The Knowledge to Decide

With growing regional integration and rising incomes, more Asian consumers are choosing Asian brands against foreign brands. Xiaomi, an Asian brand, outsold Apple in China in 2014 for the first time. Brunei based brand – Brunei Halal – recently opened stores in Malaysia targeting its Muslim population. The Indian government’s knowledge website initiative – known as Vikaspedia and offering content in 22 different local languages – is gaining ground. Taobao, Air Asia, Alipay, Huawei, Siam Cement, San Miguel, Tiger Beer and Indofood are other Asian brands that are on the march. They all hail from countries other than Japan, Korea and Taiwan, the traditional sources of Asian brands. Will more Asian brands take the leap to become global brands as the top Japanese and Korean brands have become? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/asian-consumers-embrace-local-brands/

Spire Research and Consulting collaborated with the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDBI) to study the direct economic impact of Indonesia’s National Health Insurance (JKN) program in 2015. The study revealed that the much talked about JKN program would add up to IDR18.62 trillion (USD1.3 billion) to Indonesia’s economy. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting group, was honoured to address a press conference on behalf of PDBI on 25 August  2015 in Central Jakarta. During the conference, he discussed the direct economic impact of the JKN program since its implementation in 2014. Bahar opined that the positive impact highlights the contribution from four related sectors namely human resources, construction of hospitals, health services and medicines. Interestingly, the study used data from various government institutions throughout 2014 which clearly demonstrated that the JKN program has raised demand for doctors and nurses by 50,000