International Marketing - Or How an Instant Noodle Becomes So Famous Here

Recently I stumbled into an advertisement for an instant noodle brand when I was walking near the student lounge in Monash just the other day. Indomie - is the brand that I looked at. The advertisement, was showing a package of the instant noodle with exotic looking spices in the back and the heading "Why is Indomie so Good? Because it Uses Exotic Indonesian Spices" or something along that line.

The best meal you can get for less than 20 cents

A part of me giggled deep down inside because to the best knowledge of me, Indomie uses a lot of MSG - not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the noodle so damn tasty. But what I'm just amazed is that how does an Indonesian brand became so famous all the way down here in Australia? I went down to Coles a few times and saw the noodles being sold there in sets of 5, as well as supermakets such as Woolsworths, and even 7/11.

Returning back to marketing 101, I think that when the marketers targeted the Australian market, they had an idea of the Indonesian student population in Melbourne that needed a quick, cheap and filling meal solution as well as giving them a taste home. I remember hearing stories of how my friend who came here were given usually a box or two of Indomie to eat.

But of course there are other brands that falls into this category, one that is brought down from their home countries into another country and received such familiarity. What I'm amazed is just that they can afford to have a billboard advertising in Australia, so that means that they have a large distribution center or even a local manufacturing of Indomie.

I guess the virtue to be taken out of this post is that in marketing a product to a new market, marketers should always embrace the value of home. Whenever I eat a packet of Indomie, I'm always reminded of those times where I am sitting in a stall next to a busy street in Jakarta, eating a warm indomie with a cold glass of iced tea. I guess my future career of marketing in Indonesia could be fruitful after all.