Towards the “Good Will” Marketing

Exactly eight weeks ago I went back to my lovely home town, Jakarta, to see my family and my loved ones. The excitement of spending the next 35 days with my loved ones in the country where I was born was overwhelmingly beautiful. Moreover, the fact that I had spent almost the previous two years in Australia working on my thesis which was particularly boring really increased the excitement level even higher.

Without wasting any time, I went to Plaza Senayan as soon as I arrived in Jakarta just to experience the nostalgic moments as a high school student before I came to Australia. The other reason I came to Plaza Senayan was to distinguish the change in the business environment and consumer behavior in Jakarta. In just minutes I can quickly spot the substantial changes in Jakarta just in two years. New shopping malls were erected almost at every corner of any strategic locations, new Busway corridors were being built, and new restaurants with different concepts have mushroomed in this city. The only thing which did not change was, as usual, the traffic jam that happened almost at every single street and lane in Jakarta.

Substantial changes also occurred in Plaza Senayan. 21 Cineplex theatre was being upgraded to studio XXI in order to satisfy their customers who from time to time become more and more luxurious oriented. However, among those changes there was one particular change that I quickly noted as the most interesting one. The new small, simple and low profiled stand appeared on the ground floor in Plaza Senayan. This stand belongs to Sampoerna Foundation from HM Sampoerna Tbk. I realized that the small stand was dedicated to promote the quality of, and access to, education. They basically publicized their national and international scholarship programs which will be given to students with beautiful mind and yet financially disadvantaged. A question popped up into my head “is it really a charity program or just a smarter type of marketing?”

A week later, I caught a taxi to go to my friend’s house since I just could not be bothered to drive around Jakarta with such a ridiculously non-stop traffic jam. I had a long chat about education in Indonesia with the taxi driver. Interestingly the driver told me a story about how HSBC as the world’s local bank has been subsidizing the improvements of many primitive schools in Jakarta. In fact, the improvements comprise not only the enhancement of the physical building but also in recruiting higher quality teachers and assisting in implementation of better educational system which results in better teaching method for the students. Surprisingly, the driver also told me that he always prays for HSBC’s prosperity in return. After I get off from the taxi, I told myself silently “This new marketing implementation really works in the society.”

Both HSBC and HM Samporna Tbk understand clearly that customers are only human who can fall in love, and I personally believe that whenever a human is falling in love they tend to ignore the price, or in other words they will stick to their loved ones no matter what happens. Both of these companies take a huge and unique step in their publicity. In this modern society, people become more and more resistant towards the traditional publication, advertising. This is due to the fact that more and more advertisements are seen in each and every mass media. Instead of allocating a huge advertising budget, these companies spend the money on educating our society and realize that good character will always be remembered longer from a generation to the other generation by our society. As I wrote earlier, having a good brand means creating and communicating a good culture towards the society.

In this column I refer this particular idea as “the good will marketing”. The good will marketing is in fact very powerful since it will induce a lot of another free publication since there is a huge possibility for mass media to cover their stories. Moreover, as I personally experienced, the good will marketing from HSBC really induced the word of mouth from the taxi driver to me. As everyone knows, word of mouth is one of the most powerful publications which cannot be valued by money since it is based on experience. Of course, we tend to easily accept the word of mouth since it comes from the third party. On the other hand, advertisement comes directly from the company therefore they can say whatever good things about themselves. Would you believe if I say to you that I can fly? However, you might believe that I can fly if there are 1000 people told you that I can fly.

On the whole, in spite of merely a marketing tactic, the good will marketing really brings about good impact to the society. Furthermore, more and more companies should concern more about our Indonesian society instead of merely taking a huge profit from our country. By doing good will marketing companies would be able to stay close to their customers. As stated by a lot of marketing gurus: “stay close to your customer if you want to be successful”.

Welcome to the era of the good will marketing.

I understand that this column is far from perfection. Therefore, comments, opinions and questions are more than welcome. Thank you.

MarketingFirst

David Herlambang