Mickey Mouse has his nose tweaked in Indonesia

Mickey Mouse has his nose tweaked in Indonesia

By Hyginus Hardoyo

JAKARTA (JP): Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney's most famous
creation, looks pale and exhausted.

Mickey is dressed in very bad taste, not at all his dapper
self in his usual snappy outfit.

In fact, he looks so rough he's no longer very likable.

Is Mickey just frustrated by his squeaky-clean image? No, not
at all... He has fallen among thieves who are using his likeness
to hawk their shoddy wares.

Pirated Disney products can be easily spotted by their poor
quality, Anna Rimba Phoa, marketing manager for the Indonesian
representative office of the Walt Disney Consumer Company, told
The Jakarta Post.

"The pirated products are usually poorly designed. They are
also colored at random. The pirates disregard Disney's books,
which provide legal producers with rules on colors for the outfit
of a certain character, its suitable size and acceptable facial
expressions," she said at the Disney Showcase Indonesia '96, held
on Oct. 16 and 17 at the Jakarta Convention Center.

The Disney showcase, an annual trade and licensing business
event organized by Disney Consumer Products to meet licensee
companies in the retail and distribution sectors, this year was
pushing Disney merchandise under the international brand names
Disney Babies, Mickey for Kids, Mickey Unlimited, Mickey & Co and
Pooh.

Piracy, Anna said, remains rampant in Indonesia, judging by
the many pirated products discovered by Disney in periodical
checks here.

"Of the 2,500 Disney items produced in Indonesia, ranging from
garments, toys, household utensils, stationery, souvenirs,
jewelry, and instruments to food, about 600 are being pirated,
she said.

She explained that Disney will continue its fight against
piracy to prevent the pirated products from ruining its image.
They also want to educate Indonesians on the importance of
licensing and copyrights.

"Most of the pirated products are made by small-scale firms or
individuals, who do not know about licensing or copyright law at
all. They usually stop when we remind them that their activities
are against the law," she said.

"No one has ever been taken to court -- the problem is usually
settled after our warning," she added.

Despite extensive piracy, however, PT Asiana IMI Industries,
which is licensed by the Disney Company to produce a wide variety
of dolls, said it is not afraid of the competition.

The number of people who are aware of the importance of
quality is growing steadily in Indonesia, and they prefer good
quality to cheap products, representative A.T. Chuan said.
They will pay more as long as the products are of good quality,
rather than buy inferior cheap ones, he said.

"Moreover, our products have entered large-scale shopping
centers, including Sogo and Metro," said Chuan, whose company
exports a large quantity of its products mostly to European
countries.

PT Asiana is one of the 98 local companies holding Disney
licenses, whose combined production in 1995 alone reached about
Rp 105 billion (US$45.45 million) with annual growth rates in
sales reaching double-digits, according to the Ministry of
Industry and Trade.

Scott Edmonds, the outgoing director of Disney Consumer
Products Indonesia, said that through licensing agreements with
Disney, local companies are allowed to design, produce and market
products featuring the Disney name and characters.

Tommy Pujiar, expert assistant to the Minister of Industry and
Trade, said that Disney products account for about 70 percent of
the local industry of the same category. "Locally-made Disney
products, books, baby clothes, and toys have already penetrated
international markets," he said at the opening of the Disney
Showcase.

Tommy said that the government is striving to further boost
the toy industry, arguing that toys help improve children's
imagination and creativity.

He also encouraged local firms to make use of existing
opportunities by obtaining licenses from the Walt Disney Company,
and to take advantage of its expertise in innovation, creativity
and sophisticated marketing techniques.

Anna projected the number of local companies cooperating with
Disney under the licensing arrangements will grow by 60 to 70
percent next year as many firms have expressed an interest in
licensing opportunities.

Ester Tedjakusuma of CV Amarta Wisesa Injaya, which holds a
license to produce towels adorned by the Disney characters, said
that advertising licensed products is not as expensive as
advertising locally made ones.

"Also, by buying a license we can learn how to manage a
company professionally, learn about design, production and
marketing," she said.

"We no longer have to bother about designs as there's already
a creative design book," she said, adding that Disney is very
strict about the quality and image of its products.

All characters must be properly reproduced on all products to
maintain the image of the character, she said, adding that in
applying for her license she was forced to come to the Disney
office several times to prove she could meet all the set quality
requirements.

But Ester admitted she was a bit pessimistic about the
company's prospects as the market for high quality towels in
Indonesia is still very limited, and her company is obliged to
pay the licensing fee, which swallows about 10 percent of the
total.