A look at the main concerns of young mothers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia when buying baby formula - Social media listening case study (May 2015)

Infant Formula A look at the main concerns of young

mothers in Singapore, Indonesia and

Malaysia.

Tesla Insights May 2015

PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS


NEED

• Impossibility for

some mothers to

exclusively feed the

baby with breast milk

due to : no time

because of work, little

breast milk production,

death, disease,

separation,

physiologic problems.

INFO

SEARCH

Sources:

• Media (TV,

advertising)

• Experts

• Family/friends

• Parenting forums

• Social media

ALTERNATIVES

EVALUATION.

Key decision factors:

• Recommendation from people they

trust (doctors, relatives, moms)

• Nutrition content : must be as close

as possible to the known substance of

breast milk

• Price : higher price is perceived as

higher quality

• Perceived product quality (influenced

by the origin (foreign vs local) and

price)

• Trust (possible safety / hallal issues?)

• Benefits & claims (growth,

intelligence…)

PURCHASE PURCHASE

EVALUATION

Suitable & baby

preference

KEY CHALLENGES FOR INFANT

FORMULA BRANDS IN SEA BABY MILK BATTLE

Important competition:

• How do brands are compared to competitors? What is the perception of one brand vs another brand?

• What is the perception about breast milk in the country?

(eg: the recent ban of advertising for infant formula in China is highly supported by the population in

Indonesia, with 25K shares on Facebook).

Trust and perception of product quality is crucial, but can be affected in different ways: • Rumors and scandals about the nutritional content of the products.

(eg: Cadbury recent case in Malaysia with procin protein repoted in the products went viral as the country

is majority muslim ; Dumex recalls infant milk formula in Singapore in 2013 for precautionary measure).

It’s important to counter any misreportation and viral spreading of false information as quickly as possible.

• Claims and labels: marketing tricks skepticism is high. What are acceptable marketing claims and

communication ways?

• Mothers rely a lot on recommendations, by their doctors, experts or other moms online. Who are your top

influencers, where do mothers seek information?

You can answer all these questions using social media intelligence.


http://www.straitstimes.com/searchpage?search=Search StraitsTimes.com

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/dumex-recalls-some-infant-milk-formula-singapore-precautionary-measure

LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS IN SEA

Go where they talk the most : on social media.

Time spent on social media (in hours, per day, January 2015)

Source: We Are Social

3.5 hours/day spent on

social media in Malaysia


social media in Indonesia


social media in Singapore

BABY MILK BATTLE


METHODOLOGY

For this case study, we have listened to the

most influential conversations about the main

infant formula brands in Singapore,

Indonesia and Malaysia for 2 months

(March 19th to May 19th), on all platforms :

Websites, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube,

Instagram, Blogs, Media, Forums.

We are using the latest social media

listening technology, to gather all the

conversations which are scanned by our

dedicated analysts in each of these countries

to verify relevancy and analyse the sentiment.

Limitation: social networks privacy settings.

We are not able to listen to private

conversations (What’s App, Facebook).

BABY MILK BATTLE


SINGAPORE


• There was 590 mentions between the 19th of March to the 19th of May (2 months) about infant formula

brands.

• We can notice 2 peaks for the brand Friso : both are due to marketing efforts of Friso (#frisomoment

contest on 8th of April and the Friso Experience roadshow around 8th of May).

HOW MUCH DO SINGAPOREANS SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA BRANDS?


HOW MUCH DO SINGAPOREANS SPEAK ABOUT



• 82.2% of the conversation happens on social media, mainly on Facebook and mainly on the Facebook

pages of the brands. 6 mentions come from Instagram and 32 from Twitter.

• 14.2% of the conversation happens on the good old forums and on micro-blogging websites, mainly

when people are looking for advice and recommendations. So, that’s an interesting channel to watch! The

most used forums and websites are Yahoo! Answers and Hardwarezone. The brands are also discussed,

but less, on Baby Forum.

WHERE DO SINGAPOREANS SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA?


https://answers.yahoo.com/

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/

http://www.babyforum.sg/

• 295 mentions (50% of all mentions) come from the very active facebook page of Friso. Not only they

have almost 60.000 fans and they are posting an interesting content every day, but they are also

answering every comment from the fans.

• Enfagrow and Dumex have as well active facebook page with lots of conversations happening.

• The facebook page of TheAsianParent, followed by almost 130.000 people, has mentioned twice Enfamil

and once Similac. That gives a very good visibility for the brands.

