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Dairy firm CP-Meiji embraces rice berry with Meiji Start

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

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.

Image from เจ็ดแหลก

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
-

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 4th 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/

 

  1. 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.
  2. Monthly Visits – Average monthly website visits. Source: SimilarWeb.
  3. 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.
  4. Social Media Followers – Source: Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
  5. Number of Employees – Source: LinkedIn. Data will be displayed as (n/a) if the number of employees is not available.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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
-

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
-
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
-

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.

Photographed by the author

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.

Photographed by the author

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
-

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.

From JAKIM

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

Photo Credit: Minimeinsights.com

 

Survive the long wait with Snickers Oats

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

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.

 

 

 

Indomie x Indomilk reveals the “unexpected” in instant noodle

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Indofood’s Indomie has come up with another interesting idea to spark the interest of millennials for its instant noodles. Now, Indomie is promoting something that is “gokil“, an Indonesian slang meaning “awesomely crazy”, by combining Indomie instant noodle with Indomilk, the milk brand of Indofood.

The Duet Gokil TVC features the iconic Indomie chicken from the brand’s vintage commercial and the cow from Indomilk creating a new dish that is creamy and unique – Indomie x Indomilk.

As a form of consumer interaction, Indomie eaters are invited to showcase their own Duet Gokil creations.

The official recipe is available on this link. Indofood, Indonesia’s leading food and drink giant, is making full use of its range of popular food products and incorporating them into the Duet Gokil creation.

The Indomie Rasa Kari Ayam (chicken curry) is a recipe that uses Indomie Kari Ayam instant noodle, Indomilk full cream milk, Indofood sambal hijau (green spicy sambal), Chitato potato crisps (original flavour) and 400ml of water as its key ingredients.

#HypeAbis

As a celebration of the creativeness in using Indomie in food creation, Indofood offered up to 20% discount on special Indomie dishes from restaurants like Warunk Upnormal and Ropangyuk! when ordered on Go-Food, Indonesia’s biggest food delivery platform. These creative Indomie dishes such as Indomie Salted Egg, Indomie Sambal Matah and Indomei Kuah Susu are described as “HypeAbis” or totally hyped. The promotion lasted from 2-14 March 2018.

The following list is the participating stores

JAKARTA

  • Warunk Upnormal
  • Ropangyuk!
  • Ayam Geprek Mas Eko
  • Keibar
  • Ayam Geprek Master
  • Saltedegg.Ind
  • Ayam Geprek Mas Bimo
  • Warung Nyinyir
  • Ayam Geprek BOZZ
  • Dapoer Roti Bakar

SURABAYA

  • Ayam Geprek Juragan
  • Ayam Geprek Jaya
  • Puncaknya Soerabaia
  • Martabak Wow
  • Indomie Keroyokan
  • Warunk Upnormal
  • Indomie Goreng Puedes Bikess
  • Mie Abang Adek

What Mini Me thinks

Indomie has ingrained itself into the current Indonesian youth lifestyle who is always on the search for things that are now trending (kekinian). The instant noodle brand is seen not as just a staple, cheap and cheerful product but something that speaks the language of its young target consumers.

Through supporting the creative use of Indomie to come up with new menu both at home and in foodservice, it has opened up another avenue for consumer engagement with the brand.

The instant noodle brand dares to do things other brands would not do and that is doing the “unexpected” such as featuring Indomie as a flavour in potato crisps and the recent suggestion of adding milk into instant noodle.

All these marketing activities serve to help moderate the decline of the instant noodle market in Indonesia, which is already happening in other parts of the instant noodle-eating countries in Asia like China and Thailand.

 

 

Aquarius with 8 vegetable, fruit extracts ready to restore and replenish

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Coca-Cola (Thailand) has launched Aquarius, a low-calorie beverage that contains eight fruit and vegetable extracts, according to the press release on 19 March 2018. The drink comes in a refreshing grapefruit flavour with the concept ‘ready to restore and replenish.’

This product is positioned in the ‘replenishing drink’ market, which the company said has ‘growth potential thanks to the country’s hot climate and the active lifestyles of young workers,’ reported The Nation.

Aquarius with eight fruit and vegetable extracts is certified as a healthier choice by the Ministry of Public Health. The extracts come from lemon, orange, carrot, red beet, kiwi fruit, passion fruit, apple and blood orange.

The 350ml drink in PET bottle is priced at THB 18 (USD 0.58) at 7-Eleven.

Aquarius +8 first launched in Myanmar

Interestingly, the Aquarius +8 with eight fruit and vegetable extracts was first introduced in Myanmar in 2017 but in a different packaging design.

The on-the-ground marketing activation in Myanmar includes body combat, zumba and tabata cardio. Tabata is a form of high-intensity interval training that forces you to work at a very high intensity for short periods of time.

The sports drink’s non-sports related marketing messages include making the drink relevant to be consumed while working, studying or going out because it is low in calorie and is good for you.

The 350ml Aquarius +8 (PET) is selling in Myanmar’s Grab & Go Convenience Store at MMK 400 (USD 0.29). It is also available in can.

What Mini Me thinks

It is interesting to see Coca-Cola launching Aquarius +8 first in Myanmar before launching in a more matured market like Thailand. In most cases, it should be the other way round.

The most interesting is the strengthening of the healthy image of Aquarius, first launched in 2015 as an enhanced hydration drink for everyday consumption, with the new addition of vegetable and fruit extracts.

Energy-giving Goodday Charge arrives

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Dairy companies in Malaysia are upgrading to functional drinking milk. In March 2018, Etika Sdn Bhd launched Goodday Charge, a chocolate milk with 10 nutrients. Goodday Charge chocolate milk with MutiPro contains protein, calcium, vitamin C, D, A, B1, B2, B6, iodin and niacin. They are known to help strengthen the bone, improve eye health, support growth and boost energy.

The product is described as a “delicious new energy” with the “energy from milk.”

Goodday Charge has more added nutrients

Goodday Charge has additional nutrients and healthier than the existing Goodday chocolate milk. Goodday Charge is lower in energy, carbohydrate, total sugar and fat compared with Goodday chocolate milk. It also has additional vitamin C, B1, niacin and more calcium. Goodday chocolate milk, meanwhile, has more iodine and zinc.

Even though it is known as a chocolate milk that re-energises you, each 250ml serving of Goodday Charge provides 6% of the daily energy requirement of 2,000kcal. As a comparison, the Goodday chocolate milk offers more at 9%.

Due to the addition of the extra goodness, Goodday Charge is priced at a slight premium over Goodday chocolate with the former selling at RM 2.50 per 250ml at Shell, while the latter is selling at RM 2.20.

The SIG Combibloc packaging gives the product a more robust feel. SIG has won quite a number of new contracts in Malaysia lately including Goodday Charge and Fernleaf UHT range. The Fernleaf, Ribena and Dutch Lady 200ml drinks are all in SIG Combibloc.

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