The majority of urban adults had been active in organizations during their school period, from scouts organization and sport club to student governing bodies, student newspapers and religious groups. As adults, the majority of them participate in group activities.

Three-quarter of urban people to attend pengajian or mosque groups once a month, while two-third belong to social community organizations, women’s groups and parent-teachers associations. A popular form of group activity is arisan, which is both a socially and economically beneficial activity, where groups gather on a regular basis to have discussions and collect a certain amount of money from members to be raffled on a rotating basis.

Each group member has the same opportunity to win the raffle in one of the arisan gatherings, which is also a form of saving money. Sometimes the prize is not money but a valuable household appliance, such as microwave oven or a TV set.

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A more exciting way to spend leisure time is to go to the mall. Urban people are real mallgoers. The mall is not only a place to shop, but also to “be with other people of the same class”, to be where the crowds are, to go out with the family, to window shopping and to eat. To teenagers the mall means being together with friends to ngeceng, a popular term for getting eyefuls of the opposite sex.

Many teenagers admit that the greater the chances there are of meeting other teenagers, the more they become conscious of their appearance. Being caught for following the latest trends in appearance is vital. This applies not only to girls but also to boys.

To teenagers the availability of game facilities is also an important part of mall life. Also, the presence of restaurants and cafes, where people can meet and talk. Most of all, malls have 21 cineplex showing the latest box office movies. Teenagers start to date, on the average of 16, and movie houses are their favorite dating destinations. Because of the dominant preference among urbanites to socialize with their peer group, most residential areas as well as malls are clustered in homogeneous classes. The are malls for the upper-end expenditure levels and for the middle to lower expenditure levels. Residential areas are also positioned with certain segments in mind.

Shopping Behavior

Supermarkets have become very popular and are visited by three-quarter of urban households. The popularity of supermarkets is namely caused by its reasonable prices, comfort, convenience, neatness and cleanliness. Also, the frequent discounts sales and bonuses offered. The use of ‘hypermarkets’ is also growing, although those who use it are still those at the top-end of the social classes.

Although the allure of supermarkets and hypermarkets is growing, they have not completely replaced traditional markets, which are still preferred to purchase meat, fresh vegetables and fruits. The opportunity to bargain is also a motivating factor to shop at traditional markets – Indonesian housewives just love to bargain!When there is no time to shop at the market, there are always the daily visits of hawkers, who bring bread, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish to the front doors of urban dwellers. The hawkers either push fruit/ vegetable carts or use bicycles.

Besides supermarkets, traditional markets and hawkers, there are still provision stores (warung), minimarkets and 24-hours stores, where one can buy urgently needed bread, coffee, sugar or other supplies that have just run out of stock at home.

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A study at the top-end level of household expenditure groups indicate that most affluent urbanites have a car and live in houses more than 100 square meters in size. Banking practices are also high. However, investment in stocks and shares is lower in Jakarta than in other Asian capitals.

More than 50 percent of the affluent carry plastic money, either credit cards or charge cards. The charge cards is a newer concept, but urban Indonesians have taken immediate preference for it. The main reason for this is that there is no debt being made and the interest placed on the credit card purchase installment repayment is perceived to be high. Individual Indonesians avoid being in debt, as the concept of debt is linked to religious beliefs as well as the concept of credit interest. The religious belief s are the underlying reasons for the emergence of Islamic banks.

Does money bring happiness? Top household expenditure groups tend to describe themselves as happy, while those with less money are likely to describe themselves as unhappy.

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A new social consciousness is being re-awakened and restructured in the minds and behavior of Indonesian people. With recent upheavals in the economic as well as political sectors, and the emergence of interactive media and public opinion as agents of change, the management of socio-cultural issues run parallel with economic recovery. Social issues now seems to be taking the center stage.

The study and the management of social behavior change is contained in the traditional conceptualization of Social Marketing. Social Marketing, as a discipline ,was born in the 1970s and seeks to influence social behavior, to benefit the target audience and society in general and to learn what people want and need to attain better quality of life rather than trying to persuade them to buy commercial products.

A range of social programs using the principles of social marketing has come to the fore; programs which deal with campaigning the issues of health, education, environment, good governance, gender equality, disaster, poverty, urban planning, justice, peace building, housing, and so on. In the past, Indonesia owed its success in the area of family planning and the control of the population growth to a grand campaign based on social marketing principles. In other areas, international funding agencies as well as implementing agencies have conducted countless social marketing programs, from maternal health to disaster recovery. In the new reformation era, the messages of democracy also were conveyed through social marketing programs.

