If you have read the topic about Coca Cola and Teh Botol Sosro (you better read the article first), you will find that Jamu Tolak Angin did something that Coca Cola should have done.
Several years ago, Jamu Tolak Angin created a tagline Orang Pintar Minum Jamu Tolak Angin which is used up to now. The tagline to me is just so-so, nothing special. They wanted people to understand that Jamu Tolak Angin was produced in a highly hygienist environment and from high quality ingredients. In other words, if people use their mind in choosing Jamu (herbs) for Masuk Angin symptom (an umbrella terms for headache, stomachache and fever), they would choose Jamu Tolak Angin due to the process and ingredients. Jamu Tolak Angin wants to trigger people to think before choosing the solution for masuk angin symptom. That is where the word pintar (smart) came from.
A new comer, Bintangin, use that pintar word to counter Jamu Tolak Angin campaign. Bintangin knows well that the phrase pintar for most of Indonesians is highly related to academic achievement. And that perhaps most of Indonesians do not think themselves as a smart person. You might know that most of Indonesians think that mathematic and physics are nightmares.
Then Bintangin came up with the tagline “You don’t have to be smart to consume jamu masuk angin”. By using the tagline, Bintangin is targeting wider segments, especially segments that have been forgotten by the market leader, which perhaps the biggest segment of jamu masuk angin market.
Ashamed on Jamu Tolak Angin who had claim as jamu for smart people, if they do not react to Bintangin’ attack in a smart manner. But luckily they did it that way. Jamu Tolak Angin knew well how to include popular issues in their marketing campaign. At that moment, the biggest issue for most of Indonesians was about our nation’s heritage. Some of our cultural assets were being claimed by other counties as their intellectual asset. The latest case was the song of “Rasa Sayange” which was used by Malaysian official tourism website.
Jamu Tolak Angin includes the nation’s heritage issue in their marketing campaign for countering the attack from Bintangin. The marketing ad highlights some of the Indonesia greatest heritages, and Jamu is one of the heritage. They gave message to the audiences, that our nation has a lot of heritages (in other words Indonesians are smart that they are able to create so many heritages), and smart people knows exactly how to value and preserve heritages.
To me it was a smart way to counter competitor’s attack. Jamu Tolak Angin didn’t respond directly to the message provoked by Bintangin (about whether the consumer is smart or not); but they bring up another issue which is considered to be much more important. Then it is leveraging the Jamu Tolak Angin brand, by creating perception that it is not deserved to be compared to competitor product. Beside that, the marketing ad can also be considered as a notice and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) action from Jamu Tolak Angin to our nation’s issue. And the latest might increase the brand image as well.
