Building Effective Product Awareness of Indigenous Product through

Marketing Communication Technologies

Arlina Nurbaity Lubis, Prihatin Lumbanraja, and Beby Kendida Hasibuan

Faculty of Economic and Business, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Product Awareness, Marketing Communication, Relational Marketing, Rational Marketing, Integrated

Abstract: A successful tourism required the support from MSMEs that affiliated with the tourism area. The problem of

The sustainability of MSME is very closely related to the level of public consumption of the products

produced from the MSME. In line with this, North Sumatra has several typical local agricultural products

developed into local special products. This product is a derivative of indigenous plants in North Sumatra. The

initial step in encouraging the performance of MSMEs in this case is to build public awareness of these

indigenous products. Consumption of these local products will encourage the sustainability and progress of

MSMEs while accelerating the development wheel. Therefore, the creation of awareness of indigenous

products is important. This study aims to evaluate the application of marketing communication technology in

building awareness of indigenous products. By its nature, this research is focused on evaluating the consumer's

point of view. A total of 300 consumers participated in this study. Data collected through structured

interviews. The collected data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results of this study indicate

that the most effective marketing communication technology strategy in building product awareness is

through relational and rational marketing. Therefore, it is important for indigenous product businesses to

develop and implement a marketing communication strategy.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indigenous agricultural products from North Sumatra

can provide local advantages. As a product of

indigenous agricultural products, the availability of

the best and abundant supply of the best raw materials

is supported by the geographical, climate, and

suitability of plant growth with the position of North

Sumatra. This will have an impact on reducing costs

and will offer a competitive advantage (Paradowska

and Platje, 2015). Besides that good quality raw

materials will also help in achieving good production

results, according to the concept of garbage in-

garbage out (Kilkenny and Robinson, 2018).

Indigenous products can promise good quality

and high competitiveness. However, purchasing

decisions are complex things that involve more than

just purchases. Joshi and Rahman (2015) revealed

that purchasing decisions involve emotional

elements, ethical behavior, and consideration of

social impacts called green purchase behavior.

Furthermore, slogans such as "Cintailah Produk

Indonesia" are part of an effort to change

consumption behavior to buy local products.

Many of the big and small businesses give

awareness to the importance of consumption of local

products and products that are environmentally

friendly. Young et al. (2010) in his research shows

that increasing public awareness of these issues does

not mean that his buying behavior also supports his

awareness. Although the community is aware of the

benefits of local products and the issue of

environmentally friendly products, consumption

behavior is not easy to change immediately. Hughner

et al., (2007) in their research identified that as many

as 67% of the community had a positive attitude

towards locally produced organic products, but only

4% made purchases or consumed these products.

There is a gap between consciousness and

consumption behavior.

The gap between the consumer's mindset and

consumption behavior is called the attitude - behavior

gap (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006). Because the

awareness of the benefits of the product and the

positive attitude does not always mean that the

product will consume, a deeper study is needed about

this consumption behavior so that it will have an

impact on increasing the consumption of indigenous

236

Lubis, A., Lumbanraja, P. and Hasibuan, B.

Building Effective Product Awareness of Indigenous Product through Marketing Communication Technologies.

DOI: 10.5220/0009202002360242

In Proceedings of the 2nd Economics and Business International Conference (EBIC 2019) - Economics and Business in Industrial Revolution 4.0, pages 236-242

ISBN: 978-989-758-498-5

products in the community. The planned marketing

technology must be able to drive demand for the

product in question. When the predictor of

consumption behavior or buying behavior is

successfully identified, the marketer together with the

University of North Sumatra can formulate an

appropriate strategy to encourage the actual purchase

of the intended indigenous product.

This study aimed to identify efforts in utilizing

effective marketing technology in marketing

indigenous products of North Sumatra agriculture so

that public awareness of these products increases. The

results of the identification will help formulate the

marketing strategy and be a reference in advancing

the local economy and ensure the indigenous products

in the market.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Indogenous Product

Indigenous plants are native plants of many regions

that have been processed and used or introduced

plants that have been developing for a long time and

are well-known by the community in a certain area.

Indigenous plants in North Sumatra usually grow in

the forest environment. Besides the use of indigenous

plants as daily consumption, many indigenous plants

that function as medicines and other products.