They have shared one article about nutrition for babies, where they advise Enfamil :

http://sg.theasianparent.com/proper-nutrition-for-kids-with-enfamil/.

WHERE DO SINGAPOREAN SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA ON FACEBOOK?


https://www.facebook.com/Frisosingapore

http://sg.theasianparent.com/proper-nutrition-for-kids-with-enfamil/











Most of the conversation came from Friso and Enfagrow Facebook page and interactions with their

customers about recent campaigns and contests, including vouchers to be redeemed at Fairprice.

The price is discussed a lot as well.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT INFANT FORMULA

BRANDS?


UNDERSTAND PEAKS OF CONVERSATIONS

Friso has created conversation around its brand at a very crucial moment in that industry: Mothers Day (11/05), with a special

exchange action on a roadshow and a surprise gift to 200 moms. While the surprise gift got a few thank you from the moms,

the roadshow action raised 76 comments, including lots of questions and complains because people were not always

allowed to exchange their tins. This would have been avoided if Friso had explained the limitations of the activation properly in

the post, avoiding disappointment.


MOTHER’S DAY DUMEX CAMPAIGN

Dumex has also celebrated Mothers Day.

They have created a photo contest which gathered more than 100

participants.

They asked to comment, like & share. This is a bit painful for the

participant but sharing is a good way to increase the visibility of

the brand, and the virality of the contest.


FOCUS ON #FRISOMOMENT CAMPAIGN

The hashtag #FrisoMoment from their ongoing photo contest

got 23 mentions, spread equally during the period.

This is not that much but as people are sharing their pictures on

social media to get votes, this means a lot of visibility for the

brand.


HOW SINGAPOREANS TALK ABOUT BRANDS?

Most of the mentions of the brands are neutral.

• Enfamil : 43% of the mentions are positive but the brand has very few mentions (6 mentions)

• Similac : 14% of the mentions are positive and the exact same number of mentions are negative (9

mentions).

• Most of the mentions from Friso, Dumex, Enfagrow are neutral because they are about campaigns,

contests, roadshows and other marketing efforts.


WHERE DO SINGAPOREANS TALK NEGATIVELY

ABOUT BRANDS?

It’s interesting to see that most of the negative comments about brands are posted on forums or blogs,

and none of them on social media.

Indeed, followers of Facebook pages are by definition fans of the brands. They mainly use that page to

interact with the brand, participate in contests or ask questions about activations.

Forums and blogs are where the recommendations and reviews happen.


LET’S HAVE A DEEPER LOOK AT THE NEGATIVE

MENTIONS

Negative comments

are mainly focusing on

the increasing price

of some products,

especially Similac and

Friso.


LET’S WATCH AT THE SWITCHERS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS People are regularly looking

for advice online and

comparing brands, whether

they want to switch from

breastfeeding to formula, or

wether they want to switch

from one brand to another

because their baby is not

doing well with one of

them.

Similac is the most

recommended brand, and

Similac Soy or Enfamil

Gentlease are recommended

when gas problems or lactose

intolerence.


• Half of the conversation about Friso is about

marketing campaigns.

• 11% of the conversation is about

roadshows and events.

• 5% are about distribution but retailers are

mostly mentioned when vouchers have to be

redeemed.

• 4% are about price.

• 3% are comparing Friso with its

competitors.

[BRAND FOCUS] WHAT PEOPLE SAY

ABOUT FRISO ?


• A few influencers have talked about Friso,

especially the new campaign, « Yes Experiment »,

targeting Malaysia only: SG Breaking News tweeted

to its 3.820 followers, and SingaporeAdvertising

tweeted to its 326 followers.

• BQ.SG Bargain Queen twitter account is publishing

about the last roadshows and contests.

[BRAND FOCUS] WHO IS TALKING

ABOUT FRISO ?


RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Watch for switchers!

- Whether they are switching from breastfeeding to infant formula or from

one to anohter brand, it’s interesting to understand why they are

switching to impact your message and future campaigns.

- If your customers consider switching to another brand than yours, you can

take that opportunity to advise them to another product of your range

(eg: switch to stage 2) or other advises to use the product better.

- Switchers are talking on forums and micro-blogging platforms, so don’t

forget to keep an eye on these platforms as well !

- Create an online persona for the brand. Be helpful to your customers or

prospects, answer their questions and direct them to your blog to get a

more detailed answer.


