It was in 1997, when I was in the high school, that I first knew that Coca Cola is nothing compared to Teh Botol Sosro for sales volume in Indonesia. For those who have never come to Indonesia Teh Botol Sosro is the first and market leader for ready-to-drink tea in bottle packing in Indonesia. While for someone who have ever stayed in Indonesia for more than 2 days, I am sure they know the product.
At that time, I was looking for a sponsorship for an event held by our student body, and Coca Cola was one of our targets. After a while, we met the person in charge for promotion in Bandung area. We then presented our proposal, explaining the concept and sponsorship cooperation being offered. The PIC responded our explanation by only one sentence “You should go to Sosro, their budget is much higher,.. several times of ours”.
Higher budget came from higher revenue,.. and it is intuitively accepted by logic, since tea consumer is much higher than soda drinker in Indonesia.
Several years ago, Teh Botol Sosro seemed to find its killer tagline “Apapun Makanannya, Minumnya Teh Botol Sosro” (whatever the meals, the drink is Teh Botol Sosro). It was implemented in various media, above the line and excellent below the line. One of the below the line activities is done by giveaway and distribute tablecloths full with the tagline and its derivatives to a large number of “warung kaki lima” (traditional, non exclusive food seller).
The power of the tagline was so strong that people made a joke about this tagline. And more surprising, they made some media for publishing the joke. One of the joke use Mr. S character that is popular as the first published cannibal in Indonesia. In that joke-advertising, Mr. S choose Teh Botol Sosro after he eat human body,.. hahaha. It showed that the tagline was really effective, that some people would voluntarily campaign for the product.
Several years later, i.e. in 2007, Coca Cola do exactly the same campaign, taking their advantages as a global brand. The same message, but they use different sentence, i.e. “Billions of people all over the world drink Coca Cola together with their meals everyday, what about you?”. To me, it seems like Coca Cola triggered Indonesians to rethink their choice for after-meal drinks. They would say that there are much more people in the world choose Coca Cola, rather than Teh Botol Sosro for meals companion. Well of course, since Teh Botol is only sold in Indonesia.
I’m not sure whether Coca Cola or Teh Botol Sosro deserves a market leader title for Indonesian market. Although the sales volume in Indonesia is lower than Teh Botol, to me Coca Cola is still ‘another’ market leader, due to their world wide brand value and existence. And if Coca Cola considered itself as market leader, following or copying competitor strategy is a big No. Whatever it takes, all of market leaders have to think another way to campaign their products, if it is not possible to find a much better way than competitor. That will show to the market, that their products are not deserved to be competed head-to-head and be compared to competitor products. As a market leader, they have to create the image that their product is superior.
So, is it a confession from Coca Cola that for Indonesian market their product is not a market leader? Does Coca Cola give in to the existence of Teh Botol? As an Indonesian, of course it is good news to me that local product defeat international brand. But I don’t expect Coca Cola to give in that easily.
Another case similar to this battle is experienced by “Jamu Masuk Angin” products. But in this case, the market leader knows how to deal with competitor attack. You can read the story on the next article.
