INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 7

My Recommendation?

This whole trip was definitely fun and interesting for me because I got a chance to learn about Indomie further. I learned about the process of making the noodles from the beginning until the packaging process, how they promote their products, and how many new flavours that Indomie launched in the last few years. 

The most interesting part was when someone asked about the wax that the noodles made on the process of making the noodles that makes the water yellow. I was always scared of eating this noodles because people say that Indomie can cause cancer because of the wax and the MSG. However, I finally found out that what makes the water yellow is all the vitamins and the oil that comes from the noodles, not the wax that we people have been paranoid of. 

In my opinion, Indomie is one of the greatest product invented in Indonesia that has been really famous worldwide. The price is always affordable and the taste is always been good. However, I still believe that one day that Indomie can find out a new kind of seasoning without MSG that is way healthier for the consumers. 

INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 6

How Keen is Indomie to Social Media? 

Prior to these this era of technology, social media websites have been used by so many companies for advertising because the costs are relatively cheap and most of the people open their social media accounts multiple times a day. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Path are the most used social media websites that people use, but actually there are more social media websites that companies can use in their promotion, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, etc. 

Indomie uses all of the most used media to promote their products online. From their Facebook page, we can see their activities in posting pictures or quotes in their timeline. https://www.facebook.com/Indomie . Currently, there are 1.2 million likes on Facebook which is quite interesting because it is really effective in promoting their noodles. From their Instagram, they currently have around 6000 followers and 59 posts (@indomieid). 

The most interesting part is that the consumers even make videos that they posted on YouTube about Indomie, which are quite famous around the world. Free advertising done by the consumers are definitely interesting. 

Personally, I think that using the social media for the promotion is definitely one of the best way that companies can do because it is free, fast, and effective instead of paying so much money on the advertising on the newspaper and magazines. Additionally, most of the people nowadays are really into the social media websites/ applications, that they tend to open their accounts multiple times every single day. 

INDOMIE FACTORY VISIT - 5

Promotional Mix? 

Obviously, advertising has been the most used promotional mix that Indomie uses for its products. We have seen so many Indomie advertising in television, internet, newspaper, and magazines. To create awareness, especially when Indomie launches new products, Indomie must some big portion of their budget on the advertising because it is really important for them to make people aware of their new products. Additionally, Indomie also has to fight on the advertising with its competitors as well. People may already know about how good this Indomie brand is, but if Indomie does not keep on promoting its products to the market, Indomie will lose the fight in the market in the long run. 

During this great technology development, online advertising has also been really famous because most people are always online all the time, meaning that people use smartphone and use social media websites. For youngsters, it does not even cost Indomie any fees to create their own page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the other social media websites. On certain websites, it may cost the a little, but not as expensive as television advertising, billboards, and magazines. 

The second promotional mix that Indomie uses is the public relations. In school events, we have seen so many Indomie/Indofood brochures because Indomie has become a great sponsor for some events, not only school events, but even big musical event as well. Additionally, Indofood/Indomie also does donation to orphanage/reformatory. For example, Indofood donated some amount of money in the making of an orphan house in Semarang. This obviously created a great brand image for Indomie/Indofood at the same time. In 2010, Indomie donated $100,000.00 for the study research done by the bachelor and master students on the IRN program studying about the diversification of food. 

INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 4

How Many People in Marketing Department? 

EXAMPLE OF THE STRUCTURE

They said that they employ currently around 300 people at the moment, but however we did not have the chance to learn about how they divide the marketing department into certain divisions, the structures, etc. 

Even we did not have time to discuss it to details, I believe that the marketing department has some sub divisions inside this big company too because it is impossible to focus on this huge brand. There must be a division that works on the online advertising because Indomie has their own Facebook account for their promotion. 

I believe they must also have R&D team to work on the flavours working very hard because in the last few years, Indomie has launched so many new flavours in Indonesia, and I believe Indofood has also launched new flavours as well in the other countries. 

INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 3

How I Think about The Manufacturing Process? 

Looking at the process from the beginning to the end of the packaging processes, I personally believe that Indomie has been doing really well on the manufacturing process. We can see that the factory is obviously sterile and the workers inside the factory wear their special clothings to protect themselves as well. 

Personally, I really like all of the packaging that Indomie create because of the great and attractive colours of the packagings they designed. I love how every different flavours have different packaging, not only the labels, but also the design as well. The best Indomie packaging I think is Indomie Taste of Asia design because the materials used for the packaging is really good and they present it very nicely. On the market, I really think that the design of the packaging is really good comparing to the other brands. When I first saw Taste of Asia packaging, I did not recognize that it was an Indomie branch because the materials used are completely amazing. 

Taste-wise, Indomie has been really famous and everyone loves Indomie, even people in America, Europe, and Africa love Indomie. They have so many flavours, so they can fit to everyone's preference and really adjustable to all nations. Sadly, we did not have a chance to see the process on how they make their seasoning. 

However, a well established brand like Indomie may still fail on their quality control, for example: some packs may not have the seasoning pack so it is impossible for the customer to eat, or the oil and the sauce packaging may leak its contents, so the customers can not consume the noodle. The other problem is when I find Indomie packaging that is not 100% air tight. I can not tell the difference on the taste of the noodle, but I find that even one hole on the pack may contaminate virus. Quality control and delivering good customer services have always been the biggest issues in real world because human can do mistakes / negligence. For Indomie, my suggestion is doing double quality control, or even more because Indomie has been sold very largely in the whole world. 

INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 2

Intro

On Thursday, July 30th 2015, me and the other BSP students had a chance to do an industrial visit to one big company, Indofood, and we had a chance to visit their best selling product's factory, which is Indomie factory. We met up early at school at 7.00 AM because the factory is quite far from our college, located in Cibitung, Bekasi. We went together to the factory by bus at 10.00 AM and we quickly started our activities.

The first thing that we did was obviously the presentation of their product, they showed us how many flavours they have on the market at the interim, which was quite surprising because there were so many flavours that I had not seen before, such as Indomie Cabe Hijau, Indomie Taste of Asia, etc. Previously I did not notice on how many Indomie flavours that exist in the market right now, but finally I recognized so many different flavours added in the last few years because I was not in Indonesia for the last four years.

After we had the introduction done, we had a tour on the process of making the noodles from wet to dry, how they fry it, how they dry it, and lastly on how they put it in the packaging. I knew that the production process was all done by the machines because I think it is impossible for Indomie to produce noodle with so many human powers. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures on the machineries.

After we had the tour, we finally came up with the Q&A session which was really interesting because I thought the tour was too short. We had so many questions on the marketing strategy because personally, this is the most important part on the industrial visits, knowing the company strategy further and learn from these big companies on how to do the business !

INDOMIE FACTORY TRIP - 1

Expectation and Background

Previously, I have visited some factories in the last few years during high school. I have visited food supplements factory that my parents build, Astra motor factories in Kerawang, etc. For me, factory visit has always been an interesting time for me because it allows me to see the company further to the inside, their policies and strategies, how they manage their employees, how to handle the competitors, etc. 

During this Indomie factory visit, I hoped that I could see the process of how they make their noodles, how they dry them and how they manage to package so many noodles at a time, and learn this big company's marketing strategy.