RECOMMENDATIONS

3 Avoid negative interactions

- Be clear in your communications with the fans when creating contests,

to avoid disappointment and complains.

2 Increase your visibility! - Most brands are only using Facebook to communicate, but they are not

present at all on Twitter, which is a channel used a lot by Singaporean

young adults (300.000 accounts in Singapore, 45% of users between 18

and 29 years old).

- Reward your ambassadors on important moments, as Friso has done on

Mothers Day, and they will share in positive terms with their community.


INDONESIA


• There were 1098 mentions between 19th of March 2015 to the 19th of May 2015 (2 months) about infant

formula brands in internet and we reviewed 541 mentions.

• We can notice 1 peak each for the brand SGM (22/03) and Friso (12/05)

• SGM reached that peak due to their roadshow activity on Kuningan and Brebes. They managed to

receive a lot of media coverage, especialy online news portal.

• Friso reached that peak due to their chat consultation in their facebook fanpage. We captured 41

questions from parents about their children nutritional issue

HOW MUCH DO INDONESIAN SPEAK ABOUT



HOW MUCH DO INDONESIASPEAK ABOUT



HOW INDONESIANS TALK ABOUT BRANDS?


• Enfamil: 100% of the mentions are positive but the brand only has 2 mentions.

• SGM: 15 mentions about the brands are positive and they have 26 negative mentions out of 257 mentions.

• Friso: Friso has 96 mentions and they were able to get 14 positive mentions and 8 negative mentions

• Bendera, Pediasure, Morinaga, S-26 and Nutrilon also receive quite good number of mentions. However,

Nutrilon, Morinaga and S-26 are the only three who receive positive mentions.


• 72.3% of the conversation happens on Twitter / Micro-Blogging.

• Many people talk about the topics on Social Network for 13.7%, especially in Facebook. Most of the

mentions are related with online consultation and competition. Please note that our system couldn’t reach

Facebook user which are private.

• 7.2% of the conversation happens on the good old forums, mainly when people are looking for advice

and recommendations. So, that’s an interesting channel to watch! As we expected Kaskus dominated the

discussion with 27 mentions followed by Yahoo! Answers Indonesia and Kompas Forum.

WHERE DO INDONESIAN SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA?


SGM’s ROADSHOW GRAB MEDIA ATTENTION

At 12th of May, SGM’s Roadshow along with Journalist

association grab media attention. The news attracted

285 retweets and we captured 53 mentions about that.

The news certainly increase SGM’s online visibility


WHO ARE INFLUENCERS FOR THE INDUSTRY?

• Tribun Network assisted SGM with their coverage during

SGM’s Roadshow on Kuningan and Brebes. The news at

Tribun Network was retweeted for 285 times. It seems

that Tribun Network is a good influencer.

• Klikdokter website could be another influencer’s option.

As you can see below, they have 2.4 millions fans and

very active page.


FRISO’S LIVE CHAT CONSULTATION ON

FACEBOOK

Friso’s strategy with Live Chat

Consultation works really well. We

managed to capture 41 questions

from their likers. It certainly increase

their brand awareness


WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS ASKED DURING

LIVE CHAT CONSULTATION

Friso’s live chat worked really well,

it was able to attract curious parent

to ask questions about their

children’s nutrition.

The result shows that people are

actively looking for nutritional

advice for their kids.

It could be an opportunity for

brands to be actively answering

questions from their

customers/potential customers.


FOCUS ON SGM and SGM’s

#BerduaJadiHebat

We managed to capture 22 mentions about SGM’s latest

Marketing Campaign #BerduaJadiHebat. It might not be much,

but it certainly increase brand visibility since it required the likers to

post their children’s photo. The campaign helped SGM to increase

engagement in their fanpage.

It seems to work really well, considering the number of participants

of the campaign.

SGM receive the most mentions (257 mentions) during the period of the time. In the following sections,

we will focus on SGM’s online presence.


WHERE DO INDONESIANS

EXPRESS THEIR OPINION ABOUT

SGM?

Close to 85% of SGM’s mentions came from Twitter (Micro-Blogging). Interestingly all negative mentions also

came from Twitter.

Forum such as Kaskus and Yahoo! Answers Indonesia generate productive discussion because most of

recommandation came from these two forums. Forums also generate 2 positive mentions for SGM.


WHAT ARE SOME NEGATIVE

MENTIONS ABOUT SGM

Out of 257 mentions there are 26 Negative mentions about the brand SGM. There are two kind of negative

mentions that we captured. There are couple of complains about product display and miss-pricing.

