It has been more than 1 year that the COVID-19 pandemic has made MSMEs feel a heavy impact from the economic side. Not all MSMEs can survive and many feel a decline in turnover. Whereas MSMEs are the main spear that can drive the economy in Indonesia. Therefore, MSMEs must be supported not only by the movement to buy MSME products but also to improve MSMEs’ capabilities so that they can take advantage of digital facilities for their business.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, direct (onsite) marketing is difficult to do, so digital marketing is an alternative needed by MSMEs. MSMEs can use digital marketing to market their products with a wider scope. Not only digital marketing, if MSMEs judge that their brand is not right or not unique, then MSMEs can strengthen their brand by utilizing digital media facilities.
The Collaborative Community Service Team (PkM-Kolab) consisting of lecturers from the Faculty of Applied Sciences (D3 Marketing Management Study Program and D3 Information Systems) together with the Faculty of Communication and Business (S1 Business Administration study program) held community service activities with the title “Improvement of Digital Marketing and Strengthening Brands in Digital Media in the Creative Center Community”. This activity also collaborates with students who are members of the StartUpHub.id community and KoRAL (Inter-Lab Research Community) in both Faculties, and collaborates with Student Startup SMEspedia.id which is a student startup engaged in all-in-one services for MSMEs. The PkM partner this time is the MSME community in Pameungpeuk District, namely the Kreasi Sentra Community.
In this community service activity, the output of the activities produced by the team is to provide a website for the Sentra Kreasi community at the address centrakreasi.com which functions for community identity, and a website application for educational media about digital marketing for MSME members at the address Pendidikan.sentrakreasi.com. The next output is to increase MSME information and knowledge, the team created and provided a book with the title “Learning Digital Marketing for MSME Communities”. Then the team provided grant assistance in the form of a large and mini product photo studio package equipped with a microphone and soundcard to record content that would later be useful for digital marketing.
This PkM is part of a series of routine activities by the StartUpHub.id and KoRAL (Inter-Lab Research Community) communities in the two faculties as a form of support to strengthen MSMEs in line with the programs of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia. The closing of the activity ended with a webinar on June 26, 2021 with the title “Digital Marketing and Strengthening the MSME Brand”. This activity was opened by the Secretary of the Pameungpeuk District and attended by the management of the Creative Center Community, a team of lecturers and students. For the sustainability plan, PkM activities with the Sentra Kreasi Community partners will be continued in the next period by SMEspedia student startups and a team of lecturers. This sustainability continues to be maintained to help MSMEs properly and optimally