The word “social” evolved into new uses. When a message or program is to be conveyed to the public, it is called “socializing” the message. Therefore, dissemination of information to the public is to “socialize” to the public. “Socializing” is not just to make oneself available and connected to others, but it also means a form of promotion of a message. This meaning will not be found in the English dictionary.

Catching up on the “social” atmosphere, the business world has currently entered the era of corporate social responsibility and corporate social marketing. Businesses and corporations have come to realize that the business would be more sustainable if they gave something back, to improve the quality of life of the community or society at large. The company would thrive if it made the world a better place to live. Businesses , at least on the surface, are trying to become GCC (good corporate citizens) by having CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs. Depending on the type of business, CSR programs now range from education to public health to environment to poverty alleviation. Their “social” programs are sometimes purely social, and at other times are forms of PR-ing.

In line with this, the PSAs or Public Service Announcements also have their heyday. PSAs for social marketing are what advertisements are to commercial marketing. The use of ads during political campaigns sometimes surpass commercial ads in terms of volume/frequency and expenditures. However PSAs for other social marketing programs are fewer, because of the budgets involved. Public service programs to signify the performance of the different government ministries are also campaigned through the use of PSAs. Each government ministry has a public message to convey through the use of media advertisements. The Minister of Transportation would convey a message about the importance of safety in using public transportation. The Ministry of Tourism promotes Visit Indonesia Year.

The change does not end here……

More Changes to Come

In the past, when browsing in the internet to look for the term “social marketing”, the traditional definitions come up. However, nowadays, when clicking on the same word in the computer, there appears a whole new and different world of meaning to the term.

The world of marketing has now been molded by new technologies to create communities connected by the traditional media as well as the internet media. The soccer lovers, the bike-to-work communities, the batik lover communities are a few examples that may be found in Facebook, Twitter,Friendster . Traditional groups that are also the targets are the “arisan” groups and the “pengajian” groups. Interactive media has also helped to create one-on-one marketing, replacing the traditional mass media marketing. In one-on-one marketing, Individuals are reached through personal media such as handphones and PCs. These individuals seek other like-minded individuals to form their own communities. These communities become the target of marketing activities. These communities become targeted social-communities.

The marketing scene is also reshaped by the entrance of multi-level-marketing, where layers of individual members are formed, building up a pyramid of sub-communities. These also form a whole social network of upliners and downliners. Theses sub-communities are therefore facilitating the flow of the marketing, they become the channels as well as the target market.

The logical effect of these new changes is to give added connotation to the word “Social Marketing”. The term Social Marketing now has a double meaning. The original meaning of the term refers to the issue or the product that is being marketed, the issue being a social issue or a social product. Social Marketing in the traditional sense, is a non-profit marketing activity to market a social product to the public. The new meaning of the word refer to the target market, where the product being marketed may be a commercial product or service, targeted at social communities, through the “social media”.

The evolution of the social context in marketing seems to be two-pronged: ……… One introduces the element of social responsibility in marketing, the other gives more focus on social communities as targets. At the end of the day, can Social Marketing in both senses, create a better Indonesia to live in?

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]]> http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/the-evolution-of-the-social-context-in-marketing/feed/ http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/trend-in-urban-behavior/ http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/trend-in-urban-behavior/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:20:21 +0000 admin http://www.polling-center.com/?p=460 By Yanti B. Sugarda

Family Values, Sex and The Gender Role

Urban people are strongly and consistently supportive of the marriage institution. People think and live in terms of family life. To be an adult single person is the exception, not the norm. Urban adults prefer marital happiness to material wealth. The majority of urban people are married at 20 years and above. Views on premarital sex remain conservative, but Balinese urbanites are least strongly against it. However, as is probably universally the case, men are less likely than women to feel that premarital sex is wrong. But on average the majority people at all levels agree that it is better to wait for wedded bliss

In the working arena 80 percent of the holders of top management positions are still men. However, especially in the Jakarta scene, there are winds of change that will alter the picture in the future Women are beginning to free themselves from general stereotyping, where the traditional view is that women are men’s partners.
Women are becoming more aware of current issues and of their role in society, as they have become more educated and better informed. They aspire to become independent and have empowered themselves to create their own life.

A study on Asian women showed that there are several types of them. Those who are high-achievers are dynamic and independent, while those who are active are dynamic and socially embedded. The new feminine type are those who are socially embedded, caring and quiet.The cool ones are quiet and independent. It seems that Indonesian women are mostly of the socially embedded, caring and quiet – the new feminine type. On the home front, the majority of adult men and women tend to agree that men should do their share of housework. Men have gradually become use to the concept of being partners with women on the same level. Only 14 percent of men feel they should be exempted from doing chores at home. The popular terms for this segment is “traditional husband”

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I like reading, love it. Through books I learn lots of things and travel to many places in the world. If you ask me what gift that I will always welcome on my birthday I will say BOOKS and no other.
One of my family recreation agenda every month is to a bookstore with my kids. In this way I can teach them to love books, to enjoy reading as much as I enjoy it myself. And it seems to work because my kids are always looking forward to our monthly trip to a bookstore, and recently my youngest son won’t sleep at night before I read him a book.

