Local preference for tea puts Coca-Cola in cold sweat<\/p>\n
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The first attempt by PT Coca-Cola Indonesia was Hi-C.<\/p>\n
It failed, without even starting to gain recognition in the
\nmarket.<\/p>\n
The second, Frestea, fared better. Nevertheless, PT Coca-Cola
\ndid not get a chance to fight the specter itself -- Teh Botol
\nSosro. PT Sinar Sosro, the producer of long-established Teh Botol
\nSosro, did not lose sweat over the challenge; instead, it skewed
\nthe direction of the battle, offering Frestea a fresh rival,
\nFruit Tea.<\/p>\n
Teh Botol Sosro has effortlessly continued to conquer the
\nbeverage world, gripping around 70 percent of the noncarbonated
\nsoft drinks market, say some retail analysts.<\/p>\n
Coca-Cola was not the first beverage company that had ever
\ntried to challenge Teh Botol Sosro. Apart from several contending
\nsmall companies, the first major rival was PT Pepsi Cola.<\/p>\n
In 1995, PT Pepsi Cola released bottled-tea Tekita, which
\ncontained 300ml of tea, outsizing the 220-ml Sosro. To counter
\nTekita, Sinar Sosro launched 318-ml Estee.<\/p>\n
According to a brand value survey carried out by SWA business
\nmagazine and Mars (Marketing Research Specialist) recently, in
\nthe noncarbonated soft drinks category Teh Botol Sosro has been
\nsitting pretty on top for three consecutive years.<\/p>\n
This year, it scored 356.1, while Fruit Tea (also from Sosro)
\nfollowed in second place with only 36.6 and Frestea from Coca-
\nCola in third with 29.6.<\/p>\n
While many people elsewhere, particularly in the United
\nStates, often claim to be addicted to Coca-Cola, in Indonesia,
\nit's addiction to Teh Botol Sosro.<\/p>\n
If brand value is any indication, in Indonesia, Coca-Cola
\nscored a mere 141.6 this year.<\/p>\n
Foreigners who visit large cities in Indonesia, particularly
\nJakarta, will find Indonesians' penchant for Teh Botol a notable
\ncharacteristic.<\/p>\n
A young Malaysian, on a visit to Jakarta, noted this habit. On
\nthe website http:myindo.com, Farah Mahdzan, writes, \"Teh botol
\nis to Indonesians what teh tarik is to Malaysians and Coca-Cola
\nto Americans ... My Indon (Indonesian) friends always ask me if
\nyou can buy teh botol in Malaysia, and they're always shocked to
\nhear that you can't here ... Don't come and live in Malaysia if
\nyou're a teh botol lover; can't get that stuff here.\"<\/p>\n
In several website forums, netters have even compiled polls to
\nvote for the top brand of teh botol. The winner is obvious: Once
\nagain, the ever popular, omnipresent (at least in Jakarta), Teh
\nBotol Sosro.<\/p>\n
Such forum has sometimes contained messages from people who
\nwere staying abroad and claiming to have a craving for Teh Botol
\nSosro, which was not easy to find in their respective countries.<\/p>\n
Some netters in the U.S. said they found Tetra-packaged Teh
\nBotol Sosro in some Chinese stores.<\/p>\n
However, some Teh Botol Sosro fans still feel that the glass-
\nbottled version is better.<\/p>\n
Devotees say that for the best experience you should sip Teh
\nBotol Sosro with a straw, straight from a bottle that has been
\nfridge-cooled: Don't pour it into a cup and put ice cubes in it.<\/p>\n
The concept of drinking cool, black, sweetened tea with a hint
\nof jasmine was invented by an Indonesian family, the Sosrodjojos.
\nThey owned PT Sinar Sosro and other companies, including the
\nfirst, PT Gunung Slamet (GS), which, since the 1950s, has managed
\ntea plantations and a processing plant in Slawi, Central Java.<\/p>\n
In 1965, Sosrodjojo's third son, Soetjipto Sosrodjojo, tried
\nto expand the distribution of GS' loose jasmine tea product, Teh
\nCap Botol, to Jakarta.<\/p>\n
With his staff, Soetjipto, traveling in a car equipped with
\nspeakers, staged tea demos, with \"tasting promotions\" at public
\nplaces in Jakarta. They concocted Teh Cap Botol in front of the
\ncrowd, and later distributed the tea samples to the public.<\/p>\n
However, because it took time to boil the water, crowds got
\nbored and left before the tea was ready. Soetjipto changed the
\nstrategy, boiling the water at his office and transporting the
\nfreshly made tea in urns.<\/p>\n
However, on the way to demo locations, the tea was spilled so
\nlater they poured it into washed soy sauce or lemonade bottles.
\nThe third attempt was successful and they never looked back.<\/p>\n
The promotion technique sparked an idea to package tea in
\nbottles. In 1969\/1970, the name Teh Botol Sosro, imprinted on
\nspecially-designed bottles, was first introduced.<\/p>\n
They changed the bottle design in 1972, and, later in 1974,
\nthe family made a historic move: They changed the bottle design
\ninto what we see now everywhere and established PT Sinar Sosro.<\/p>\n
The company, located in East Jakarta, has to date produced the
\nfirst glass-bottled tea in Indonesia and, it claims on its
\nwebsite (www.sosro.com), the first of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n
It took years for Sosro to cultivate the habit of drinking tea
\nfrom a bottle, for Indonesians, like people elsewhere, were used
\nto drinking hot tea from cups and ice tea from tall mugs.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, many Indonesians have acquired a new habit, just
\nlike the words in Sosro's bull's-eye marketing slogan: \"Whatever
\nyou eat, you drink Teh Sosro.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/local-preference-for-tea-puts-coca-cola-in-cold-sweat-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}