JAKARTA: Marketers targeting the Indonesian market need to ensure they book their slots in relevant media during what is going to be an exceptionally busy summer a new report has advised.

Indonesia: Economic Outlook 2014, from Kantar Worldpanel, noted that three big events would be hitting the country in June and July, starting with the FIFA World Cup, which would overlap with Ramadan and a presidential election.

And it highlighted the impact that a festive period could have on sales in some categories. In the equivalent Ramadan and post-Ramadan period last year, syrup sales rocketed from less than IDR 100bn to more than IDR 1,000bn.

The report further remarked on sales trends in various FMCG categories in neighbouring Malaysia during the 2010 World Cup – cake volumes up 85%, wine up 35% and beer up 17%.

Indonesian households were buying an increasing number of FMCG categories, said Kantar Worldpanel, but it added that shopping frequency was decreasing. As a result, competition was intensifying as brands fought to be the one chosen on a visit to the store.

Nor was the situation helped by the number of new product launches. According to Kantar Worldpanel, 2013 saw the introduction of 173 new food brands, 61 new beverage brands, 26 new personal care brands and 12 new home care brands.

At SKU level, it said, the competition set was even higher: 1,038 new food SKUs, 313 new beverage SKUs, 604 new personal care SKUs and 232 new home care SKUs.

Overall, the report said there was a trend in Indonesia towards premiumisation in all categories, including FMCG where everything from soap to cheese had seen significant uplifts during 2013. Pack sizes were also increasing, boosting volume growth

Data sourced from Kantar Worldpanel; additional content by Warc staff