MeadJohnson’s new Enfagrow A+ Ready-To-Drink (RTD) now comes with 2.5X DHA for children aged 4 years old and above.
DHA is now 4.2g per 100ml serving, 2.5x more than the previous formulation.
Looking at the bigger picture, Malaysia is one of the 8 biggest markets for MeadJohnson globally. The value-added innovation focus for Asia is ‘convenience of product format and packaging’. New products under this category includes RTDs and plastic packaging and both are now in Malaysia.
Charity is the central theme in a lot of Ramadan marketing campaigns in Malaysia and Indonesia. Ramadan in the month for Muslims worldwide to donate to the less fortunate and contribute to charity work.
Renovate mosques
Wall’s ice cream in Indonesia is donating part of the proceeds from the sale of Dung Dung ice cream to renovate mosques.
Image from Wall’s Indonesia Twitter page
Eradicating energy poverty
PepsiCo Malaysia would donate RM 0.10 for each 1.5L PET bottle of Pepsi, Revive, Mountain Dew, Mirinda and 7UP for the ‘Liter of Light.’ The project aims to eradicate the 1% of energy poverty in Malaysia.
Collaborates with media firm to help the unfortunate
F&N Malaysia collaborates with Media Prima, Malaysia’s biggest free-to-air TV station as the official partner for its ‘Syukur Selalu’ campaign. The food and drink company is giving RM 0.2 million to Media Prima’s ”Tabung Bersamamu’ charity fund.
Doing charity with celebrities
In Malaysia, Yeo Hiap Seng (Malaysia) Berhad organised a fasting experience event with celebrities on 25 June 2016for the second season. The event was opened to all ethnicity and religion to experience fasting with celebrities while doing charity. Of course, participants received goodie bags and a chance to win attractive prizes. The two-month campaign involves up to RM 58,000 in prize money.
It seems food and drinks companies in Malaysia are more keen to use charity for its Ramadan festive campaign compared with Indonesia whereas the latter is more concentrated on prize giveaways.
Getting young children to start fasting can be great time for marketing. Abbott Nutrition Malaysia took this opportunity to promote PediaSure Complete for children aged one to 10 to help them who fasting or are starting to fast. According to the company, PediaSure contains 25 of the most important nutrients including FOS, DHA and vitamins to help meet children’s needs during the fasting period.
Children are not expected to fast until the age of puberty. But some intend to do so earlier by joining with their family members. By aligning the brand with Ramadan, PediaSure ensures it becomes the product of choice for subsequent fasting experience. The campaign tagline is ‘menatih puasa ceria’ or ‘to lead ones who is learning to fast to have a happy fasting experience.’
The Malaysia’s PediaSure Ramadan campaign in 2016 is the same campaign launched in Indonesia in 2015 using the same TVC.
PediaSure also roped in Imam Muda Asyraf, a charming young Imam (religious teacher) who is the winner of a reality program in search of a religious role model. Participants had a session with Asyraf on 25 June 2016 where he talked about how to guide parents on fasting for young children. The collaboration between an international milk powder brand with a popular Imam makes the combination very interesting and helps to strengthen and localise the marketing message.
To promote its ice cream as dessert for buka puasa (breaking of fast) in Malaysia, Unilever’s Wall’s ice cream goes to the very source of delicious food – Ramadhan bazaars.
The ice cream brand commissioned Event Works Sdn Bhd to carry out the on-the-ground marketing campaign featuring free limited edition Wall’s Recipe for buka puasa and cooler bag.
Wall’s at Ramadan bazaar in Bandar Baru Ampang, Selangor. All images taken by the author
Such events were held at Ramadan bazaars in Klang Valley, Melaka, Perak, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kedah and Kelantan.
Instead of waiting for customer to come to you, it is a good idea to be at the source of all the actions – Ramadan bazaars – to promote packaged food for buka puasa.
