Tuesday, June 16, 2009

How men's underwear conquered the nation

Who doesn't need clothes? As a prime necessity or just to complement the unnecessary style fringe, clothes are inevitably needed to manipulate our excessive mushrooming waistline or to cover as little as possible when we dance on bar tables.

Farmers to socialites to company workers all wear fashion, be it as under garments, sleeping gowns, casual attire, uniforms, office wear, evening dress or couture piece. With the large population in Indonesia, it's unquestionable that the garment business has a really big opportunity to rise and rule.

Behind the monstrous shopping malls and high pompadour hairstyles of Jakarta fashionistas, the growth of mass product fashion sales in Indonesia is aggravatingly happening with a unique approach to its marketing. This is the story of men's underwear brand that proves the power of "same wavelength" communication is essential for "the best brand". Forget intimidating high fashion images, fashion shows, lottery prizes or special discounts on products. To rule the global retail market from Sabang to Merauke, first be prepared to think like Mother Theresa.

Sitting on a quiet afternoon, I had wonderful chat with this witty, smart, "no retreat" fashion marketing expert lady who'd been marketing men's underwear all over Indonesia, and who'd earned number-one sales nation-wide. The marketing promotions approach used in small towns and rural areas is the complete opposite to the approach used in big cities. With Indonesia's diverse cultures, garment marketers have special techniques to find "slots" to market their products in regions where not many advertisers are capable of succeeding.

The first step of their success is simply putting their brand everywhere the eye can see. And no, don't think it's going to be endless tax papers from the government they'll be paying. What they do is just deal with public transportation skippers, traditional market mafias and small fashion house owners.

In small provinces, fashion awareness dominates the look of public transportation, from becak to angkot, where they efficiently parade brands around town. All marketers need to do is maintain good relations with public transportation chiefs, so that they can cover vehicle and replace its upholstery with their product advertisements. This cuts so many more costs than paying government taxes to put up a single billboard.

Of course, it is also worthwhile hiring a hot heart-throb celebrity to be the brand's model. For most women there this is great since they love riding in becak when feel like they're sitting in the lap of their idol, with his photo printed on the seat.

It's also surprisingly effective to give free gifts of sembako, such as rice, cooking oil, sugar or instant noodles, for every product purchase (instead of discount coupons, membership cards etc). Come to think of it, discounts will lighten the load on most buyer's wallets, but offering sembako will definitely attract the target market's wives to buy - just for the heck getting the bonus to feed the family. Who would have thought buying dad's underwear would benefit the children too?

As well as what you can see, underwear marketing is also about what you hear. You can put aside the budget for an expensive radio ad for something else. Shopping areas from malls to traditional markets often have their own internal radio used for announcement services or just for fun song requests and dedications between shop owners. This program is used to give away underwear as free gifts to whoever makes request and dedicates songs. Sounds weird, but this kind of brand marketing is memorable in that underwear can turn people's fun into something inexplicably funny.

And this is the last juicy part, as in borderlands there are many prostitution houses, some sex-related products become "sponsors" in the sex business. When truck drivers or stressed out salesmen from town to town just wanted to "release their energy" with the "working girls" they paid for a package which includes a condom and a stamina pil (such as Viagra). Recently, underwear has been included in the package. When I asked why they even consider supporting these businesses, the marketing lady said, "Well, if other brands provide power and safety while they play, we give them a clean slate with clean underwear to wear to face their reality of family again." Wicked!

The art of promotion sometimes is like spirituality: What you give will be multiply in what you get. If you care for your market's needs even to the slightest degree, they will eventually worship you enough to buy anything from you. Your business can also conquer the nation without using advertising agencies - all you need is some tender love and care.

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