UNS — As an effort to recover the economic condition of the community affected by the pandemic, a team of Student Community Service Program (KKN) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held socialization of decorative plants product branding. The event was held by Team 43 KKN UNS in Baran Village, Ambarawa Subdistrict, Semarang District, on Saturday (13/2/2021). The event was attended by villagers who earn a living from the decorative plants business.
Team 43 KKN UNS team leader, Adimas Rosi Putra Istanto, said that product branding is selected as the theme because of the number of people in Baran Village that earn a living from the decorative plants business. The team fully uses the hybrid KKN program by UNS that combine offline and online programs to initiate various programs, including the socialization that aims to assist decorative plants entrepreneurs in attracting consumers through online shop or market place like Shopee.
“This (event) is also an effort to shift people or potential buyers’ holiday routines to purchasing and taking care of decorative plants at home,” Adimas stated.
In implementing their program, Team 43 KKN UNS received supervision from Dr. Yudi Rinanto as their Field Supervisor (DPL). Dr. Yudi stated the team needs facilities and infrastructures to implement its program. “In delivering the material, internet connection is needed to facilitate real-time practice,” he said.
The socialization materials were delivered by three members of Team 43 KKN UNS, Agi Deswantoko, Avi Juniarta, and Adimas Rosi Putra Istanto. These materials cover photography technique and mini-studio, packaging, logo creation, tagging location in Google Maps, and decorative plants marketing through Shopee. In his material, Adimas explained that the best time to take product pictures is between 10.00 – 12.00 am. “But this also depends on the day weather,” he added. Weather plays a vital role in picture creation as the natural source lighting is used in taking product pictures. When the day is cloudy, an artificial lighting source should be added to take the intended picture.
Agi Deswantoko delivered the material on plant packaging. He explained that plant packaging needs to pay attention to the type of plants that can be delivered in extreme conditions, good packaging technique, and strong packaging material to prevent the plants from damaged.
The logo design was explained by Avi, who stated that entrepreneurs could use a free application such as Canva to design their business logo. The last material was digital marketing, which introduced market place platform to the entrepreneurs. “The use of market place such as Shopee is expected to increase sales of decorative plants. Shopee is quite easy to use by making a Shopee account, uploading product pictures, and filling the product description column. The product is ready to be promoted in the application,” Avi Juniarta stated.
Team 43 KKN UNS hopes that their program will increase decorative plants’ sales and improve Baran villagers’ economy. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti