BCG: Seeing Market Potential Through Middle Class and Affluent Consumers Growth

It is no secret that Indonesia is one of the fastest growing countries in the growth of the consumer class society. In the future, the business and market potential in Indonesia is a very strategic potential to be explored. Through The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report on growth Middle Class and Affluent Consumers (MACs) which was just released, can we take advantage of the lucrative market potential in Indonesia, especially in the technology industry?

Indonesia is a country that has the 4th largest population in the world. With an attractive population demographic and a favorable investment climate, the population of the middle class (MACs) which currently stands at 74 million, is expected to double by 2020 to 141 million. In that period about 8 to 9 Million people will enter the middle class every year. It should be noted that Indonesia's largest target market is currently the middle class whose growth is considered very high fast lately. This forces industry players, especially the technology industry, to start thinking about how to penetrate a very high potential market.

Consumer goods are one of the goods that are in demand by people from this class. In addition to the needs of other items such as homegoodsmotorized vehicles, and so on, consumer goods are one of the goods most in demand by the middle class, including such as gadgets, and other electronic goods.

As one example, the use of Indonesian cellular telephones, which to date has reached around 250 million, is one of the most successful examples of the consumer goods category in Indonesia. No doubt, Indonesia is believed to be one of the main target markets in the world, especially in the technology industry. According to data released by BCG, technology products occupy the rising popularity numbers quite satisfactorily in the middle class. It is recorded that about 22% of these MACs have Smartphone and around 29% have a laptop or PC. Seeing this percentage clearly, technology industry players must further develop their ability to penetrate this potential market.

For industry players, of course, they must have their own "way of playing" to be able to enter a market that is actually unique compared to other countries. If business actors want to capture this potential, industry players must be able to understand the demographics and trends that are developing in Indonesian society. Talking about demographics, Indonesia has a fairly good population pyramid. More than 60% of Indonesia's population is in the age range of 20-65 years which incidentally is the productive age that has the largest market potential in Indonesia. This figure is more than double that of neighboring Vietnam, and three times that of South Korea's total population.

There are several things to note from the data released by BCG, especially for industry players. To effectively target the upper middle class, industry players must at least understand and have a number of ways that they must live, including

Don't underestimate the power of “traditional” media. Although almost every household in Indonesia now has television channels, it remains that information "underground"become information that is widely used as a source of information for those who reliable. Even though advertising the most powerful through TV Commercial not even able to beat the information from "word of mouth" either from friends, family, or from source other. This information is believed to be able to make them try new products that are released.

Infiltrating the Social Media of the Indonesian Societyconnected Indonesian people are very connected to each other through social media networks. In 2012, Facebook users reached 50 million users (the fourth largest of Facebook users worldwide), and 29 million Twitter accounts (the fifth largest in the world). The latest news is that the city of Jakarta occupies the first position in the post tweets compared to other cities around the world. Plus access to various social media networks can be easily accessed by users Mobile devices which the number of users almost equals the population of Indonesian society. Looking at this fantastic data, venturing into social media is one of the most powerful ways to penetrate the MACs market.

With the release of data from BCG, it is hoped that the industrial climate in Indonesia, especially in the field of technology, can be more attractive, and most importantly, people can have various choices that can improve the standard of living of the middle class whose population will continue to increase in the next few years.