Recently, listening to podcasts is an activity that I do quite often before going to sleep. The world turning to digital brings many benefits, including for content creators and audiences like me. It is simply because of more and more accessible for us to create and listen to podcasts whenever and wherever. Spotify and Youtube are the platforms that I like the most to listen to podcasts. If I need visuals, I prefer Youtube, and if not, then I use Spotify. Podcasts by Makna Talks are podcasts that I have been listening to for a few nights. These podcasts made by an Indonesian design and branding agency named, Makna, where they make podcasts with well-known subjects to talk about the facts behind interesting issues every week hosted by Iyas Lawrence.
(Photoreference: spotify.com)
On one occasion, Podcast by Makna Talks collaborated with an annual bazaar event in Jakarta, which is known as Pop Up Market. This bazaar presents hundreds of local Indonesian brands ranging from clothing lines, accessories, home goods, makeup, skincare, natural products, shoes to food, and beverage. This collaboration produced several podcast that was very inspiring and interesting for me. One of the podcast content that I like is the episode "Makna Talks x Pop Up Market Eps. 15 with Maen Kaen, Pattent Goods, and Kal Akkara". This podcast discusses motivation, difficulties, and maintaining a business from three local Indonesian brand owners named Taqiyya, Reyhan, and Sendra.
(Photo reference: spotify.com)
We will first discuss MaenKaen. Taqiyya is a co-founder or a woman behind the MaenKaen brand. MaenKaen itself is casual and ready to wear clothing with an ethnic and modern twist. The owner's motivation to establish this brand is base on traditional Indonesian fabrics, which have begun to be forgotten by the younger Indonesian generation since it is considered old-fashioned and out of date to be modernized into fashionable clothing that can be used daily. This idea arises because of the high owner's interest in traditional fabric and wants to invite young people to preserve Indonesia's cultural heritage. Established in 2014, every piece of clothing from MaenKaen uses traditional materials. Each collection will take traditional fabrics from different regions in Indonesia. According to Taqiyya, the process of making MaenKaen clothing takes a long time because all the traditional fabrics used are handmade, which are made directly by the hands of regional craftsmen. Taqiyya had a hard time running this business when she had to continue studying abroad and maintain the company to keep going well. Through the bazaar event, the owner feels happy since she can communicate directly with buyers, introduce MaenKaen's brand story, and learn more about her brand customer behavior. Collaboration becomes an essential thing for the brand's promotional strategy; Taqiyya considers idea collaboration is a collaboration that has a value that can be share with customers and for both brands.
The second brand is Pattent Goods. Reyhan is the co-founder and creative director for pattent goods. Coming from Bandung, cold weather encourages the owner to create socks and blankets comfortable to use. All products are equipped with design patterns made by Reyhan. To monitor customer interest in its brands, Pattent Goods creates patterns that have stories and values to be shared with customers. Another motivation for Reyhan to establish Pattent Goods is his desire to create more affordable patterned socks where in the past, the products were only sold in several international brands at high prices. In running this business, Rayhan has experienced difficulties in finding basic materials in the form of wool yarn due to the very limited stock in Indonesia. This prompted Reyhan to import raw materials, which resulted in increased production costs. Bazaar events are essential for Reyhan because only through events, Pattent goods, and customers can meet directly since this local brand does not have its offline store. Collaboration has been carried out several times by Pattent Goods to increase awareness and boost sales. According to the owner, the most memorable collaboration is the collaboration between Pattent Goods and one of the motorcycle brands to create glove with leather-based materials, which also include Pattent Goods's signature patterns.
The last brand is Kal Akkara. Sendra is the founder and creative of the Kal Akkara brand. Kal Akkara is an Indonesian accessories brand that modernizes traditional Indonesia accessories' design to be trendy, contemporary, and attractive for youth culture. This is Sendra's effort to encourage young people to always preserve Indonesia's cultural heritage in a way that remains modern.The first time Sendra founded Kal Akkara because of a denim trend that made leather and silver as sub-accessories. Each silver accessory has its own meaning and philosophy where most of the design inspiration is taken from several regions in Indonesia such as Sumba and Nias. Different people's preferences make the Kal Akkara brand unable to fulfils all customer desires. All products are still made directly by Reyhan's hand, which makes the price offered quite expensive compared to international fast fashion brands. In addition, the workmanship process that is done alone becomes an obstacle for Reyhan where the defect of the product returned by the customer gives a sense of failure to the owner. But according to Reyhan failure can be reflected to create better works. Event makes Kal Akkara can deliver messages directly to customers, understand customers better, and create exposure to the brand itself.
The presence of podcast content that provided information from local brand owners in Indonesia encouraged me to find out more about the fashion industry's current situation in Indonesia. The discussion with local brand founders in Indonesia gave me knowledge about important things to do and not to do in running a business. Participate in the bazaar event is a good promotional strategy to applied later to build a business since according to the owner's discussion in podcast, bazaar event become a medium for us as the sellers to communicate directly with our buyers, learn customer behavior for our brands so all the criticisms and suggestions can be a reflection to develop our business better. So, good luck for all the potential fashionpreneur out there!
Reference:
Anchor. 2019. Maknatalks X Popup Market Ep.15 With Maen Kaen, Patent Goods, Kal Akkara By Makna Talks • A Podcast On Anchor. [online] Available at: <https://anchor.fm/makna-talks/episodes/MaknaTalks-X-PopUp-Market-Ep-15-with-Maen-Kaen--Patent-Goods--Kal-Akkara-e44nmi> [Accessed 14 November 2020].
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