Success Stories

Indonesia has become top seller outside Japan for its sports drink...

Reyhan makes his sales pitch for Pocari Sweat at a junior high school in Jakarta/Photo: Tomoyuki IzawaDespite its somewhat unusual name, the sports drink Pocari Sweat is proving to be a hot seller in this sprawling archipelagic nation. Indonesia has become the largest market by far of 15 destinations outside of Japan where Pocari Sweat is on sale.

In 2011, sales are expected to come close to the equivalent of 600 million 330-milliliter cans, almost half of sales in Japan, which have been stagnating. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., manufacturer of the isotonic drink, said sales could eventually surpass Japan's.

Much of the credit for this must go to local sales people like Reyhan who make the rounds of hospitals, schools and other facilities to plug the product. Reyhan works for Amerta Indah Otsuka, Otsuka Pharmaceutical's Indonesian subsidiary. He recently visited a junior high school in Jakarta after gym class and made his pitch to 25 first-year students in the schoolyard.

"Do you know Pocari Sweat?" the 25-year-old asked, handing out samples of the drink. "Go Ion," one student said, citing the catch phrase of a Pocari Sweat television commercial. "Irfan Bachdim," another said, referring to the popular soccer player featured in the ad.

"Indonesia has become the second home for Pocari Sweat," said Yoshihiro Bando, president director of Amerta Indah Otsuka. Bando said Pocari Sweat owes its success in Indonesia to around 50 local employees, who had faith in the product and were determined it would sell well.Cans of Pocari Sweat at a store in a Jakarta hospital/Photo: Tomoyuki Izawa

Reyhan said he visits four to five schools and hospitals a day. In total, the team organizes between 5,000 and 6,000 sales briefings each year. Pocari Sweat was fully introduced in Indonesia in 1997, when the country was rocked by a currency crisis.

A 500-milliliter plastic bottle sells for around 5,200 rupiah (about 47 yen), which is triple the price of mineral water. Reyhan and his colleagues have the perfect sales pitch. They note that the drink replenishes fluids when someone suffers diarrhea or dehydration, key concerns in a country on the equator.

While many soft drinks taste sweet in Indonesia, Pocari Sweat is mild-tasting. It established its status as a health drink in 2004, when the country was hit by an outbreak of dengue fever.

In 2005, Amerta Indah Otsuka began a special sales campaign during Ramadan, giving away samples to people leaving mosques. Japanese officials were reluctant to interfere with the Islamic month of fasting, but Indonesian salespeople were aggressive, saying it would not cause problems. Japanese drink makers are trying to expand sales abroad because the domestic market is shrinking.

Suntory Holdings Ltd. announced in July that it will start a soft drink business in a joint venture with a midsize Indonesian food company.