Indigenous plants have several characteristics,

including being able to adapt well in their original

environment and traditionally these plants are one of

the supporting components of the surrounding

community (village/community). Indigenous

products are derived from indigenous plants in North

Sumatra. This research specifically conducts a study

of derivative products from agricultural plants such as

Kapur, Asam Andaliman, Rattan, Gambir, and Aren.

2.2 Marketing Communication

Marketing communication is an activity based on the

audience or target market. The main purpose of

marketing communication is to stimulate desires and

ideally lead to the achievement of purchases and

bonding with these consumers (Fill and Jamieson,

2014). The concept of marketing communication

starts from the codification of the signal delivered by

the sender (marketer) to the recipient (consumer). The

marketing communication process is not limited to

delivery to consumers, but also feedback that is

delivered by consumers to marketers in the form of

behavior.

Marketing communication will positively affect

market performance (Germany and Zavrsnik, 2012).

This is also directly related to the company's

performance in selling its products (Kitchen and

Schultz, 2009). The selection of the right marketing

communication channels is very important because

this will drive the effectiveness of marketing

communication itself (Dannaher and Rossiter, 2011).

The selection of the right marketing communication

must be adjusted to the objectives and target audience

expected from the marketing activities undertaken.

During the last ten years marketing communication

has been identified with the delivery of product

information, but this raises questions about the

purpose of marketing communication itself. Therefore

the orientation of marketing communication is

currently categorized in four forms (Fill and Jamieson,

2014), namely:

• Rationality, relating to Information and

Promotion, emphasizes the rationality of the

audience with a focus on delivering product

information to drive sales,

• Process and imagery, emphasizing the product

image and emotional message of the audience

with a focus on the buying process by creating a

good buying experience

• Integration, by balancing between rationality and

emotional messages to the audience to provide a

clear proposition of the brand / product

• Relational, by giving different treatment to each

group of audiences in accordance with their needs

with the aim of establishing mutual value to the

audience

2.3 Product Awareness

Product awareness refered to consumer knowledge of

indigenous products and their derivatives and their

benefits to consumers. Wolsink (2007) provides

research results which state that there is no significant

influence between knowledge of products and

purchases. This research shows that being aware of

the benefits of the product has not yet led to a

purchasing decision. Suki (2013) shows that

awareness directly affects consumer behavior and

Young et al., (2010) shows a positive influence

between awareness and purchase behavior.

Building Effective Product Awareness of Indigenous Product through Marketing Communication Technologies

237

3 RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research Time and Characteristics

The focus of this research is to increase the marketing

and product potential of the North Sumatra

indogenous plant derivative products, including

Gambir, Cretaceous, Aren, Rattan, and Andaliman

Plant derivatives. The products derived from these

plants include camphor, gambier tea (herbal), palm

sugar, rattan handicrafts, and sambal andaliman

(cooking spices). This study evaluates community

awareness of the benefits of utilizing local special

products and seeks to increase public awareness to

prioritize the use of traditional special products in

daily life. The advantages of using local products, in

addition to empowering local potential, also help

MSMEs to survive in a rapidly spinning business

environment.

3.2 Participant

This study involved 300 consumers of indogenous

plant derivative products in North Sumatra.

Consumer criteria is that they have been involved in

purchasing products based on this research. Because

consumers are an open population (undefined

population), this study uses stratified convenience

sampling, where sampling is based more on the

willingness of consumers who have bought and used

indogenous products by chance (non-random

sampling). For the sake of achieving equal

representation, each of the 50 consumers taken for

each derivative product that is the basis of this study.

3.3 Data Collection Method

Self-administered questionnaires were employed

during our research. The questionnaire in this study

was prepared based on a theoretical study and

adjusted to the consumer's condition that was the

object of research. Therefore, the research

questionnaire requires a validity and reliability test

before it is applied as an instrument for research data

collection. The validity and reliability testing of this

instrument was carried out on 30 consumers who had

consumed at least one of the products submitted

outside the research sample later. Evaluation of the

validity of the questionnaire is done by face validity

by adjusting the list of questions raised with existing

theories, as well as the Pearson correlation which

shows the correlation value of the total score on each

variable. The instrument reliability test was

conducted by evaluating the Cronbach's alpha value

on each variable proposed in this study

3.4 Data Analysis Method

We employed multiple linear regression to evaluate

the impact of each technology marketing

communication on its dependent variable, product

awareness.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Participants’ Characteristics

Characteristics of respondents by sex were carried out

to obtain the distribution of characteristics of business

operators in Medan City based on gender. The

characteristics of these respondents can be used to

evaluate preferences and awareness based on each

gender.

