About two decades ago, Indonesians usually would refer to Indomie as the most famous instant noodle brand, which has even been exported to several countries. However, in the last several years, people have been seeing the rise of popularity of Mie Sedaap, instant noodle brand from Wings Group owned by Eddy Katuari. Many are surprised about how a noodle brand that seemed to be innocuous at first suddenly rose to be Indomie’s close competition in Indonesia, and even started to gain strong base of customer loyalty.
In an interview with SWA Magazine, Eddy Katuari described his secret in Mie Sedaap marketing that made this brand able to become close competition with Indomie.
Guerilla Marketing of Mie Sedaap
When Mie Sedaap was first launched, its price was cheaper than Indomie, but Eddy said that it was not as low as other cheap noodle brands, because he put more attention to the quality of his noodles instead of just relying on cheap price. For example, many customers praise Mie Sedaap because it is chewier than Indomie, and it does not expand easily when boiled. However, for the first marketing efforts, Eddy chose the same strategy he applied on his other consumer goods from Wings; he did guerilla marketing technique.
Eddy did not start big; he chose to market Mie Sedaap to stores in small towns and villages instead of big cities. Instead of using above the line marketing efforts, he chose to market his noodle product with below the line strategies. From villages and small towns, his products slowly built strong base of customers and constant demand, and from there, he aimed for big cities and large supermarkets. After he made sure that Mie Sedaap already had strong base of customers, above the line strategies were launched such as TV commercial spots and advertisements in printed media.
Customer Gift Program
Eddy Katuari also launched program that Indomie never thought about before: customer gift. Instead of giving bonus for large scale of purchase (like a bowl for the purchase of one box of Indomie), Mie Sedaap gave one package of noodle for the purchase of only 5 packages. This made customers felt that the brand had more value compared to other brands, especially since many instant noodle buyers buy them in individual packages.
With such strategies, it is not surprising that Eddy Katuari’s instant noodle brand can rise quickly to compete with noodle giant in Indonesia.