The other negative mentions are related with tendency of young people to make a joke about SGM’s

abbreviation. They tend to come up with name which might degrade the value of the brand.


WHAT ARE THE DISCUSSIONS?

From the screenshot on the left, we found that Price is a key factor before parents making any decision.

There are people who perceive higher price equal with higher quality. At the same time, there are people

who are actively searching for high quality product for a low price.

At the second screenshot, we could see there are many people who are actively searching for opinion

towards the most suitable product. Most of the answer usually will provide name of brand base on the

previous experience. SGM and Morinaga received 3 recommandations from 3 different people.


INTERESTING DISCUSSIONS ON

KASKUS

We picked up some interesting discussion on Kaskus. There are couple of Pet Lovers who actually feed or

recommend SGM product as nutrition replacement.

This discussion also shows how familiar people with the brand, so they feel comfortable using it for their

Pet.


WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT SGM

• Marketing Campaign and Roadshows & Events dominated the talk about SGM for 56%.

• SGM’s campaign #BerduaJadiHebat certainly help the result

• Roadshow&Events able to receive a lot of mentions, due to Media Attention for SGM Roadshow to

Kuningan and Brebes

• 11.6% discussions are about distribution, with the name of the retailers mentioned by people

• Nutritional Content and Claims followed behind with 20 and 16 mentions

• Price, Safety Issues, Breast Milk Comparison and Competitors don’t receive any significant mentions,

since they only receive less than 10 mentions.


RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Watch for swing buyers!! - Whether they are unsure about the quality or maybe the price, it is

important for you to understand their key decision factor to impact your

message and future campaign.

- Swing buyers are actively searching for answers on forums, so don’t forget

to keep an eye on these platforms as well!

- Creating Online Persona for the brand on forums will allow you to interact

with them and help them solve their issues.

2 Increase your visibility! - Most of the mentions came from Twitter. Although most of the brands

already have twitter’s account, they haven’t used the full potential of

Twitter yet. Brands should spend more time in Twitter and actively

engage with their followers.

- Photo sharing campaign on Facebook works really well, however you

might want to consider Instagram as another platform.

- Live Chat also works really well for Friso. No harm to try.


RECOMMENDATIONS

3 Think Outside The Box

- It might be worth to conduct a research with Pet Lovers about their

nutrition choice for their pet, especially the small ones.

- For SGM, you can conduct competition for SGM abbreviation related with

the product, as we noticed a tendency to do that on Twitter. It could help the

brand generate Unique Marketing Message.


MALAYSIA


• There was 1100 mentions between the 19th of March to the 19th of May (2 months) about infant formula

brands in Malaysia.

• For the rest of the analysis, we will focus on the 624 more influential mentions during the same period.

• The peak on 29th of April is mainly due to a higher activity from the community manager of the brand

Dumex, answering the questions of the fans.

HOW MUCH DO MALAYSIANS SPEAK ABOUT



Dumex dominates the conversation with 62.7% of the total mentions, but as we will see later there is a

lot of negative comments as well.

Dutch Lady and Friso also managed to create conversation in Malaysia during the period.

HOW MUCH DO MALAYSIANS SPEAK ABOUT



• 51.4% of the conversation happens on social media, mainly on Facebook and mainly on the

Facebook pages of the brands. Most of the mentions are from customers expressing their views,

seeking advice, or participating in online contests.

• 34.7% of the conversation happens on Twitter and blogging websites, mainly talking about deals

and freebies/giveaway.

• Conversation on forums made up of 7.5%. The most used forums are Yahoo! Answers Malaysia,

with 21 mentions, followed by Lowyat Forum and CariGold Forums.

WHERE DO MALAYSIANS SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA?


• 237 mentions (38% of all mentions) come from the very active Dumex Dugro Facebook page. Not only

they have almost 129,841 fans and they are posting an interesting content every day and answering every

comments from the fans.

• Dumex Mamil and Dutch Lady Moms Club have also established an active facebook page with

considerable amount of conversations happening almost every day. That gives a very good visibility for the

brands.

• Other than the fan pages, Berita Harian Online, Oh! Media and Imam Muda are good influencers to

explore considering the huge numbers of fans following the pages.

WHERE DO MALAYSIAN SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA : ON FACEBOOK?

(…)


45

WHERE DO MALAYSIANS SPEAK ABOUT

INFANT FORMULA : ON TWITTER & BLOGS?

