To address the problem regarding the relatively unknown status of the Tegal Batik style, Community Service team 212 of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta launched the UMKM Go Digital program in Pagongan Village, Dukuhturi, Tegal Regency. The aim is to help develop a Tegal batik business so that will be better known by the wider public and to help local MSMEs to advance their economic potential in Tegal.
Not many people know that in Tegal Regency, especially in Pagongan Village, there are batik characteristics that might be able to compete in the National batik industry. This is because people are only familiar with the famous Pekalongan batik, which is close to the Tegal Regency in the North Coast (Pantura) area. This encouraged KKN UMY 212 to help Tegal MSMEs in the batik industry.
Fairuz Arta Abhipraya, one of the KKN UMY 212 members, said that Tegal batik is an authentic model and can compete in the National batik industry. “Batik Tegal is authentic because most of them are hand-made batik and every product that has been produced is exclusive because it is not easy to imitate. Therefore, Tegal batik is actually an effort to improve Tegal’s economy through its MSMEs, but unfortunately, it is not very well known,” he said via text message, Tuesday (1/9).
The absence of a batik center such as the one in Pekalongan has made the batik industry less developed in the Tegal Regency area. Lack of good understanding of marketing and digital literacy has caused Tegal batik to lag behind its competitors. “We think the understanding of product marketing is still not good in Tegal. One of the batik businesses from MSMEs that we helped also experienced the same thing, as they only get consumers from the government or procurement projects once a year, even though production happens every month. They do not have online sales accounts, so they only sell their products conventionally in boutiques. they should have used more modern strategies,” Fairuz continued.
To address the existing conditions, KKN UMY 212 provided training on how to increase sales and carry out good packaging of goods. They provided training on using social media and how to operate accounts in E-commerce. “The owners of the batik business doesn’t understand how to use technology. So we help them with that. We also provided a good way to take pictures of the product to make it look attractive and make people interested in buying this batik product. We also make batik logos so that people can easily remember them,” added Fairuz.
There is a difference between the 2020 KKN and the previous years. This year’s KKN must be undertaken during the COVID-19 virus pandemic, which has been going on since March of this year. UMY provides IT-based KKN facilities to its students, including team 212. They must communicate online, and cannot meet frequently to discuss or implement their programs.
“Our main difficulty with the KKN program in the midst of a pandemic is location. Some of us are from Bumiayu, while some of us are from Tegal. However, the MSMEs are in Tegal, while the distance from Bumiayu to Tegal can be around 2 hours so it is a bit difficult to arrange an offline meeting,” concluded Fairuz. (Hbb)
