transportation of raw materials and ingredients to each outlet respectively.

To ensure that this programme is in line with Malaysian education standards, the format used for AEON Bakery School is similar to the skill training centre programme, in which it places a 20 percent emphasis on baking theories and 80 percent on industrial training. For a period of eight months, students begin their two-and-a-half-month theory class at AEON’s very own bakery school in AEON MALL Metro Prima, before continuing a five-and-a-half month industrial training at one of the five registered AEON outlets located at Bandar Utama, Metro Prima, Mid Valley, Taman Maluri and Wangsa Maju.

The programme currently offers 2 intakes yearly, with up to 25 students per intake. Students are given a monthly allowance throughout the duration of the course, and will receive insurance coverage. Transportation and accommodation are also provided during the programme. Upon graduation, they will be awarded with the Malaysian Skills Certificate (Level 2) from the Department of Skills Development, and thereon absorbed as permanent employee of AEON as an in-house baker at any selected AEON Bakery.

Applications to the AEON Bakery School programme is open to all Malaysian citizens and selected AEON employees aged between 18 to 27 years old. Applicants must have either the academic qualification Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) or Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). AEON employees who have been in full-time service in any department for more than six months are also eligible to apply.

“Through this pilot project, we hope for AEON to lead the way in cultivating talents in the baking industry and produce bakers with international standards. One day, we also hope for these talents to go out and make us proud by winning accolades from renowned establishments after having learnt the very basics from AEON Bakery School,” concluded Washizawa.

The event was officiated by Mr Nidzam Kamarulzaman, Director-General Department of Skills Development, Ministry of Human Resources in the presence of Washizawa. Following that was the unveiling of AEON Bakery School logo and a tour around the school.

Students from AEON Bakery School Programme giving Mr Shinobu Washizawa, Managing Director of AEON CO. (M) BHD. and Mr Nidzam Kamarulzaman, Director-General, Department of Skills Development, Ministry of Human Resources a preview of their training module

After the opening speech by Mr Shinobu Washizawa, the first batch of AEON Bakery School students were presented with their offer letters from AEON CO. (M) BHD. Washizawa also received the Training Centre and Company Accreditation Certificate and the Induction Course Certificate on behalf of the school from Mr Nidzam Kamarulzaman.

Interested applicants who wish to enrol for this programme can obtain the registration forms from the Customer Service counter at any AEON outlets nationwide, or contact 012-771 3405 for further information.

About AEON CO. (M) BHD

AEON CO. (M) BHD. is a leading General Merchandise Stores (GMS) cum supermarket chain in Malaysia, with 26 AEON Malls, 34 AEON Outlets, 2 MaxValu and 3 MaxValu Prime Supermarkets across the country. In the spirit of the name AEON, which means eternity in Latin, AEON’s goal is to work together endlessly with its customers, suppliers, business partners, shareholders and the community to create a future of limitless promises. Incorporated in 1984 in response to the Malaysian Government’s invitation to help modernize the country’s retailing industry, AEON’s chain of stores strive to satisfy the ever changing needs and desires of consumers. Guided by its “Customer First” philosophy, the company’s acute understanding of the target market needs, aided by optimal product-mix, AEON surpasses consumer expectations and enhances their experience every time they shop. All this is encapsulated in the tagline “AEON Enriching Your Lifestyle”.

AEON also strongly supports environmental sustainability by championing various recycling, energy conservation and tree planting causes, by engaging and encouraging various parties, including staff, customers, NGOs, government agencies and the community at large to participate.

In 2015, AEON introduced the ‘Do Mall’ initiative as part of its rebranding exercise to rebrand AEON Shopping Centres to AEON Mall. The initiative marks a next step in product innovation whilst maintaining customers’ favourites, year-long activities to enhance shopping experience and a new refreshed AEON Mall with more offerings from food and entertainment to fashion and community events.

AEON has been awarded the Gold in Retail category by Putra Brand Award for 7 consecutive years since 2011. AEON was also awarded Green Leadership by Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in 2010 and 2011. In recognition’s of AEON’s CSR initiative, the Federation of Asia-Pacific Retailers Associations (FAPRA) awarded AEON the Regional Award for “Best Efforts in Social Responsibility” in 2017. To date, AEON has planted more than 500,000 trees within Malaysia and the Malaysian AEON Foundation (MAF) has donated more than RM9 million to charity causes.

