You’re going to go that far? Searching for a surprising sales promotion plan! The brand strategy for Pocky in Indonesia.
Pocky is one of Glico’s flagship products, and with 500 million boxes sold in around 30 countries around the world each year, it is one of Japan’s top confectionary products. In recent years, Glico has been making strong efforts in Indonesia.
Glico began selling Pocky in Indonesia 30 years ago, but all its efforts, even in 2012, the brand name was still relatively unknown. Indonesia has a population of approximately 250 million, about twice that of Japan. Around 40% of the population is aged 20 or under, and as people in this age group are the main buyers of sweets, this makes Indonesia a very appealing market. So with this in mind, Glico decided to implement a strategy with Pocky in Indonesia, to not only fill the stomachs of the young people of Indonesia, but to reach them emotionally as well. In this article, we will introduce that strategy.
Mission 1: Improve the image - transform Pocky into a cool and fashionable sweet
Mission 2: Get the unknown Pocky brand shared around Indonesia
Mission 3: Develop a distribution infrastructure that allows people to buy Pocky at any time and any place
Mission 1: Improve the image - transform Pocky into a cool and fashionable sweet
Use idols in commercials to promote Pocky to reach children emotionally
In Indonesia, there is a custom where children buy sweets on their way home from school, and as you can imagine, the route home from school is lined with lots of small stores and stands selling sweets for the equivalent of 5-7 yen. In these “fiercely contested sweet areas,” it is not just a good taste that wins the battle. Here, Glico came up with the idea of using the idol group JKT48 in its commercials. With a tagline of “Share Pocky with your friends,” Glico succeeded in building an image for Pocky of a cool and fashionable sweet in Indonesia. In addition, Glico proposed a “Pocky after Ramadan” PR campaign. Similar to the “Pocky when you travel” campaign previously held in Japan, this campaign proposed having Pocky after Ramadan, a strategy suited to Indonesia’s religious needs. The aim of this proposal was to associate Pocky with enjoyable occasions.
Mission 2: Get the unknown Pocky brand shared around Indonesia
Pocky sampling events at schools to spread the social medias!
Despite being a country with a strong confectionary market due to the large young population, the awareness of Pocky in Indonesia was very low. To solve this problem, in the capital of Jakarta, a campaign was held in which the “Pocky Wagon,” a van covered with Pocky advertising, visited local junior high and high schools. The advertising team would visit the schools during classes and hand out boxes of Pocky to the students for free during lunch in the schoolyard. However, the aim wasn’t just to raise their awareness of Pocky - it was to reach the social networking sites of the students. In Indonesia, social networking sites (SNS) are very popular among young people who share all sorts of things through them. The students posted photos and comments about Pocky on their Facebook accounts one after the other, and the idea that eating Pocky was cool spread throughout Indonesia. While Pocky in school is quite unthinkable in Japan, the initiative was well suited to the easy-going and fun-loving nature of the Indonesian people.
Mission 3: Develop a distribution infrastructure that allows people to buy Pocky at any time and any place
Building new sales routes and improving selling spaces with the meticulous work of the “Red Helmet Team”
Even if the customers wanted it, it wasn’t being sold. Until then, local sales had been entirely left up to distributors. In Indonesia, where the steady business activities had been neglected, mismanaged selling spaces and store owners who didn’t even put the products on the shelves were a common occurrence. To break through these problems, a team of 30 employees wearing red Pocky-colored helmets and jumpers, known as the “Pocky Red Helmet Team” was established. They would ride around the stores and supermarkets of the capital Jakarta, checking the way the products were being sold, orders were being taken and how the products were being displayed in the stores. Through their meticulous work, the company was able to expand its sales routes and develop and distribution infrastructure in the capital. The “Pocky Red Helmet Team” also acted as a great moving advertisement for the company, and plans are being made to set up teams in other areas of the country.
Sales up 5 times! The number of children who are sharing happiness is rapidly growing!
In 2013, Indonesia saw growth in sales of 5 times the previous year (20 million boxes a year), and the results keep improving. Glico will continue to expand around the world and “Share Happiness” of Pocky with as many children around the world as possible.
