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Jakarta Post

Indonesia's homegrown cosmetics set to amplify campaign

Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, December 10, 2016

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Indonesia's homegrown cosmetics set to amplify campaign The lobby of Martha Tilaar Salon and Day Spa. (Martha Tilaar Salon and Day Spa/-)

F

rom satay to rendang curry, rich and authentic dishes are part of the nations’s culinary appeal that keeps foreign tourists coming back.

But as the country’s tourism campaign intensifies, the world’s biggest archipelago is looking to homegrown cosmetics to lure more overseas visitors.

A new partnership between the Tourism Ministry and local cosmetic maker Martina Berto, part of the Martha Tilaar Group, is set to further boost the Wonderful Indonesia campaign in a bid to attract 20 million tourists by 2019, almost double this year’s target of 12 million.

Under the cooperation, the campaign’s logo will adorn the firm’s well-known Sari Ayu products, including lipsticks and eye shadow sets. This follows an earlier move in which the logo was printed on 20 million Papatonk shrimp cracker bags shipped to China.

The most recent promotional effort aims to popularize Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), one of 10 emerging destinations, as the firm also took inspiration for its new cosmetic products from Lombok, another famous tourist spot in the same province, according to Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

The ministry has spent heavily on its overall promotional activities, including familiarization trips, festivals, travel exchanges and sales mission.

The hefty amount has also been channeled to emblazon the campaign’s logo on food packaging, as well as 400 taxis and 10 buses in London, and to promote tourist destinations such as Borobudur Temple in Central Java.

It has earmarked Rp 2 trillion (US$150 million) out of its Rp 3.8 trillion budget next year, up slightly from Rp 1.7 trillion in the revised 2016 state budget.

“We are perhaps the country’s third-largest institutional spender that allocates a sizeable budget for promotion after tobacco and telecommunication companies,” Arief recently said.

Such a concerted effort is in line with the official target to push up its position to 30th place for country tourism on the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, up from 47th place in 2015, which was higher than neighbors Thailand and Malaysia.

Martina Berto president director Bryan Tilaar, who leads Marta Tilaar’s manufacturing and marketing subsidiary, said the company’s engagement had non-commercial and commercial aspects, which included expanding its overseas sales.

“Each year we want our exports to grow 10 to 30 percent. We are focusing on our Asia-Pacific market, as well as the Middle East,” he said.

Visitors from Asia-Pacific countries have long dominated foreign arrivals to Southeast Asia’s largest economy, with the current top contributor coming from China.

With other companies submitting proposals to take part in the Wonderful Indonesia campaign, co-branding efforts may continue in the future.

Marketing consulting firm MarkPlus founder and CEO Hermawan Kartajaya applauded the ministry’s branding approach through Indonesian-made products.

“It’s very effective because the products and tourism brand can support each other’s strengths,” he said.

Hermawan added that as Indonesia championed nature, culture and man-made tourism, the products related to these aspects would fit the brand campaign as well.

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