• Beside Facebook, there are 159 twitter accounts and 15 blogs talking about infant formula brands.

• Freebies Land Malaysia is sharing on free samples and freebies, either on Twitter or on their website.

• Most Twitter accounts or blogs are selling products, alerting their friends about promotions and

roadshows, or comparing the prices between different stores.

• The account Zhu M, with a high influence score, is making a joke about Dumex/Durex.


DUMEX: REACHING OUT TO THE AUDIENCE

Dumex Dugro has promoted 3 posts about its products

which managed to gather around 16,000 likes and 200

comments each.

But the impact was not as expected, as the

conversations were mostly negative, people

expressing their views on pricing, availability of

supply and lack of freebies.

This might be correlated with the increase of taxes which

happened on 1st of April and was highly criticized in the

country.


48

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY CREATE VISIBILITY?

• Enfragrow A+ has created awareness during the Brain Expo 3 days event held on Mothers’ Day in Kuala

Lumpur. The Youtube video recorded on the event posted on the fanpage has attracted so far around

50,000 views, and the event has been shared by a few influencers as “AEON Retail Malaysia” (185k fans),

“My Child Malaysia” FB pages or the blog “Weekend Treat”.

• People on the Enfagrow facebook page are very enthusiast about this innovative event, perfectly planned

around Mothers Day, allowing for some moms&baby moments and pictures opportunities.


https://www.facebook.com/aeonretail.my

https://www.facebook.com/MyChildMalaysia

http://speciality-weekendtreat.blogspot.sg/

HOW MALAYSIANS TALK ABOUT BRANDS?


• Dumex: 19% of the mentions are negative for Dumex Dugro and 21% for Dumex Mamil.

• Dutch Lady : 16 negative mentions and 11 positive mentions with total mentions of 113.

• We can notice the increase of negative mentions around the 1st of April, when the taxes increase was

implemented in the country.


ABOUT WHAT ARE NEGATIVE MENTIONS?

Majority of the negative comments

on Dumex Dugro and Dutch Lady

are mainly focusing on the

following topics:

1) Price issues

2) Availability of stocks

3) No free gifts or measurement

scoop, looking for trial pack or

sample

4) Formula not suitable

Malaysian customers are price

sensitive and therefore look out for

any giveaway of the products.

50 Tesla Insights May 2015

LOOK OUT FOR SWITCHERS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

Consumers are regularly looking for advice

online and compare brands, whether they

want to switch from one brand to another

because their baby are not doing well with

one of them or not satisfied with the existing

brand, for example comparing the extra they

can get from other brand such as

measurement scoop in the packaging.

Besides facebook, it is also important to go

into the forum to fish out problems faced by

users and provide constructive answers.


RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Watch for switchers!

- Whether they are switching from breastfeeding to infant formula or from

one brand to another, it’s vital to understand the root cause of their

intention. These informations are crucial for further research on product

improvement and future marketing campaigns strategy.

- Switchers are actively visiting forums and twitters platforms, be watchful

on these platforms as well!

2 Increase your visibility! - Brands are mainly using Facebook to communicate, despite Twitter being

actively used by Malaysian young adults. There were 159 twitter accounts

talking about various infant formula brand in Malaysia within the 2 months

period. Brands should explore on this alternative platform to maximise its

visibility in the market.


RECOMMENDATIONS

React to Market Sentiment ! - Throughout the 2 months analysis period, the highest number of mentions

recorded by Dumex was end of March to early April 2015 and majority are

negative mentions about price, asking for free gifts and discounts. This

was basically due to the effect of the implementation of GST on 1st April 2015

by Government of Malaysia.

- Infant formula is a price sensitive product as it is a necessities for family with

baby. As such, pricing is one of the main factor to consider especially for the

low to medium income group of population in Malaysia. Any negative

movement of price would create consumers’ dissatisfaction. Promoting products

on Facebook at that moment was risky, unless the brand came out with

promotions such as free gifts or discounts.

53

3

4 Capitalize on important moments The event held by Enfragrow for Mother’s day was a success, allowing moms

and their children to spend some quality time together. They got compliments

on Facebook and asking for more similar event in future.


Thank you !

Let your customers decide your next move.

Go where they express emotions.

Let us help you refine the raw data into gold insights.

About Tesla Insights We are offering actionable social media insights to help you connect with your customers main concerns, passions

and aspirations, in Asian markets.

Please do get in touch for more custom social media insights for your own needs:

www.teslainsights.com

[email protected]