Table 1. Responden berdasarkan Jenis Kelamin

Gender

N of Sample

Male

128

42,67

Female

172

57,33

Total

300

100,00

Table 1 provide information that the proportion

between female and male respondents in this study

was relatively similar to the 2: 3 ratio between male

and female. Thus, the involvement of women in this

study was more than that of men. One factor is that

shopping activity which is one of the important

elements in this research is more favorable to the

gender of women.

Respondents in this study are in the age range

between 20 to 59 years. The involvement of

respondents with an age range of less than 20 years

only reached 1% of all study respondents. Youth

participation in the consumption of indogenous

products is still relatively very low. One

consideration factor is that there is no fixed income

from each of these individuals, so their choices for

consumption are very limited. As age increases,

income generally also increases, so the choice to

consume products also becomes wider. There were no

participants in this study in the age range 60 years and

above, considering that at that age it was more

difficult to find consumers in the general market.

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4.2 The Effect of Technology

Communication Marketing on

Product Awareness

This research model uses four independent variables

and one dependent variable. The independent variable

used in this research is a form of marketing

communication strategy that is implemented and

perceived by the buyer, including rationalization,

imaging, integration, and relational. The dependent

variable of this study is awareness / interest in the

indogenous products of North Sumatra. A total of 300

consumers directly involved with at least one of

North Sumatra's indogenous products were involved

in this study.

4.2.1 Residual Normality Test

The normality test aims to find out whether the

intruder or residual variable regression model has a

normal distribution. Good data is data that has a

pattern like the shape of a bell on the histogram

diagram. The data normality test used in this study is

the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Criteria for testing one

sample using a one-sided test that is by comparing the

probability with a certain level of significance that is

if a significant value or probability <0.05, then the

distribution of data is not normal and if a significant

value or probability> 0.05, then the data is normally

distributed. Evaluation using graphs is used to

support statistical evaluation results.

Figure 2. Residual Histogram

Figure 2 provides information that in the

histogram graph, the distribution of residual data

leads to bell-shaped; in this case, the residual data can

be categorized as normally distributed. P-P plots are

applied to evaluate this situation more clearly.

Figure 3. Normal P-P Plot

Figure 3 shows that data residuals are spread

evenly along diagonal lines. This condition further

supports that data residuals are normally distributed.

This distribution was evaluated statistically and

summarized in Table 2

Table 2. Normality Test

Tests of Normality

Kolmogorov-

Smirnov

Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic

Sig.

Statistic

Sig.

Unstandardized

Residual

,037

300

,200

,996

300

,684

*. This is a lower bound of the true significance.

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction

Table 2 provides information that statistically, the

Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests, give a

significance value> 0.05 which indicates that the data

residuals are normally distributed. Thus, the

assumption of normality in residual data has been

fulfilled.

4.2.2 Multicollinearity Test

Symptoms of multicollinearity can be seen from the

value of tolerance and VIF (Varⅰance Inflate Factor).

Both measures indicate the variables which are

strongly affecting other dependent variables.

Tolerance is to measure the variable variables of the

dependent variables which are not explained in terms

of the other variables. The value that is used for

Tolerance> 0.1 and VIF <5, then there is no

multicolon.

Table 3. Collinearity Analysis

Model

Collinearity Statistics

Tolerance

VIF

(Constant)

Rational

,995

1,005

Imagery

,998

1,002

Integrity

,994

1,006

Relational

,997

1,003

Building Effective Product Awareness of Indigenous Product through Marketing Communication Technologies

239

Table 3 showed evidence that there is no problem

of multicollinearity of data on the independent

variables of the study. Each element of marketing

communication technology is independent so that the

variables proposed in this model do not affect each

other.

4.2.3 Heterokedasticity Test

Heterokedastity test data in this study were evaluated

using Glesjer-test statistical method. The result is

summarized as follow:

Table 4. Glesjer Test Analysis

Coefficients

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

Sig.