Last week my eldest son came to me with an idea that he would like to have his own Taman Bacaan where his friends can read his collection of books for free. He even made some flyers advertising his taman bacaan to be sent to all his friends’ houses.

I was ecstatic and tried everything that I could to help my son making his idea come true. We collected all his books; listed and numbered them. Put them in some boxes. I even helped him put some picture to the flyers to make them look nicer. The next morning, reading his bike, my son delivered the flyers to all his friends’ house around our neighborhood. And in the afternoon, his Taman Bacaan was open for the first time. I was so proud of my son, he was only eight years old yet he had such a brilliant idea. His objective was very simple; he wanted to share his books with his friends.

It seems very ironic to the fact of what we had from our last FGDs on youth; most of the respondents (male and female aged 19 - 25 years old) admitted they did not like reading, even reading a magazine or a newspaper, they preferred to have internet instead for chatting with their friends. Will in the future books be extinct, replaced by internet? A point to ponder… (eky)

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]]> http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/books-replaced-by-internet/feed/ http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/bullying-diantara-anak-anak/ http://www.polling-center.com/thoughts/bullying-diantara-anak-anak/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:26:33 +0000 Eky handayani http://www.polling-center.com/?p=416&_lang=id “If you dare not to bring the money I asked you to, you’ll see!” Dewi, not her real name, was shocked to read the threat message from her oldest son’s email account. Her eldest son, Dodi, was only 4th  grader. With a little investigation here and there, Dewi soon found out that the email sender was one of Dodi’s schoolmates who was famous by his naughtiness - lots of his friends were afraid of him. And Dewi also found out that this was not the first time that Dodi received the threat message from the bad boy of the school and that Dodi had been giving his daily allowance to the boy diligently these past two months. Dodi had been afraid to tell her mother or his teacher since the bad boy had threatened him if Dodi ever told one of them he would get punched. Luckily Dewi happened to read the message from Dodi’s email account when Dodi forgot to turn off his PC at his room. The next day, without wasting so much time, Dewi went to see the school council and told the story of the bullying. It turned out that the school council had received lots of similar complaints about the bad boy. At the end, the bad boy was expelled from the school by the school council.

Recently the number of bullying amongst children via internet like what happened to Dodi is increasing. Moreover, the majority of children of these days are internet literate, each one of them has an email account, and even some of them actively join an e-community like Facebook, Twitter, etc. These children’s personal information are exposed openly through these e-communities, and this, whether they aware or not, make them vulnerable to bullying from friends or even strangers.

But, what is bullying anyway? According to Kidshealth.org from Nemours Foundation*, Bullying is intentional tormenting in physical, verbal, or psychological ways. It can range from hitting, shoving, name-calling, threats, and mocking to extorting money and treasured possessions. Some kids bully by shunning others and spreading rumors about them. Bullying can leave deep emotional scars that last for life. And in extreme situations, it can culminate in violent threats, property damage, or someone getting seriously hurt. The effects can be serious and affect kids’ sense of self-worth and future relationships. In severe cases, bullying has contributed to tragedies, such as school shootings.

Based on a series of Focus Groups done by Polling Center to women around 35 – 40 years old from A and B class in the early year of 2009, it reveals that the majority of respondents are afraid their children to experience bullying at school or out of school. In an extreme case, one of the respondents found a bullying case done by a male teacher at 1st grade in one institution where her son went to school. The teacher threatened and did sexual harassment to some of his boy students. One of the boys’ mothers, which was the respondent who told us the story, only noticed that there was something wrong when she saw that his son had a new habit; playing with his cock. When she asked to her son who taught him to do that, the son innocently confessed his teacher at school did it.