Coca-Cola Malaysia is haunted by a serious allegation that its Euro 2016 collectible aluminium bottles are not halal and contain alcohol. The allegation circulated via social media claims the imported Coca-Cola from Europe has alcohol and is not halal. This is serious allegation especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
Jakim says
According to investigation by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), the country’s sole halal certifying body, the Coca-Cola is deemed to be made in Europe and does not come with any halal logo or own any halal logo recognised by the halal apex body. It also stressed that The Coca-Cola Company has issued clarification on its corporate website denying the limited-edition drink contains alcohol. In the Facebook post dated 23 June 2016, JAKIM assured consumers all the Coca-Cola products bottled in Malaysia are certified halal and safe to consume.
From Jakim Facebook page dated 23 June 2016Made-in-Malaysia Coca-Cola with the JAKIM halal logo
In one of the replies to a message left on JAKIM’s Facebook page, the religious body said ‘the only issue with the product is it does not have the halal certification from overseas and a product cannot be punished unless it has banned ingredients.’ It reiterated consumers can choose to drink locally-bottled Coca-Cola as the local factory has been certified halal.
Coca-Cola explains
The Coca-Cola Co promptly issued an official reply assuring Malaysian consumers ‘the ingredients and manufacturing process used in the production of Coca-Cola beverage are rigorously regulated by government and health authorities in more than 200 countries which have consistently recognised the drink as a non-alcoholic product.’ The company strengthened this assertion by claiming ‘this includes countries where Islam is the major religion.’
From Coca-Cola Malaysia official website
The official statement claims ‘The Coca-Company has and will continue to meet the strict halal processing standards, strict hygiene and quality compliance for all its products.’
Missing halal logo
The whole key issue boils down to one thing – the missing halal logo. Can an ‘organic’ product claims it is organic without the accompanying ‘organic’ label? The same logic applies to the Coca-Cola issue.
Malaysian consumers have been educated to place their faith on the halal logo. If the limited-edition comes with the halal logo, this incident would not have happened in the first place.
Confusion continues
Is the limited-edition Coca-Cola aluminium bottle halal? Apparently no, according to 7-Eleven. This was spotted by the author in one of the 7-Elevens in the town of Bentong in Pahang. So the confusion continues.
Image taken by the author in Bentong, Pahang on 25 June 2016
One key takeaway from the limited-edition Coca-Cola Euro 2016 halal debacle is there can be no compromise on the use of the halal logo. This applies even more importantly on imported products even if they are only available for a limited period only.
Indonesia is a country labelled as lower middle income by the World Bank with a fast rising middle class but one-tenth of the population still lives in poverty. According to World Bank data, 11.3% of the population was below the poverty line in 2014, an improvement from 13.3% in 2010. Children living in poverty areas suffer from stunted growth due to chronic malnutrition.
From http://www.fitbardonorkalori.com/id
To narrow the gap between the well-to-dos and the poor, Kalbe Farma’s snack bar brand Fibar held a calorie donation campaign for two months (March-April 2016). Over 10 million calories were collected from those with calories to spare through physical activities. The data was collected from participants’ smartphone apps (Nike+, Custom Fit, My Fitness Pal) and smart watches.
A total of IDR IDR 500,000 (USD 37,700) was raised for Yayasan Sahabat Anak, a charity organisation in support of marginalised children.
The campaign not only demonstrates how exercise, shedding the extra pounds, can contribute to a good cause, it also puts the Fitbar brand positively in the eyes of consumers.
Here is the ad of the ‘two sides of Indonesia’ by Fitbar created for the campaign.
Can is back in vogue in China for sports drink. Danone’s Mizone launched Mizone Xi Qi (喜汽) or ‘Happy Gas,’ its first drink in the can format in May 2016. As the name implies, Mizone Xi Qi (330ml) is a carbonated sports drink, which sets it apart from the existing non-carbonated Mizone in PET packaging.
The use of the male cartoon character Mai Da Meng (脉大萌) and the female character Mai Xiao Mei (脉小妹) on the packaging is aimed at consumers born in the 90s who are drawn towards the trend of deliberately being cute (卖萌 mai meng). The word ‘mai’ rhymes with Mizone’s Chinese name, which is Mai Dong (脉动). The packaging design also comes in pair for young couples in love.