Dairy firm CP-Meiji embraces rice berry with Meiji Start

By

Tan Heng Hong

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28th March 2018

CP-Meiji Co., Ltd., the joint venture between Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group and Meiji Co., Ltd.—Japan’s market leader in pasteurized milk industry, has unveiled Meiji Start, a pasteurised milk drink with riceberry. This will likely mark the first use of riceberry by CP-Meiji in its dairy products.

Rice berry was created by the Rice Science Center at Thailand’s Kasetsart University. According to Wikipedia, rice berry is a cross-breed of Jao Hom Nin (JHN), a local non-glutinous purple rice, and Khoa Dawk Mali 105 (hom mali rice).

5,000mg of fibre and lower sugar

Meiji Start contains 5,000mg of fibre, 15g of protein per 330ml and 46% less sugar, thus gaining the Healthier Choice logo from the Minister of Public Health.

Dutch Mill previously introduced rice berry drink

Competitor Dutch Mill previously launched its riceberry soymilk drink in 2017 under the DNA label. The soy bean milk range includes almond milk, corn milk and black sesame.

Positive reviews

Meiji Start is described by reviewers as healthy, energy giving, filling and a choice for people on a diet. Consumers also get the best nutrients from milk and riceberry.

Pursue your dream

CP-Meiji is maximising the potential of the word “start” as the key theme in its marketing message to encourage consumers to start pursuing their dream.

In the TVC, the lethargic dairy cow in the usual black and spots (ordinary) is compared against an extraordinary cow in purple. Purple is the rice of the colour of rice berry. This purple cow is a symbol of success. He is featured in In Talk (aka Ted Talk), is a co-founder, a famous photographer (cotographer), works in a co-working space, does cover music, appears to have a Korean girlfriend and seeks adventure. All these are symbols of success for young millennials.

By consuming Meiji Start, the ordinary cow is transformed into the purple cow. The advertisement implies adding riceberry (purple) into the milk has made the milk extraordinary.

What Mini Me thinks

Dairy companies are no longer limiting themselves to just dairy but is embracing plant-based protein eg rice berry, pea and almond in addition to soy as consumers are moving into non-animal source of protein.

4 Key Facts on Singapore’s E-Commerce Industry That You Shouldn’t Miss Out

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

28th March 2018

Singapore Budget 2018 emphasizing on growing the digital market in Singapore and Southeast Asia shows the high importance of this industry on the growth of the country’s economy. The e-commerce market is highly triggered by the additional investment of Alibaba on local based start up, Lazada. Furthermore, with the recent acquisition of Uber by Grab, players in the region are excited for the news as it might signifies another huge movement or changes to the market.

Basket size is one of the key metric for impacting the unit economics profitability of the business. Recent study on Southeast Asia State of E-Commerce finds Singapore holds the biggest basket size in the region, spending the most on average per order, making it a valuable market despite their small size. Map of E-Commerce by iPrice observed the facts and track the changes that’s going on in the e-commerce industry of Singapore. Here are the latest updates on the industry:

1. Qoo10 is the most visited website, first to break 8 figures traffic, followed by Lazada

The second half of 2017 showed Qoo10 leading the traffic among e-commerce website in Singapore. Launched in June 2010, Qoo10 accumulated 8.4 million traffic on average during Q3, followed by Lazada at 4.3 million, a total gap of 4 million between both websites.

In Q4, the e-commerce scene has gotten much more interesting. In just 3 months, the traffic for Qoo10 showed an increase of 70%, being the first in Singapore to break 8 figures for e-commerce’s traffic, averaging 8.4 million in Q3 up to 14.4 million for Q4.

Lazada’s traffic performed excellently as well for Q4, rising at a staggering percentage of 150%, from 4.3 million in Q3 to 10.8 million in Q4 on average.

A comparison from Similar Web spotted Qoo10 has reached 8 figures in traffic as early as September 2017, whereas Lazada managed to break theirs during November 2017 in which the month for 11.11 Single’s Day sale happened, claimed as the world’s biggest annual online shopping event.

