Hermawan Kertajaya: Marketing concepts from the Merapi slopes

(News Terupdate) - I am very easily moved to tears, said Indonesian marketing expert Hermawan Kertajaya, after a stay on the slopes of Mt. Merapi recently.

“When I accepted a father’s gratitude for his child’s new musical skill, which he acquired on the gamelan set I had donated, I was tearful the whole day,” he said.

Over the last four months, Indonesia’s leading marketing expert has stayed three times in Sumber village, Dukun district, Magelang, Central Java.

The village community on the Merapi slopes has indeed become an oasis for Hermawan Kertajaya, where he enjoys the warmth of hospitality and a tranquility of life not found in an urban setting.

He sleeps on a simple bed, roasts corn on the cob outdoors in the evenings, takes a dip in a cool mountain spring, and performs his religious duties on the banks of the river flowing down the slopes.

Pristine nature and a peaceful populace form a blend that touches the hearts of visitors.

Three months ago, Hermawan donated a set of gamelan instruments to the village and
recently revisited the area to learn more.

To his surprise, a father candidly expressed his thanks, as his young son had become keen on
playing the gamelan since the village had been given the traditional set.

“I was touched by the villager’s sincere words and found myself shedding tears of joy. My modest contribution turned out to be very useful to the local people,” Hermawan said.

In his view, the unpretentious statement amounts to a “marketing concept” for the village people so that visitors will be drawn to the area.

“Staying there three times, I’ve discovered several new aspects of the marketing concept. Among those coming from the mountain people is the concept of clarification. When they buy something it’s no longer due to the positioning of a product, but rather because they need it.”

The president of the World Marketing Association’s conclusions on the clarification concept came from his donation of the gamelan instruments to the village in November 2009.

As he was about to mark his 62nd birthday, Hermawan wanted to buy an organ for the church in Sumber village, but Pastor V Kirjito, the local priest, suggested a gamelan set be donated to the village community instead.

Kirjito said the organ would only be played by one person and only be enjoyed by church congregations, while the gamelan would involve many people and benefit the whole community.

“Although more expensive, I bought the gamelan set for the villagers. What I had wanted to offer turned out to be different from what they needed. That’s what I mean by clarification,” Hermawan explained.

The gamelan donation has made the Markplus (a marketing service) leader more intimately associated with the people of Mt. Merapi’s western slopes.

The initiative of his close friend, Pastor V Kirjito, deeply impressed him.

“The priest has not only achieved vertical devotion but also made a horizontal contribution to the community regardless of religion, education and social status. I’ve always supported this kind of work and it is, in fact, the marketing concept of compassion.”

Compassion is among the required concepts in corporate marketing today as in marketing theory a company is expected to show compassion, as well as prioritizing sustainability and making a difference in the market.

“I even found compassion in the widely discussed film Avatar. I’ve seen it several times and
found that compassion will triumph over everything,” noted Hermawan, who first watched Avatar in
Florida with his peer Prof. Philip Kotler.

Indeed, compassion is highly beneficial to the present-day marketing world known as New Wave Marketing, but what makes Hermawan Kertajaya very proud is that for a long time now, the Mt. Merapi community has been applying the concept.

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