It was January 2006, when Bambang Asmarabudi turned off his remote control on television set in his room in Pulo Gadung office after seeing 30-second TVC (TV Campaign) of new cub, Yamaha Jupiter developed by Yamaha’s headquarter in Japan. He was fond of this motorcycle. The technology was awesome, it had fantastic design, it comprised shooting technique, good setting; it was flawless design and high product quality.

As Managing Director of Promotions and Motorsports, Bambang was involved in the company for 15 years. He started his career in motorcycle manufacturer. Actually, there was nothing wrong with commercial overall content. But he was not sure that the ad would be received by company target market, regarding taste and education level difference in Japan and Indonesia. He knew exactly what kind of people in Indonesia. And it did not match with TV advertising.

He watched thousand times of the commercial advertising of Yamaha Jupiter. He saw the sales report was plummeted during the first quarter. He was weighing the idea about having another type of advertising. The advertising that was easier to understand, better shaped, and reach the grass root community. So that they did not need to think, did not need to analyze, but the advertising still headed the new technology and design of the cub.

He then picked up his cell phone, rang the Vice President, Dyonisius Beti, asked for a time to discuss the matters that bothered him.

One Sunday in 2005, while with her family in one of Jakarta’s popular shopping malls, Mrs. Martha Tilaar, the Chairman of PT. Sari Ayu Indonesia, accidentally overheard two women debating the pros and cons of receiving Botox injections[1]. The passing conversation brought back previous thoughts on how to harness Indonesia’s natural resources, and fashion these resources into products which would be as effective as foreign brands but with the advantage of using natural (and thus safer) ingredients.

In her years of working in the world of cosmetics, Mrs Tilaar had so far gained much from innovative improvement – whether these came from her Brand Department together with R&D Department, or from Mrs. Tilaar herself. She always managed to differentiate her products from those of other companies without discarding their most important ingredients. Nonetheless, the differentiation ensured that the marketed products were safe to both user and environment. For example, the latest product series, Biokos Botu-Like, was created to leverage the brand as high-end anti-ageing treatment, which was expected to compete with similar, foreign-manufactured products marketed by well-known international cosmetics brands.

Nevertheless, Mrs Tilaar wondered whether this continuously-explored innovation process was able to grasp what the market needed and wanted. Would it prove to be profitable to the company in the end? What breakthrough idea could be drawn up to gain more market expansion? There was a plethora of ideas – but how could one pick the most appropriate one to develop? Lastly, how sustainable would the products be?

Botox is a type of beauty treatment conducted by experienced, qualified and board certified doctor in order to reduce facial wrinkles.

It was a bright and fine Monday afternoon in September 2004; outside was a view of a typical busy work day in Jakarta.  Ina Suwandi, head of the Electronic Banking Subdivision of PT Bank Central Asia Tbk. (BCA), was sitting in her well-lit yet conservative office looking at the 2004 2nd semester performance report of Tunai BCA. Tunai BCA is a banking product which lets BCA customers withdraw cash from cashiers at participating retail stores as the customers pay for their purchases using the BCA ATM card, “Paspor BCA” (Exhibit 1 shows a Paspor BCA card). She recalled the phone call earlier that morning from Stephen Liestyo, Head of Consumer Banking.; Stephen wanted an explanation from her team about the performance of Tunai BCA. The frequency of BCA customers using their ‘Paspor BCA’ ATM cards as debit cards for purchases in retail outlets (Debit BCA) from January – September 2004 was 28,150,130, in stark contrast to the usage frequency of Tunai BCA which was only 1,182,673.  Since both Tunai BCA and Debit BCA banking products were based on the Paspor BCA ATM card, Debit BCA users were a potential market for Tunai BCA.  It was very clear in Ina’s mind how Stephen presented the firm’s vision: “Someday, somehow, Tunai BCA will be booming. People will shift away from using Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to get their cash from the merchants (retailers) while shopping instead.  Look at Australia; withdrawing cash at the merchants is more popular than at ATMs.  We have to spread the idea, grow it and someday, somehow, we will harvest it.  We have to be the ‘First in Mind’, otherwise we cannot be Number 1 in the market”.  After Stephen finished his sentence, Ina realized that Tunai BCA’s success fully rested on her team’s shoulders. She needed to make Tunai BCA as successful as the other banking products offered by the bank. She had to decide what her subdivision should do to make the program successful. Reflecting back on the company’s history, Ina was aware that BCA had proved itself successful in creating a perception of a bank which offered convenience to its consumers. Tunai BCA was created to further enhance the bank’s offerings in providing convenience to BCA cardholders, merchants, and to the bank itself.