Qoo10 is well-known to be among the first to launch in Singapore e-commerce landscape. The domination in traffic shows the first-mover advantage for occupancy of one market segment. Despite that, Lazada being at the second, has shown consistency on the gap of traffic with Qoo10. Although Qoo10 is the first to get 10 million in traffic, Lazada did not widen the gap between them by maintaining a consistent 4 million behind for traffic in both quarter.

Recently received another US$2 billion investment from Alibaba and the replacement of new CEO, Lucy Peng, the industry is excited to see how these changes on Lazada will change the game of e-commerce industry in Singapore.

On a side note, placing at number 3, 4 and 5 for highest traffic are EZbuy, Ebay and Zalora. They shared similar amount of traffics at around 2 million for Q4, with EZbuy leading at 2.7 million, followed by Ebay and Zalora at 2.3 million. However, EZBuy saw only an increase of 20% in traffic compare to Ebay and Zalora at 49% and 87% respectively between Q3 and Q4.

2. Shopee saw the highest growth on Facebook followers, Lazada holds the crown as most followed

First launched in 2015, Shopee observed an increase of 115% for Facebook followers. With 3.4 million followers on average for Q3, they grew to 7.3 million in Q4, taking the third spot as most followed Facebook page, replacing Zalora, which now placed 4^th at 6.9 million.

StrawberryNET managed to maintain their spot at number 2 for both quarter. However, the king of all kings on Facebook followers is still Lazada, accumulated an impressive number of 18 million and 22 million for respective quarter, leaving their competitors largely behind.

According to a study by Social Samosa, only 1% of users who like a business page will visit that brand’s Facebook page. Despite that, things are different in Singapore. Facebook is one of the platform used by Singaporeans for product and brand discoveries. 1 in 4 Singaporeans on Facebook browse the platform even while watching television, according to a study conducted by TNS.

Based on inferred and reported data for December 2014 by Facebook internal data, 3.2 million Singaporeans access Facebook via mobile devices on average. Study also finds Singapore mobile traffic has increased significantly over the years, accounting over 70% of the total e-commerce traffic.

3. Fashion merchants still dominate on Instagram and why?

3 out of the top 5 merchants with the most followers on Instagram are coming from fashion. Love, Bonito is the most followed Instagram account for Q3 and overtook by Althea on the last quarter of 2017. Althea showed an impressive growth of 23% on Instagram followers, reaching 147,000 by Q4.

Along with that, the other 3 merchants that make it to the top 5 are UBuy, MDS Collections and MCPLabel.

The social media platform which focuses on visual has become fashion world’s new best friend. Followers are able to keep up with the latest beauty tips, celebrity looks and fashion trends, making it the most ideal place to engage with their fans.

4. Lazada, Zalora & Shopee are among the top in employment size

iPrice obtained the data for the number of employees currently working with each start up by analysing those who’s on Linkedin and residing in Singapore.

The second half of 2017 showed Lazada lead the numbers by having the most number of employees followed by Zalora and Shopee. The data shows these 3 start ups are among the top when it comes to the amount of people they hired.

We can expect the numbers to be much higher as these numbers are only for those who’s active on Linkedin. By the end of 2017, Lazada has 555 employees, Zalora has 394 followed closely by Shopee at 325 employees which are on the employment-oriented platform.

Click here to view the highly interactive infographic to understand more: https://iprice.sg/insights/mapofecommerce/

Methodology – The Map of E-Commerce ranks Singapore’s top 30 e-commerce players based on their average quarterly traffic, mobile application ranking, social media followers and number of staff.
Monthly Visits – Average monthly website visits. Source: SimilarWeb.
App Ranking – Average ranking of mobile app. Source: App Annie. Data will be displayed as (n/a) if the ranking of app is not available.
Social Media Followers – Source: Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
Number of Employees – Source: LinkedIn. Data will be displayed as (n/a) if the number of employees is not available.
List of Merchants – E-commerce who received more than 100,000 visitors per-month or 100,000 social media followers are qualified for this list.
The following industries were not included in this list: e-ticketing, financial services, rental services, insurance, delivery service, food & beverage, meta-search, couponing, cashback websites and e-commerce who solely provides classified ads/P2P services.
All e-commerce who initiated their business as a physical store were excluded from this list.

