The world’s fourth most populous country is definitely one to watch, says David Crosbie

Two media reports in the past week have served to underline the increasing importance of Indonesia and its consumers to the global economy.

Firstly, an article in Bloomberg Businessweek highlighted the fact that many economists are calling for Indonesia to either be added to the BRIC group – Brazil, Russia, India and China: the four nations identified by Goldman Sachs in 2001 as likely to be the world’s biggest economies by 2050 – or to replace Russia altogether.

The rationale behind these calls is that in contrast to Russia, whose GDP figures have been lacklustre of late and whose population is ageing rapidly, Indonesia has a booming economy (with year-on-year GDP growth of nearly 6%, according to Bloomberg) and a young and vibrant population.

Secondly, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported, under the headline Why Indonesians are all a-Twitter, that according to a study by ComScore, the country has the highest proportion of Twitter users on the planet, with 20.8% of online Indonesians aged over fifteen posting messages on the microblogging site. Brazil comes second, with an equivalent figure of 20.5%. This suggests not only that Indonesian consumers are increasingly tech-savvy, but also that their ability to spread the word about new products and services is on the up.

Indonesia has been one of the ‘Core 25’ countries in GfK Roper Consulting’s Roper Reports Worldwide research since the study’s inception in 1997, because even before the country’s economic advances during the 2000s it represented a formidable group of consumers. Today, Indonesia has the fourth biggest population globally, and is the largest Muslim democracy in the world.

Our ongoing insights into the attitudes and behaviours of Indonesian consumers point to an increasingly promising environment for marketers. Long trend analysis shows that the confidence of Indonesian consumers overtook that of the global average in 2009, and now stands ten percentage points clear. What’s more, according to GfK Roper Consulting’s Consumer Recession Index, which combines a wide range of indicators to determine the extent to which consumers are affected by prevailing economic conditions, Indonesians were the third-least affected of 25 markets in 2010.

It’s clear that Indonesia will offer increased opportunities in the years to come, but these can only be acted upon with a clear insight into the attitudes and behaviours of its consumers. To find out more about how GfK Roper Consulting can help you to achieve this, please contact us. All that’s left now is to settle on a name for this new group. BIIC has been suggested. Or would anybody like a BICI?

It seems that traditional gender roles around food are changing in the sub-continent.

By David Crosbie

One of the highlights of my recent trip to India was sampling what is surely one of the world’s best-loved cuisines in its natural setting. As well as giving my taste buds a treat, the exercise should help me to judge, and thereby wax lyrical to my friends about, which of my local Indian restaurants offer truly authentic dishes, and which serve up ersatz fare that is more geared towards the jaded British palate. Yes, I will become even more of a globalisation bore.

However far more interesting and relevant than the quality of my local takeout’s Bharwan Aloo, particularly for global food marketers, are the changes that are taking place in Indian kitchens, particularly with regard to who does the cooking and why.

Big news in India at the moment is that the nation’s favourite chef, Sanjeev Kapoor, is planning to launch a 24 hour satellite TV cooking channel this summer. That such a channel is being contemplated is acknowledged by Kapoor himself, quoted in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, as a reflection of Indian consumers’ changing relationship with cooking, as they see it less as a chore and more as an enjoyable leisure activity.

“Twenty years ago if you said you cooked, people would ask what was wrong with you. Now it is the opposite,” he says. “For the moment it’s [just] the new middle class, but the beauty of India is that things spread very fast.” Even more interesting is the growing interest of men in the topic, with Kapoor also revealing that 49% of visitors to his website are male – a 20% increase on two years ago.

Apropos of the interest that Kapoor’s activities generate, one Indian market researcher is quoted as saying, “No one had any idea there were so many people interested in cooking as a hobby and as a creative art.” Roper Reports Worldwide data show that 40% of Indian consumers say they cook for fun at least once a month. What is particularly interesting however, and ties in with what Mr. Kapoor has found in his web traffic, is that the proportion of Indian men who claim to cook for fun monthly or more often has increased from 14% in 2007 to 24% in 2009.    

All this suggests that, as in many Western markets, the culinary dynamics of Indian families are changing, with men becoming more and more interested and involved, and marketers in related categories should bear this in mind in their NPD and marketing communications. Oh, and if any of them are looking for a culinary-astute male to taste-test their latest Indian creations for the UK market, just send them my way… 

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