In the same FGD, all the respondents that consisted of working moms and housewives also noticed and felt apprehensive about bullying done via internet or sms (short message service). Most of the moms said that they intentionally placed their family Personal Computer (PC) with an internet link in a family room where most of the members of the family could come in and out anytime so that their children could not open their email account secretively, if they happened to receive any threat or bullying message from their friends, it could be detected right away by the parents. Learning from everyday life; usually most of children do not tell their parents when they receive threat or get bullied by their friends. The first reason is they are afraid should they tell their parents the people who bully them will really do their threats, another reason is they reluctant to tell their parents since by doing so they feel like proclaiming their weakness (the latter usually happens to boys). Some of the respondents, the working moms, confessed they joined some e-communities where their children were members, in this way they hope they can indirectly controlling their children’s activities. Yet, as a whole, the respondents agree that the most lethal weapon to anticipate bullying is open communication between parents and children (eky)

Like any other women, especially amongst moms, we had lots of gossip to share; from new fashion, children nurturing and gadget things. One of my friends (she liked living in style) showed off her new blackberry to us. She said that she had also joined a club of the ‘magic’ cell phone users. I questioned her here and there some of the cell phone’s features, I happened to read about the cell phone in one of magazines the other day. Guess what, she confessed that she did not really profess most of the cell phone’s features and how to maximize the using of the features, especially the push e-mail feature. So it is true then, that most of women are hopeless in gadget things, they like buying the latest and most sophisticated ones just for style.

While we were still talking about cell phones, the host offered us siomay bandung. She said there was a siomay street vendor in her neighborhood that had the yummiest siomay she ever tasted, very fish-tasty, just liked what they had in famous restaurants. And here we were, all of us liked eating very much, chorused together… ‘I want some… but, where is the siomay street vendor?’ ‘Take it easy girls,’ said the host, ‘the siomay vendor has a cell phone so we just call him and he will come to our place right away.’ Wow, it seemed now that everybody had cell phones; even the siomay street vendor had one.

Here another story from my friend; while she went to have her monthly shopping in one of hypermarkets the other day, she got an sms (short message service) from her servant at home - reminding her to buy some rice since they ran out of rice at home. She did not know before that the servant had a cell phone! While she was still shocked by the sms, the servant sent her another sms asking my friend to buy a bottle of shampoo for her. Gosh!

By the way, according to a research done by Polling Center in 2008, nowadays cell phone has penetrated to rural areas, around 42,6% of rural people have already had cell phones. The escalation is quite significant compared to 2006 where the percentage of cell phone users in rural areas is only 35,45%. In other words, a cell phone is not something that a rural people cannot buy anymore, moreover there are lots of provider company offering packages of a voucher card plus a cell phone in a very economical price these days. So don’t be surprised if someday you’ve got an sms from vegetable sellers or even medical herbs street vendors (tukang jamu) offering you their products. What a gadget world we have!(eky)

There is also Siti Noerbaja from Siti Noerbaja novel by Marah Roesli who, in the name of paternalism, was forced to marry a rich but old landlord (Datoek Maringgih) and left her beloved man (Syamsul Bahri) instead. Those two examples (Mariamin and Siti Noerbaja) are the reflections of women condition during 1920 – 1930. A very sad portrait, indeed. But what about women nowadays? Are they still limited by culture values and set ups like Mariamin and Siti Noerbaja?

From a study done by Polling Center in early 2009, it can be concluded that women nowadays have very different lives and fates compared to those in Siti Noerbaja’s time. As a woman myself, I am so proud to highlight that from political side, woman candidates are considered to be more apt to people’s aspirations and have better personalities than male candidates. Moreover, the majority of female and male respondents (49%) also consider the composition of woman legislators 30% and men legislators 70% in our parliament presently is not enough – in other words; they want a bigger number of women in the parliament. The majority of the respondents also think that with women in our government, violence (61.9%) and corruption (51.7%) can be minimized and the government will do a better job (59.5%).

Meanwhile from educational side, the demography reveals that the number of women and men percentage in education is not very far different. In S1 or under graduate level, the percentage of men is 50.91% while women 49.09%. For the opportunity to have education, the majority of male (82.9%) and female (81.9%) respondents do not agree to a statement saying that a woman does not have to study high since she will end up to take care for household chores anyway. And about 60% of male and female respondents do not agree that a woman should only be a housewife. And a housewife is supposed to be the decision maker from the perception of function in a household.

There is only one ‘red’ report that can be concluded from this study; job opportunity - since 67.99% of male respondents and 62.47% female respondents still agree that men should be prioritized in job opportunities than women. This could be related to paternal system in Indonesian society that is still strong where a man is supposed to be the bread winner in a family, thus should be prioritized in getting job. Meanwhile the role of women and men in a family nowadays has experienced a little change; there are lots of women out there who now become the bread winner in their families and have to work full time out of their houses while their husband spend more time at home doing household chores.