In the airline industry, quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility were often mentioned as the key success factors that should be acquired by every company. Up to 2007 the competition within the airline industry became very severe. Therefore, it was crucial that every company should choose the right strategy to fit with the market condition.

Garuda as one of full services airline companies saw that the industry situation had been changed compared to the previous years. Competitive pressure made the Garuda’s management revise their strategy that had been executed for years. The effectiveness of the strategy execution had emerged as the main issue.

On the other hand, Lion Air as a new entrant in the industry saw that the crisis occurred in Indonesia gave them a new opportunity to grab the price sensitive segment. Lion Air’s management at the same time considered to improve their strategy to increase their market share.

Before the year 2003, Indomie domination (Indofood) in instant noodles market was unbeatable. It succeeded with hardly any competitors. Several attempts to take over the market share of instant noodle market was done by competitors and failed. Instead Indofood succeeded to defeat them. Even multinational company like Unilever which had skill to develop brand and wide distribution network tried to enter the instant noodle market to no avail.  Mie&Mie brand (Unilever) was forced to exit market by Indofood. This also included the failure of Tara Nasiku, an instant rice brand launched by Unilever in 1999, with intention to switch consumer buying behavior from instant noodle to instant rice. Although the production budget and development of Tara Nasiku exceeded boundary of new product launching, consumers still preferred Indomie.

Initially, Indofood did not suspect that Mie Sedaap from Wingsfood would succeed in taking over the market share. Although Wings Group was long enough in toiletries industry, supported by solid marketing team and a wide range of distribution network, Indofood still believed that food business needed special expertise. And Indofood, indeed, did not think that Wingsfood had that. Indofood was not seriously counter the aggressive marketing activities done by Mie Sedaap. It could be said without any obstacles Mie Sedaap glided to the market.

Slowly Indofood’s Indomie domination broke down. Its market share fell. Their 90% market share in 1999 declined to only 70% in 2003. The national instant noodle market itself was worth 8 trillion rupiahs, thus Indofood’s sales decline disturbed the plan to increase their sales in the country.

What super strategies did Wingsfood use with its Mie Sedaap to overpower Indomie’s domination in instant noodle market?   What effort and attempt did Indofood take to regain and restore their lost market? How were the consumers’ perceptions after of this noodle war?

In December 2002, Hendrik Tio was ready for strategic meeting with board of directors to discuss the future of P.T. Bhinneka Mentari Dimensi. As Director and founder, Hendrik felt that the company has gone through a lot; Indonesian’s economic crisis in 1998, the dotcom crash, and now, once again, the company faced something that nobody was familiar with: the internet.

During economic crisis in 1997, due to deterioration of market buying power, Bhinneka was forced to diversify its business from IT solutions provider to a computer accessories manufacturer, furniture manufacturer and shrimp business. In June 1999, Hendrik decided that the company should return to its original business of providing IT solutions and insisted that the company start building its reputation as the pioneer of e-commerce by going online.

The dotcom euphoria didn’t last very long, because in 2001, the dotcom crash started. However, some strong companies actually survived the crash in US, such as Amazon.com. The same phenomenon happened in Indonesia. Some online shops such as Bebita.com, Dialmart.com, even Lipposhop.com could not get enough revenue to cover their operational costs; the only reason why they were still in the market was due to their belief that the internet would be the future of business. Bhinneka.com  likewise was not making enough profit. However, it had gained high brand awareness due to its website and the number of visits grew steadily.

As Hendrik walked toward the meeting room, some thoughts came to mind;: should he stop the online retail business before it’s too late, or should he continue it by altering his existing business model? Some facts that happened around the world as well as in Indonesia worried him. What should Bhinneka.com do to maintain its position and grow given the unpredictable nature of cyberworld?

The time was approaching 5.45 p.m. A mother was hurriedly moving towards an elevator   in Jakarta’s golden triangle apartment while checking on her wrist-watch at times.  Reaching the second floor, he sound of small kids could be heard coming from a Daycare with noticeable design on the same floor.  As she approached the Daycare entrance, her face became radiant.  She walked faster in order to see her sweetheart. Inside the Daycare, a cute little girl rushed towards the mother accompanied by a neat uniformed Daycare staff.   She explained to the mother all the activities her daughter has done during the day according to the note written in the agenda.  The mother listened to it with full interest while carrying her three years cute daughter.

