At a glance
- Client: An international consumer-insight consultancy, commissioning us on behalf of global nutrition, beauty and consumer-health brands
- Sector: Consumer health, nutrition and beauty
- Region: Indonesia (each wave part of a wider multi-country study)
- Service: Social listening and consumer insight
The challenge
Global brands planning products for Indonesia needed to know how people here actually talk about their bodies, symptoms and routines. Clinical and marketing categories, such as 'dry versus wet cough' or 'skin barrier', do not always match everyday language. Each study had a fixed question, a set template and a short deadline, often four to eight working days. Our partner, an international insight consultancy, needed an Indonesian team that could read informal Bahasa Indonesia posts, tag them consistently and turn them into clear answers that could sit next to results from other countries.
What we did
- Ran five separate studies between December 2024 and June 2026, each to the partner's template and deadline, with interim updates during the work.
- Collected public consumer posts from social platforms, forums, video comments and e-commerce reviews, keeping influencer and sponsored content apart from genuine consumer talk.
- Built or adapted a tagging framework (label sheet) for each topic in Indonesian, then coded every verbatim by theme, sentiment, profile and, where asked, age and gender.
- Maternal nutrition: two phases in June 2025; phase one covered 224 Indonesian conversations on pregnancy and breastfeeding powders, phase two looked at other formats, local remedies and sources of influence. The wider study covered India too (about 500 conversations in total, per our project record).
- Skin barrier: 205 Indonesian consumer profiles posting between December 2023 and December 2024, analysed in six days with updates every two days, plus a separate verbatim document.
- Skin 'interventionists' (people who combine skincare with clinic procedures and devices): 435 Indonesian conversations, compared against two earlier editions of the same study.
- Dry cough and lower belly pain: analysed conversations together with Google search queries from a search-trend tool, and mapped emotions, self-diagnosis and the journey from first symptom to treatment.
- Translated every verbatim into English, kept the source link, and wrote 'what does it mean for you' implications for the brand team.
Topics covered
- Maternal nutrition: perception of pregnancy and breastfeeding powders, flavour, texture, pack size, alternative formats and traditional remedies
- Skin barrier: who talks about it, what a 'healthy' barrier means, and which ingredients people trust
- Skin interventionists: preferred solutions, motivations (correct, improve, transform, prevent) and new trends
- Dry cough: consumer vocabulary, cough types, emotions, unmet needs and successful solutions
- Lower belly pain: how people describe it, how they self-diagnose, barriers to correct diagnosis and the care journey
What we delivered
For each study we delivered a PowerPoint deck in the partner's consultant template, in English with original-language verbatims, usually with a revised version after feedback. We also delivered the tagging (label) sheets used for coding and, for the skin barrier study, a separate verbatim document.
Topic insight decks (five studies)
PowerPoint · One deck per study, plus revised versions
- Scope, period and method of each analysis
- Word clouds and vocabulary consumers use for the topic
- Quantified themes (share of conversations per type, emotion or motivation)
- Profiles by age, gender and expertise where requested
- Verbatims in English and Bahasa Indonesia with source links
- Consumer journey and unmet needs
- Conclusions and product or claim recommendations
Tagging frameworks
Google Sheets · One label sheet per study
- Indonesian labels for symptoms, sensations, triggers and solutions
- Categories aligned with the partner's multi-country template
Verbatim document (skin barrier)
PowerPoint
- Indonesian consumer quotes grouped by theme
- Source for each quote
What we found
- Dry cough: the clinical 'dry versus wet' split is directionally relevant but not how people speak. In spontaneous posts they describe the throat feeling, such as 'tenggorokan gatal' (itchy throat), so we recommended throat-soothing claims and variants by occasion, such as night-time or weather-triggered cough.
- Dry cough: of the cough types consumers described, wet cough was most visible (41%), followed by dry (19%), itchy/tickling (16%), sore throat (14%) and breathless (10%).
- Lower belly pain: fear was the most discussed emotion (40%). The most common self-diagnosis strategy was matching the pain to past experience, often period pain (45%), which can delay care.
- Skin interventionists: in-clinic procedures were the most preferred solution (56% of mentions), with cosmetic products (22%) mainly used to maintain results; improving or rejuvenating skin was the main motivation (49%).
- Skin barrier: 188 of 205 Indonesian profiles spoke positively about barrier care. Moisturising (57), repairing (44) and calming (37) were the benefits most often linked to a good barrier, with ceramides and hyaluronic acid the most trusted ingredients.
- Maternal nutrition: mothers found many pregnancy powders too sweet, wanted lighter flavours and single-serve sachets, and preferred tablets or capsules for daily convenience; peer stories and midwife or doctor advice were the main influences.
In numbers
- 435 Indonesian conversations analysed for the skin interventionist study (2025 edition)
- 205 Indonesian consumer profiles in the skin barrier study (posts from December 2023 to December 2024)
- 224 Indonesian conversations in phase one of the maternal nutrition study (June 2025)
- About 12,100 online conversations on lower belly pain in Indonesia over 12 months (social-listening platform count, early 2026)
Key takeaway
Before you write claims for Indonesia, check the words people actually use: the symptom or benefit they post about is often not the category on your pack.