脉大萌脉小妹
Coca-Cola Aquarius
Coca-Cola Aquarius sports drink is now available in 310ml can. Previously, the drink is sold only in the PET format. The maiden debut of Aquarius in can was made through JD.com, one of China’s biggest B2C platforms. Launching new products through the online channel helps brands gauge the response of young internet savvy consumers toward their products.
Food pairing
What is interesting about the two products in the can format is they can be sold in the foodservice channel or turn into cocktail. Coca-Cola has come up with interesting cocktail ideals for Aquarius.
Cocktail ideas for Aquarius. Image from Foodaily.com
In addition to the can version, Mizone’s new 400ml PET bottle, launched together with the can format, is specifically designed for the foodservice channel. Previous trial of the 400ml bottle was held in Chengdu in western China in June-August 2015. According to a Foodaily.com article, the 400ml bottle is officially available in Chengdu and Chongqing only.
Jeffer Juice from Imperia Asia Manufacturing Industries is now available at Giant and Cold Storage supermarkets in Malaysia. The three variants are date (kurma), pomegranate (delima) and lemon. All three come in a 400ml tall plastic bottle, which is a unique packaging choice for juice. The selling price is RM 4.99 (USD 1.22) per bottle. Key product claims are organic, enriched with anti-oxidant, low in fat and high in calcium.
Apart from the packaging and the choice of date juice, the other thing that caught my attention is the use of religion to endorse the product. On the back of the packaging is a sentence from Surah al Rahman (55th Chapter of the Holy Quran) verse 68, which mentions ‘In the two Gardens (i.e. in Paradise) there shall be fruits and date-palms and pomegranates.’ This implies the two fruits are important for Muslims.
A new trend that is emerging in Malaysia is the use of religion (Islam) for product marketing to promote food and drinks ranging from juice, goat’s milk powder to vitamin. Jeffer Juice is a continuation of that trend.
Image of Dee Dee the Cow from Goodday Facebook page
Dee Dee the Cow of Malaysia’s Goodday Milk is not alone in the cow’s world. In fact, he has friends who are much like himself (or rather look like him) working in the milk industry as mascots.
Presenting you Dee Dee and Friends:
Dee Dee and its dairy friends are issued with the standard cowbell to remind them of their job as brand ambassadors. With the exception of Marigold, all of them need to have a horn be it small or large to show they have the confidence and of course, they need to have the natural friendly smile. Say cheese!
On a happy note, Marigold has renewed its packaging to feature a cow facing the camera.
With Euro 2016 kicked off, Alibaba’s Tmall data (mid-May to early June 2016) shows sales of puffed food (膨化食品 like potato snacks and extruded snacks), seeds, peanuts, beer, coffee, facial mask and energy drinks in China saw month-on-month growth, according to a news article on Toutiao.com. Beer sales rose 40.8%, while puffed food grew 39.03%. Sales of imported Lotte potato chips surged 287.91%.
What is interesting is sales of instant noodle also increased with Nescafe, Vietnam’s G7 and Malaysia’s FameSeen (名馨) among the most popular instant coffee.
Wait a minute, who owns FameSeen? Based on a quick search on Fameseen’s Tmall site, Fameseen is an instant coffee brand by Tastiway, the same company that brings us the Alor brand of instant coffee and freeze dry fruit snacks. It appears Tastiway is making good progress in China through Tmall with white coffee and durian-based coffee capable of competing with OldTown and Aik Cheong.
Australia's Forbidden Foods has entered into an exclusive landmark agreement with AusCom to distribute child nutrition brand FUNCH in Vietnam.
AusCom International has a proven...
A new trend that is emerging in Malaysia is the use of religion (Islam) for product marketing to promote food and drinks ranging from juice, goat’s milk powder to vitamin. Jeffer Juice is a continuation of that trend.
