Seeing Erick Thohir As A Brand

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir excels in a number of political surveys. Politically, Erick has a lot of capital, although the fact that he doesn't have a political party is a significant obstacle. But in personal branding, the calculations are different again. We examine how the development of Erick's figure as a brand.

In marketing, personal branding generally has four phases. First, brand awareness. Awareness is the initial stage when people begin to realize the existence of a brand. In Erick's figure, awareness has emerged, which strengthened when Erick served as Chairman of the 2018 Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC).

After awareness, there is a brand association or association. At this stage a brand's identity begins to be known. Erick, in this context, is widely perceived as a businessman, professional, technocrat, and even a problem solver. After the association, the next phase is perceived quality, namely the consumer's perception of the quality of a product.

For Erick, his performance is a testament to his quality. "If the association is still in nature, people know ... If perceived quality is performance. Was he successful as a minister or not. Did he succeed in the Asian Games or not. That is perceived quality, which includes how he performs," said business and marketing analyst Yuswohady to VOI, Wednesday, October 6th.

The next stage is loyalty or loyalty. In the context of personal branding, this phase is not so crucial because it is usually related to conversions to material gains. The last one is advocacy. At this stage the audience will 'promote' the brand -- which has been known to exist, is known for its quality, and provokes loyalty -- for free to others.

"In marketing, it is the peak of advocacy. For example, Apple. People buy Apple on the recommendation of others. Because it is well known and so on, people recommend it. So he is like the marketer. But you don't get paid, right. Organic," Yuswohady.

Then, to what stage is Erick Thohir?

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (Source: Ministry of SOEs Documentation)

The key to Erick Thohir's meteoric rise as a personal brand was the 2018 Asian Games moment. Indeed, he had already pocketed awareness before the Asian Games. Through the acquisition of the Italian giants, Inter Milan, for example. Or with his actions in the business world. But the Asian Games amplified Erick's name as a personal brand significantly.

"So, actually in terms of awareness, he reached all of Indonesia, you know, after the Asian Games. The Asian Games brought up people like Erick Thohir, Wishnutama, and so on," said Yuswohady, a business and marketing analyst.

Sport is mass consumption, as is music. Sports events have a very wide audience. And from a market perspective, the Asian Games are the perfect time and place. Including for Erick and his personal branding. "He (Erick) is strong in sports. Especially football. He has closeness. Connection. Even Luhut doesn't have one, right. Jokowi doesn't either."

Erick's awareness amplification in the Asian Games has an impact on the strengthening of Erick's brand association. He is perceived by the audience as "a problem solver. It means he is a person who can work. The proof is the Asian Games. It was seen after the Asian Games.

Erick Thohir in organizing the Asian Games (Source: Ministry of SOEs Documentation)

"The Asian Games is something that is entertainment in nature. Sports. Everyone likes sports. And it concerns the image of Indonesia. So people have high engagement, involvement in the Asian Games. So when it was found out that Erick Thohir was behind the Asian Games, that was what happened. Boosting it. Even though there were many before, yes. He's a businessman. He owns the Inter Milan club."

Then, Erick's continued career as Minister of SOEs helped him build perceived quality. At the Ministry of SOEs, Erick often faces problems. And from his position Erick was able to take policies to deal with those problems. Not completely smooth. But the ministerial chair is a good place for him to show his quality.

"The Ministry of SOEs is one of the sexiest, right. Good from the news. The controversy. It's in the news every day, huh. That's what shapes his perception. Political communication. His personal brand is getting stronger. Even if we look at the Asian Games it's gapless, huh."

"But when I was at the Ministry of SOEs, I think there was a bit of criticism. On the negative side, it was carelessness in looking for commissioners. That's an issue that somewhat downgrades him as an executor, problem solver. Jokowi's defenders become commissioners, all kinds of things. It worsens his image as a technocrat But overall it's still pretty good showing he can work."

Erick realized he was a brand

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (Source: Ministry of SOEs Documentation)

Just look at how Erick Thohir's social media accounts are managed. On TikTok, Erick can explain various questions about vaccines in a light-hearted manner. We'll take a look at the far from formal Erick on TikTok. Erick could be a pharmacist at Kimia Farma Depok or be involved in discussing the cat that suddenly appears.

Meanwhile, Erick's Instagram account uploads are a combination of work and other humanistic matters. The management of news narratives is also managed in a measurable manner. Most recently, Erick gave millennials the opportunity to replace his position as minister even for one day. Erick and whoever the team behind it knows very well about the segmentation of social media users.

Content customization is the key to staying relevant to netizens on each platform. Business and marketing analyst, Yuswohady saw that digital marketing was carried out carefully in uploading Erick's social media content. No wonder if we look at Erick's background as a boss of a media company.

"Erick Thohir is a media person, right. His resources are strong to build personal branding. And he must have thought about it," said Yuswohady.

And the results aren't bad, are they? At least so far we have seen how Erick's name stands out as a potential figure in the 2024 presidential exchange. Last August, Erick's name was included in the Indonesian Political Indicator version of the presidential candidate exchange. Erick outperformed the General Chair of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, and the Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the PDI-P (PDIP) Puan Maharani.

Erick is in tenth place, with an electability of 1.6 percent. Airlangga and Puan were in 12th (1.1%) and 14th (0.4%). Another survey released by Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) shows that Erick's electability has increased. Compared to the survey conducted in April, Erick's electability jumped sharply, from 0.2 percent to 4.7 percent.

That figure even approaches the Governor of West Java Ridwan Kamil. The results of another survey conducted by the Voxpol Center simulated the presidential and vice presidential candidates if the election was held today. Erick is simulated as a vice presidential candidate who accompanies Ganjar. Both simulations are the most superior with 32.6 percentages.

The Ganjar-Erick simulation is higher than Puan-Anies Baswedan (24.8%) and Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Muhaimin Iskandar (10.8%). "This is a simulation of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, we make as many as possible. There are about 29 simulations, with 10.6 percent answering others and 11.1 percent answering either they don't know or they don't answer," said Voxpol Center Executive Director Pangi Syarwi Chaniago.

*Read other information about POLITICS or read other interesting articles from Moksa Hutasoit and Yudhistira Mahabharata.

Other BERNAS

The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)

Tag: erick thohir politik pemilu 2024 aktivitas erick thohir erick thohir goda 2024