Collinearity

Statistics

Std.

Error

Beta

Tolerance

VIF

(Constant)

-,001

,192

-,004

,997

Rational

,007

,020

,021

,370

,712

,995

1,005

Imagery

-,015

,020

-,044

-,757

,449

,998

1,002

Integrity

,016

,021

,045

,783

,434

,994

1,006

Relational

,027

,021

,075

1,292

,197

,997

1,003

a. Dependent Variable: ABSRES

4.2.4 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis

The results of the regression conducted in this study

are summarized as follows:

Table 5. Regression Result

Coefficients

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

Sig.

Std.

Error

Beta

(Constant)

1,119

,310

3,611

,000

Rational

,254

,032

,336

7,964

,000

Imagery

,159

,033

,205

4,872

,000

Integrity

,281

,034

,350

8,295

,000

Relational

,392

,034

,488

11,581

,000

a. Dependent Variable: Product_Awareness

F-Statistic = 67.430 (Sig < 0,05)

Adjusted R-Square = 0,471

Table 5 provides information that marketing

communication technology is able to explain 47.1%

of the conditions of MSME performance. Thus, there

are 52.9% influences from outside the model

currently proposed. The significance level of the F-

test on the proposed model <0.05 (Table 5) which

indicates that together, each element of marketing

communication technology plays a role in influencing

the performance of MSMEs in Medan City.

Regression models that can be formulated based

on the results of this study are:

Y = 1,119 + 0,254 Rationality + 0,159 Imagery +

0,281 Integrity + 0,392 Relational + e

This study indicates that every element of

marketing communication technology has a positive

and significant influence on consumer awareness of

the products offered. Nonetheless, relational

marketing technology, statistically, has the greatest

influence in influencing product awareness of

consumers of North Sumatra indigenous products.

The regression coefficient on the variable

rationality is 0.254. This indicates that for every

increase in one unit in marketing communication

techniques rationally, the level of product awareness

from consumers will tend to increase by 0.254 units.

The t-test indicates that the t-count (7,964) is greater

than the critical value of 1.65 or a significance value

of 0,000 <0.05 which concludes that statistically there

is a positive and significant influence of rational

communication techniques on the level of awareness

of indigenous products in North Sumatera.

The regression coefficient on the imagery

variable is 0.159. This indicates that for every

increase in one unit in imagery marketing

communication techniques, the level of product

awareness from consumers will tend to increase by

0.159 units. The t-test indicated that the t-count

(4,872) was greater than the critical value of 1.65 or a

significance value of 0,000 <0.05 which concluded

that statistically there was a positive and significant

influence of imagery communication techniques on

the level of awareness of indigenous products in

North Sumatra.

The regression coefficient on the integrity

variable is 0.281. This indicates that for every

increase of one unit in marketing communication

techniques in an integrity manner, the level of product

awareness from consumers will tend to increase by

0.281 units. The t-test indicates that the t-count

(8.295) is greater than the critical value of 1.65 or the

significance value of 0.000 <0.05 which concludes

that there is a statistically positive and significant

influence of communication integrity techniques on

the level of awareness of indigenous products in

North Sumatra.

The regression coefficient on the relational

variable is 0.392. This indicates that for every

increase of one unit in relational marketing

communication techniques, the level of product

awareness from consumers will tend to increase by

0.392 units. The t-test indicates that the t-count

(11,581) is greater than the critical value of 1.65 or a

significance value of 0,000 <0.05 which concludes

that there is a statistically positive and significant

influence of relational communication techniques on

the level of awareness of indigenous products in

North Sumatra.

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5 CONCLUSIONS AND

SUGGESTIONS

This research shows that in an effort to build product

awareness, marketing has a very important role. In

practice, marketing can be done with a variety of

marketing communication technologies. To build

awareness of North Sumatra's indigenous products,

marketing needs to be integrated by seeking

relational, rational, integrity-based marketing and

image (in order). Relational based marketing is more

embedded in the minds of consumers. Therefore, the

marketing strategy of indigenous products can be

adjusted to achieve optimization of product

awareness from the community, especially the local

community.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge that the present

research is supported by Universitas Sumatera Utara.

The support is under the research grant TALENTA -

Penelitian Dasar for year 2019

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