UNAIR NEWS – The Covid-19 pandemic has plagued Indonesia for more than ten months and caused a national economic recession of minus 3.49 percent in the third quarter of 2020. This condition continued in the second quarter, which was recorded at minus 5.32 percent.

Covid-19, in addition to affecting the income of big businesses, also affects micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) due to the falling purchasing power and the conventional strategies of MSME, which are unready to face the crisis.

It also happened to MSME practitioners in Watudandang village, Nganjuk Regency, who continued to rely on marketing strategies such as opening outlets or leaving their products to stores. As a result of the health protocol policy, potential consumers did not visit these outlets, and MSME products are not even viewed during this pandemic.

The government’s policies on Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) and Physical Distancing affect the business model and change from conventional to digitalization by a model of buying and selling using technology.

This condition encouraged lecturers and students at the Business Department, Faculty of Vocational Studies Universitas Airlangga to assist MSME in Watudandang village to recover from the economic downturn by shifting to online product marketing. It is one of UNAIR’s efforts to support the achievement of the fourth SDG (Sustainable Development Goal), Quality Education.

The team was Yanuar Nugroho, S.E., M.Sc., Ak., CA., ACPA., AWP. (Accounting Lecturer), Phima Ruthia Dwikesumasari, S.E., MSM. (Marketing Management Lecturer), Bani Alkausar, S.Pn., M.S.A (Taxation Lecturer) and students from the Faculty of Vocational Studies, Universitas Airlangga. This event was held with a blended method, online and offline.

According to Phima Ruthia, some of the assistance programs included providing assistance on financial management procedures, online product marketing, and online tax procedures to improve the competence of human resources in MSME for three months.

“MSME practitioners are given online training on digital marketing strategies,” she explained.

In this program, they were given insight into consumer behavior in finding the expected product.

“MSME practitioners were given training on how to write captions, hashtags, and the role of likes and comments so consumers can find them easily, increase trust-building and determine the right time to post on social media accounts to match “hours of life” of consumer segmentation,” added Yanuar Nugroho.

Students were also involved in this activity to monitor and assist offline with financial recording techniques and online marketing so they could implicitly learn and solve financial and marketing problems related to the taxation aspects.

Yanuar Nugroho also claimed that the program provided benefits by increasing the competence of MSME in analyzing profits and losses more precisely. Thus, it would give an overview for MSME to make policies regarding their business operations.

“For sure, MSME would understand how to implement proper accounting recording procedures following applicable standards. So, there would be no misstatement or misleading information, and they could distinguish between business and personal cash, which is one of the factors that leads to a small and medium enterprises’ bankruptcy,” he added.