Teh Botol Sosro reverts to cleaner look

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

27th March 2018

Teh Botol Sosro RTD tea in Indonesia now has a new look. The brand reverted back to its original plain look in early 2018 but with some modification on the colour tone.

The new packaging for the original Tehbotol Sosro (450ml and 350ml) is to ensure the brand has a uniform look. Visually, it is to appear similar to the latest Tehbotol Sosro Tawar or sugar free.

Original (right), tawar (middle) and less sugar (left). Photographed by the author at TEI 2017

FairPrice & Grab launch SCORE lifestyle program

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

27th March 2018

ntuc-and-grab-score-partnership — Photo: NTUC FairPrice and Grab

In Singapore, FairPrice and Grab have officially introduced SCORE, a lifestyle subscription program providing benefits to grocery shoppers and users of the ride hailing app, on 19 March 2018.

The companies said “the subscription programme was launched after a survey was conducted with over 1,000 customers between 20 and 40 years old. The survey found that groceries and transport were the top two services that respondents wanted benefits for,” reported Channel News Asia.

Here is how consumers will benefit from joining SCORE. The first year annual membership fee is SGD 29.99 per year (early bird promo is SGD 18 per year until 18 May 2018). The second year membership fee is SGD 49.99 per year. More partners will be included and that is the reason why the second year membership fee is higher explained Grab and FairPrice as reported by Straits Times.

The discounts are largely for Grab but with FairPrice, you get to receive 5% off for incremental spends above SGD 100 in a single receipt.

With SCORE, you will receive free Plus! membership (normal fee is a one time SGD 10) and free access to Warehouse Club (normal membership is SGD 10 per year for NTUC and FairPrice members or SGD 20 per year for the general public)

More information can be found on the official website by clicking this link.

What Mini Me thinks

It is all about savings and encouraging users to stick to Grab (now the dominant ride hailing app after Uber was sold its Southeast Asian operations to Grab) and FairPrice. With more potential partners coming on board, this would become another loyalty program for Singapore’s digital consumers. The current competitor is LiveUp by Lazada and Redmart, which is unfortunately going to lose its existing Uber partner soon.

Giant offers voucher, money back guarantee for private label, now on Shopee

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

27th March 2018

Dairy Farm International Holdings (Dairy Farm) is focusing on growing its private label range particularly in its grocery business.

This comes as the pan-Asian retailer reported continued weakness in the supermarket and hypermarket businesses largely in Southeast Asia for the full year of 2017. Operating profit of the supermarkets & hypermarkets division in 2017 fell 30%

The retailer cited weak consumer spending in Malaysia, increased competition in Singapore and continued rise of mini-markets in Indonesia for the weakness in supermarket and hypermarket business in Southeast Asia in 2017.

Free RM 5 Giant voucher when shopping private label

To boost the sales of its high margin own brand products, Giant, the supermarket arm of Dairy Farm in Malaysia, is offering a RM 5 free Giant voucher to consumers who spend minimum RM 100 on participating brands in a single receipt at any Giant outlet. The participating brands are all Dairy Farm’s private label range, which also comes with a 100% money back quality assured guarantee offering quality choices at affordable prices.

7-day money back guarantee

In Singapore, Giant is also offering the same 7-day 100% money back guarantee for its private label products to increase consumer confidence in the quality of its store brand items.

One of the most interesting thing about the 7-day money back guarantee program at Giant in Singapore is the retailer demonstrates the popularity of its private label with sales data. For example, the Papa Alfredo is number 2 in pasta and pasta sauce, while its Captain’s Catch is number 2 in seafood can.

Giant now on Shopee.com.my

Giant Malaysia has announced it is now on Shopee, making Giant another retailer to move into e-commerce. However, the Giant MY official store on Shopee only has 130 products when counted on 27 March 2018, of which around 68 or 52% of the items are Giant’s private label items. It begs to question is Giant using the Shopee platform to promote its high margin store brands?