Dr. Lukiarti, the Director and the person in charge of the daily activities of the High Reach Learning Care Institution was observing each of the picking up activities of the children under her observation. She also spoke to a few parents on the subjects that needed further explanation regarding the kids’ development. These routine interactions with parents are done to make sure that everything runs smoothly and under control.

After the children’s pick-up operation was completed, Ibu Luki, this was how Dr.Lukiarti was addressed by her colleagues, entered her office and sat down on a chair in the corner of the room.  Her eyes did not show tiredness although she is in her early fifties.  She quickly picked up a folder from the table which contained to pieces of proposals on the business development.  For the past one week her mind had been preoccupied with these proposals. It was not a simple offer and hard to be chosen:  Franchising the Daycare business which had been developed for one year or developing the business organically, collaborating with a few office buildings.  The periodic meeting of the High Reach founders / share holders would be held in an hour’s time.  The discussion on the development of this Daycare business was one of her agendas. She picked up her glasses and started making deeper analysis on the pros and cons of the two offers.

One still could vividly remember when Starbucks first opened its first store at Seattle, United States of America on 1972 and the hype suddenly went breakthrough like a wildfire from the State only into nationwide and upon 1996, Howard Schultz as Starbucks’ owner decided to go international.

It wasn’t long before that when Starbucks opened its first store in Indonesia and the buzz that already went along the words that already whispered in everyone’s ears gone crazy. The cozy ambience and the promise of “delivering the best coffee only for you” from the company to the consumers have been the magic words among Indonesia’s socialite and all in sudden, Starbucks’ coffee stores flocked with people. Now everybody could enjoy their nice cup of Frappuccino™ or Café Americano at the good-looking place with sweet and slow jazzy tunes at every Starbucks coffee store or simply grab the signature cup of Starbucks and bring it everywhere, be it campus, school, office or simply for hangout purpose.

The opportunity for Starbucks at that time when they entered Indonesia market was still big for there were only several small players at Indonesia. Coffee store and café business never been taken seriously and people accepted coffee-drinking activities as side activity which did not have any added value for any other means. Indonesian even didn’t recognize coffee as one of their primary habits. However, the hype started around 1999, not so long after the crisis that hit several regions at Southeast Asia. Indonesia, by any means, considered as a very interesting place for Starbucks to expand. However not so long after the trend started, recently nowadays Starbucks isn’t the only player at Indonesia. Thanks for the hype and buzzwords, more and more competitors barged into the market, be it from foreign players (Gloria Jean’s Coffee, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf) or domestic players (Bakoel Koffie, Bengawan Solo Coffee) and all of them even offered similar beverages and “experience” as same as Starbucks. They create same ambience, same coffee and even, same packaging – only in different brand name and label.

This kind of situation forced Starbucks to think hard and long because even though Starbucks already got big name and big time at United States where it is originally came from, the market in Indonesia is totally different. They are playing at different culture, different consumer’s expectations and even different purchasing power and Starbucks realized it clearly that in order to survive in this volatile market of Indonesia they should take the right approach.

On October 2006, Bambang Asmarabudi, General Manager of Marketing and Promotion of Yamaha Motor Kencana Indonesia (YMKI), was irritated as he and his team would face Mid-Year meeting the next day.

The fact that only ten to thirteen percent of these female inhabitants were motorcyclists made very large open market for prospective female consumer. From the supplier side, it seemed manufacturers were aware of the fact, but they were unsure of this female market prospect.

Although the sales unit sales grew from 2003 to 2006, Bambang was irritated by the reality that Yamaha Mio was not bought by women as target market. He wondered if he and his team should make adjustments to the marketing strategy facing this unexpected trend.

“Apa pun makanannya, minumnya Teh Botol Sosro”, (Any food you eat, the beverage is Teh Botol Sosro), it was SOSRO’s tag line appeared in every SOSRO advertising, in television or printed media. Mr. Sosrojoyo’s dream happened now where he wanted everybody to enjoy the delicious smell and taste of Sosro tea. Now everywhere in Indonesia, in every small kiosk from small village to big city we could see the product of Sosro tea.

Of course this success did not happen in one night. It was a long journey since Sosro built the kingdom of tea, facing lots of challenge and obstacles. It was in 2006, when Mr. Sosrojoyo sat in his office, reflecting the long journey the family went through. It seemed to him the nowadays business situation had changed, the coming of new player in bottled beverage made him re-thinking about Sosro’s competitive advantage. He had to reformulate Sosro’s competency in a way so that they could answer the challenge of competitor.