Ramlan Widiawan on Unpad Students Visit
The term social marketing is not as popular as commercial marketing. In fact, both have the urgency that is not much different. Commercial marketing campaign is based on the quest for profit while social marketing is originated from the intent to distribute social ideas without any profit motive. Commercial marketing is carried out in order to increase sales whereas social marketing is speaking out loud to change the attitudes and behavior of target communities.
To provide an understanding of it, Ramlan Widiawan as the Associate Director of Prodev – one of the business units of Fortune PR focusing on social marketing line- became the speaker on the visit of Communication Faculty students majoring in Public Relations from Padjadjaran University Bandung, on March 14, 2013. In this event, Ramlan described various prospects of social marketing in Indonesia.
According to Ramlan, Indonesia is the country richest with the issues of community development (social development). Especially those related to poverty, health and low levels of education. Therefore, Indonesia is a potential field for the practice of social marketing. “It indeed seems that we are benefited from poor people. But in fact we are actually trying to help their livelihoods to be better in the future through social marketing, “said Ramlan.
Ramlan also told one of Prodev’s success stories in organizing savings education program for low income people in Central Java and introducing the product BTN Cermat Saving form Bank BTN that is provided for those in the program target. “Educating the people not familiar with saving money about the importance of having bank accounts and considering BTN Cermat Saving as a friend to them is a tough challenge,” said Ramlan.
To answer the challenge, Prodev campaigned ATL (above the line) and BTL (below the line) through brand activation, trainings, and media coverage. The result was remarkable, since starting in September 2011 until February 2013 with a range of 34 regencies in Central Java, Prodev successfully opened more than 80,000 new BTN Cermat saving accounts. This figure is very possible to grow continually along with the growing recognition of the product by word of mouth.
To the visiting participants, Ramlan also described a model of communication planning of Unicef commonly applied to social marketing campaigns. This model is popular with the name ACADA, that is Assessment or situation analysis, Communication Analysis consisting of the analysis of the problem, behavior, participants, and communication channels that are then translated into communication objectives and evaluation indicators, Design which includes strategy of planning and Action which is the implementation of the planning.
From the case studies presented, the UNPAD students seemed enthusiastic. “We are really happy because we learn how Fortune PR manages the strategies and how to determine the corporate image. Then, we also see how well their work result is, “said Ega Khalik Nagriha, a sixth semester student majoring in Public Relations in Unpad.
Besides Ega, Deva Maulina commented, too. “In campus we are just given theory. From the previous presentation, we know exactly how social marketing is really practiced. I now understand that if we are going to implement CSR, it should be broad-reaching so that small areas can be alleviated,” said Deva who is currently working on a thesis.