For the past 6-7 years I’ve had the pleasure of being a close friend of Pierre Pang. Pierre’s family is the Malaccan family that brought us the snacks that all Malaysians have grown up with Mamee Monster, Double-Decker and Mister Potato. These are snacks that have been around for decades and still are today so my initial impression was that this company was one that could just sit back and make money from its classic hit products.
I was wrong however. In the past 5-6 years I’ve seen Mamee Double-Decker innovate as a company over and over again in a tough competitive environment. Sometimes they fail but sometimes they succeed. In this article I’m going to tell you why I think Mamee is one of the most innovative Malaysian companies in the region.
1) Mamee Chef
Mamee Double-Decker has been in the instant noodles business for decades. The past 5 years though has been very difficult on them. Indonesian instant noodle players with huge budgets have entered the Malaysian market spending tons on advertising & promotion and pricing their products very competitively.
The Indonesian players put a lot of pressure on the local brands and stealing market share. The biggest brand for instant noodles in Malaysia (Maggi) wasn’t really affected because of its strong brand but the loss of market share came at the expense of the other players like Mamee, Cintan and more.
Mamee was in a tight spot. The natural thing to do would be to fight on price to gain back some of its market share but instead what they all did was take a trip overseas to see how the instant noodle markets abroad fared.
They learned that in China, Japan and Korea the instant noodle product had evolved significantly. They had gone from the regular instant noodles we’re used to in Malaysia to proper meals with condiments and good paste coupled with very springy noodles. There they saw the solution. They decided that they couldn’t compete head to head with a homogenous product against players who have more spending power than they do. So they innovated.
They came back not with a new product but with a vision. A vision to bring higher quality instant noodles back to Malaysia. The kind of instant noodles that people won’t be shy to eat for a proper meal. The result of that vision was a product called Mamee Chef.
For Mamee Chef they got a celebrity chef named Chef Ismail to cook the paste and the flavour of the soup. Then they invested in new machines to improve the springy-ness of their noodles. Lastly they added condiments to make it look more like a meal.
My personal favourite Mamee Chef flavour is Curry Laksa which so happened to be listed as Ramen Rater’s Top 10 Instant Noodles of 2014.
2) Sponsoring Manchester United
In 2011 Mamee Double-Decker went where no Malaysian company had ever gone. They boldly became the Global Snacks Sponsor of Manchester United. The 3-year deal cost them an undisclosed amount of money but considering that Manchester United is the most popular football club in the world, it’s safe to say it was a huge bet.
The sponsorship reaped huge returns. It wasn’t just from putting Manchester United players on Mister Potato canisters or the digital boards that we see during every game. The value they saw was bigger. Being the Global Snacks Sponsor of Manchester United lent credibility to their brand into places where nobody knew of them.
So in tandem with their Manchester United sponsorship, Mamee Double-Decker went on a huge regional expansion plan. They talked to distributors from countries who had never heard of them before, but because of its sponsorship were willing to open their doors and hear what they had to say. As a result of that Mamee Double-Decker was able to get their products on to shelves in many many more markets that they had ever been in a short time.
The value they got from the sponsorship was far more than the amount they paid for it. It was a huge bet, a bet no traditional Malaysian companies have ever embarked on. But they did it and it worked.
3) Mexican Wave
One of my favorite Mamee Double-Decker products is unfortunately a product that no longer exists. It was called Mexican Wave.
Mexican Wave was an extension of Mister Potato. Instead of the regular clean potato chip you see on Mister Potato, Mexican wave was the criss cut type of chips. The best part about it though is the flavors.
My favourite all time flavour was Seaweed. It was so awesome I remember our group of friends constantly asking Pierre to send cartons of Mexican Wave seaweed flavour to us. Unfortunately though Mexican Wave didn’t quite work out and Mamee Double-Decker had to discontinue it. So I’ll never have a chance to eat it again.
4) Perfecto
Replacing Mexican Wave though is a premium type of potato chip now with fresh garnishing called Perfecto. The funny thing about Perfecto is that most people don’t realize it’s a Malaysian product. I was in Ben’s grocer once and I saw an expat mother with one canister of Perfecto in her shopping cart. She looked like the kind of person who would buy Kettle chips or Lays and hardly the kind of person who would buy a Mister Potato. But she bought Perfecto.
Perfecto is Mamee’s new attempt to innovate in the potato chip category. Sure Mister Potato remains the largest potato chip brand in Malaysia in terms of market share but they’re looking to extend that. Going into a more premium position but not too premium. It’s still early days but looking at the response of Perfecto and its fan base I don’t think it’ll go the way of Mexican Wave.
Give me a choice between the two and I’d still go for Mexican Wave though.
5) Perfecto Popcorn
Their latest product of course is something we Malaysians aren’t really used to seeing at our convenience stores. Popcorn in a packet: Perfecto Popcorn.
The idea behind Perfecto Popcorn was that Mamee Double-Decker wanted to dominate snacks that we eat while watching TV. Movie theaters have successfully managed to train us to associate eating popcorn with watching a movie so why not eat popcorn at home while watching TV.
There are 3 flavours I’ve tried of Perfecto Popcorn. I found the caramel one nice but when if you compare it with Garretts or the really expensive popcorn then you’ll really be disappointed. What do you expect when you’re paying many many times more the price for Garretts.
What I do love about Perfecto Popcorn though is their French Vanilla flavour. It was a new, refreshing taste of popcorn that I’ve never had before.
6) Cool Tea
One thing we don’t realize about Mamee Double-Decker is that they have a beverage business. They sell drinks mostly to less urban areas in Malaysia.
This year though they decided to try something new in the drinks business. Again instead of copying whatever we had widely available in the drinks market (like milk tea or ice lemon tea) they decide to innovate. They went for bottled leong cha that we’re used to drinking at coffee shops. In a move that even Captain Obvious would be proud of, they called this new product Cool Tea.
Pierre sent me a few cartons when he first launched it and my brother who’s normally critical on new products has been drinking one bottle every day. Every time I fill up the fridge with 10 bottles I see it go down faster than my bank account when I started having kids.
Cool Tea is a new product and I believe it won’t be the last beverage product that Mamee Double-Decker comes out with. I thought it was interesting because it wasn’t a drink that was widely available in Malaysia until now. I wonder what drinks they’ll come up with next.
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The thing about Mamee Double-Decker is that if you look at the history they’ve had tons and tons of products that they’ve created, invested in and failed. Mexican Wave and Funkees to name a couple. Yet they’ve never given up on innovating far beyond their classic products and have on the journey had some great hits.
That’s the fundamental principle of an innovator. An innovator doesn’t always get all products right but they keep trying and they eventually do.
I know a lot of very successful traditional Malaysian companies that have been around for decades but I think Mamee Double-Decker is one of the most innovative ones around.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space