Infant Formula Battle in SEA: Key Insights from Singapore

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.

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?

• 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?

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.
- 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.

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

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!
- 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
insights@agencetesla.com

Infant Formula Battle in SEA: Key Insights from Singapore

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