Well, reviewing the whole report of the study subjected to find out the role of women in these present days, it can be concluded that the gender equality viewed from all social aspects is quite good. The roles of women are now recognized in all aspects of life, not to mention politics. It is a relief to say ‘No More Siti Noerbaja…’ (eky)

Personal, face-to-face contact and mingling constitute the most pleasurable past-time. Any event would be an excuse for meeting, for gathering, for socializing. The first day of school, the last day of school, the after-school gatherings, the arisan, birthday treat, anything would do.

Memory still lingers on a past era, when mothers were at home to become the central figure, towards where all family members gravitate and the dinner table had been the center where the family bonded. There were practically no gadgets, then. Only the occasional phone call to set the rendezvous and other appointments.

Research shows that in the 1980’s, mothers, women, started to be pulled out of the home-front to participate in more out-of-home activities. The number of working women were on the rise. The hustle and bustle of urban living were pulled away from the home-front. Later on, malls arrived, cafes, restaurant, entertainment centers, places for socialzing and gathering. Private television stations became a novelty, a new change from the long-reigning, one-and-only public television station. Television was the first tool to change the home picture. The family center was not the dinner table anymore. The family room, where the television was located, became the meeting place of family members. At the end of the 80’s, television was the new magnet in the Indonesian household. However, this did not keep the youth in the homes. There were street meets. The “JJS” or jalan jalan sore , meaning afternoon walks. Locations near shopping centers were the place for gatherings. Blok M Kebayoran and Menteng area come to mind. The era of portable radios and walkmans. Music and radio played a big part in the life of youths. Music was a way of life, a channel for emotional experience as well as emotional expression. Radio became segmented. Radio for teens, radio for women, radio for executives. There were even dang-dut radio, jazz radio, and radio for humor.

Then came the 1990’s, the advent of personal computers. Computers came into homes and was not only a tool for working. Computers became affordable. Later on, not only PCs but also the wonders of internet, the cyber superhighway, assailed people’s lives.

The current period has brought the mark of the new millenium. Let us peek into the daily life of the average urban youth.

Findings from several focus group discussions among youths show that gadgets have become an inseparable part of their lives. The most important ones mentioned were the cellular phone, which is more popularly known as the handphone, or hp (“ha-pe”) and the laptop or pc. These gadgets were called their “means for existence”. Probing more into this concept of “existence” for these young people, aged 19 to 23, it seemed that the meaning of “to exist” was to be acknowledged by, accepted by and in contact with friends. Therefore, in their minds, the gadgets were a means to exist. Existing to them, was measured by the quantity of friends. The more one socializes, the more one exists. A typical comment by young people: “ We are seen by the number of friends we have”.

This attitude seems to be behind the sharp increase in the market for telecommunications products. Handphones are used for voice-calls, for sms, for music and for picture taking and picutre sending. The average youth can send sms repeatedly throughout the day, even when in the classroom. The messages sent pertain to the most casual inquiry on “what are you doing right now” to searching for the latest news or gossip. They even admitted that most of the time, the messages were not important, but what was important was the act of contacting. Voice calls through handphones are less frequent than sending and receiving sms. It is apparent that spending limitations for youths has made the pre-paid cards more in demand. The fact that the cards are pre-paid with fixed prices, automatically sets control over the amount of usage and thus the cost spent. In average they would spend from Rp. 30.000 to Rp. 150.000 a month on cell-phone communications. Meanwhile, the price range of the cellpones used range from Rp. 1.5 million to Rp. 2.5 million. Clearly, help is given by the parents in buying the handphones, either in the form of allowance which the young people save up, or by directly buying for them.

Voice-calls are usually made more at night, through their handphones or more often, through the fixed phone at home. Calling through the fixed-phone would be at their parents’ expense. At night, a lot of time is spent for conversing with friends. Much to the distress of their parents, they would call for hours at a time. Late at night, above 10 pm, was the best time for calling, according to these youths.

Laptops and personal computers also have changed the social pattern of the young people.
The top priority for computer usage, other than for school work, is the internet. The internet is used for emailing, for chatting, for online games, for downloading music and for browsing. The most popular sites are those for making new friends or finding old friends, such as the Friendster or the Facebook.

Those who do not have a laptop or do not always have the PC available for their use at home, go to the internet kiosk or ‘warnet’. However, the warnet limit their use, as they have to spend more of their allowance on this. Time spent on the internet is also lengthy, especially when in contact with friends. They would spend up to 2-3 hours on the internet a day. Night time is also considered the best time to open the internet.

The length of time spent on gadgets has its consequences. Less time is spent on the family and less time spent on other media, such as the television, as films as well as news could also be accessed through the internet.

Gadgets surely have changed the life patterns of all, especially of youth. As one youth expressed his dearest wish: every home should have free internet!

Yanti B. Sugarda

This article published in Garuda Magazine - March 2009

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