Extra Spicy Maggi Pedas Giler!! sure to numb your tongue

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

25th March 2018

Nestle’s Maggi is back with Pedas Giler!!, a dry spicy noodle, which is a new addition to the highly successful bowl instant noodle – soup range called Hot Mealz. Pedas Giler!! is literally translated as “Insanely Spicy”. Both Pedas Giler!! and Hot Mealz are bowl noodles weighing around 96-99g.

This is how Nestle describes the new product:

“MAGGI Pedas Giler, a new dry range of EXTRA SPICY – EXTRA SYIOK Noodles. “Spicier than ever” noodles in great flavors like Ayam Bakar and Tom Yummz. Tongue numbing spiciness from Malaysia’s own small but mighty Chili Api – that is guaranteed to set your taste buds on fire! It is also complimented with springy noodles made from the finest quality wheat from Australia, giving you satisfying bite.”

Pedas Giler!!, a mie goreng or dried fried noodle, is complementing the highly successful soup-based Hot Mealz, first launched in late 2016 and that was when Maggie entered the bowl category.

Extreme hot

Spiciness sells in Malaysia. The highly successful Samyang ramen is known for its extreme spicy taste. Locally, McDonald’s Malaysia has scored success with its Ayam Spicy McD. The Ayam Spicy McD advertisement comes with the crunchiness sound of the crispy Ayam Goreng McD and lets the expression of the eaters especially when the spicy taste finally hits them does all the talking.

Maggi uses a spicy intensity colour coded bar to describe its extreme spicy taste.

During preparation, the hot water has to be poured out as Pedas Giler is to be consumed as a dry noodle. Competitor Nissin has the turbo draining system in its U.F.O ramen to make it easy to drain out the water.

The price for Maggi Pedas Giler!! cup (97-98g) at Jaya Grocer is RM 3.50.

Maggi is throwing consumers a challenge with the “Ada Berani?” “Do you dare?” shout out.

What Mini Me thinks

With Pedas Giler!!, Maggi now has bowl noodle for both the dry and soup-based segments. Maggi is also equipped with a spicy noodle to take on the spicy Korean ramen. It is predictable Maggi will be doing a lot of marketing using the tongue numbing spiciness of Pedas Giler!! as a key theme.

Here are the rest of the Pedas Giler!! gang that has been certified halal by JAKIM. Notice the range is also available in “bag” in addition to cup as well as other the seafood berapi flavour.

In Singapore, Maggi Pedas Giler!! is known as Hot Heads.

Survive the long wait with Snickers Oats

By

Tan Heng Hong

-

23rd March 2018

Snickers is back with a new and healthier way to kill your hunger with Snickers Oats. Launched in early 2018 in the Malaysia and the Philippines, Snickers Oats contains oats, rich chocolatey, caramel and nutty taste.

Survive the long wait

“Snicker Oats will be able to help those who often find themselves spending a lot of time waiting on a day-to-day basis to survive these long waits as a quick snack to chew on before their next meals,” said Yee Pek Kuan, Category Business Unit Director of Mars Developing Asia. This comes as “Malaysians spend approximately an average of one hour even on just commuting, there are a lot of valuable time lost aside from affecting one’s emotions,” added Yee.

From now till 1 April 2018, Snickers Oats is also giving away prizes worth up to RM 10,000 via its ‘Snickers Oats Longest Hunger Story’ online contest.

The themes are:

Week 1: Longest Commute Hunger Story
Week 2: Longest Drive Hunger Story
Week 3: Longest Work Day Hunger Story

https://www.facebook.com/SnickersMalaysia/videos/1559154107485685/

The longest drive and and longest commute will resonate well with Malaysian and Philippine consumers who spend hours on the road commuting to work each day.

Mini Me Insights

Lay’s spearheads Bowl – Bag in Thailand

Yakult Light debuts in Thailand

Ingredients in AEON’s Latest Initiative Provides the Perfect Recipe for Job Seekers

Dairy firm CP-Meiji embraces rice berry with Meiji Start

4 Key Facts on Singapore’s E-Commerce Industry That You Shouldn’t Miss Out

Teh Botol Sosro reverts to cleaner look

FairPrice & Grab launch SCORE lifestyle program

Giant offers voucher, money back guarantee for private label, now on Shopee

Extra Spicy Maggi Pedas Giler!! sure to numb your tongue

Survive the long wait with Snickers Oats

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