Eco_Social_Marketing_Rosilawattietal_IROCAMM

1. Introduction

Garbage has become a big problem in every country, including Indonesia. The growth in population and the increase in tourists enhance the amount of waste produced. Indonesia ranks second as the country contributing the most plastic waste to the world’s oceans after China (Adharsyah, 2019). In 2018, there were 150 million tons of plastic in the world’s oceans. This number will continue to increase by 250 million tons if the trend of production and consumption continues. A report from the World Economic Forum and Elen MacArthur Foundation predicts that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans (World Bank Group, 2018: 1). East Asia is the region with the fastest growing waste production. Among the 192 countries analyzed, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Filipina, and Thailand are responsible for more than 50% of all plastic waste in the ocean. If 75% of the waste on land in these five countries can be managed properly, it will reduce the oceans’ waste flow by 45%. Two factors cause plastic waste to pollute the oceans, the uncollected waste and the low selling value of several plastic types. It is known that 75% of land-based waste sources come from uncollected waste, and 25% from the official urban solid waste management system (World Bank Group, 2008: 2).

Many people have not realized the importance of not littering, and reducing plastic use is one factor causing the increasing amount of waste. People, especially in the tourism area of Gili Trawangan, are unfamiliar with the socio-economic status and education level. Reporting from cnnindonesia.com (Priherdityo, 2017), the 1,500 trash cans program in Gili Trawangan initiated by Gili Eco Trust was unsuccessful. The Gili Indah Village Government finds it difficult to solve the waste problem from the community and tourists due to a lack of awareness and concern for the environment. The behavior of littering and single-use plastics results in the accumulation of garbage in various places and polluting the sea. The problem of individual waste and rubbish in Gili Trawangan comes from unsorted waste from hotels, homestays, cafes, restaurants, and bars.

Gili Indah Village is a tourism object of the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province. The results of a Bank Indonesia survey published on the travel.tempo.co page stated that 81% of foreign tourists visiting NTB visited Gili Trawangan (Khafid, 2020). In 2016, the average waste dumped into the Gili Trawangan landfills reached 9.2 tons per day, in which 85% came from commercial sector waste, including hotels, bungalows, homestays, restaurants, and shops. It shows the significant role of tourists in waste production in Gili Trawangan. A visitor is estimated to produce around 3.51 kilograms of waste per day (Bahagijo M. 2020). Previous research uncovered that the rapid development of tourism in Gili Trawangan affects environmental conditions. Problems often arising are coastal abrasion, violations of the construction of tourist infrastructure, not optimal management of public infrastructure and facilities, and not optimal waste management (Budilestari et al., 2014: 95).

Gili Eco Trust is a non-profit organization engaged in the waste management sector. It has an official foundation, the Gili Indah Ecosystem Foundation, based in Gili Trawangan. This non-governmental organization (NGO) was established in 2000, aiming to support the task force’s activities formed by fishermen to protect Gili Indah Village’s marine environment. Although initially, Gili Eco Trust was concerned for coral reefs, since 2015, it has expanded its program to manage and recycle waste in Gili Trawangan. In the antaranews.com article, Dhelpine Robbe, the founder of Gili Eco Trust, said she wanted to realize Gili Trawangan Zero Waste (Indriani, 2019). It does not mean that Trawangan is no longer producing waste; but, how can people use and treat waste as a resource? They work closely with a local community group called Environment-Concerned Community Front (FMPL). Gili Eco Trust makes souvenirs from waste-based materials, such as pendants made of glass from drinking bottles, pipettes made of bamboo, and many others.

Along with the development of tourism in Gili Trawangan, waste becomes the most significant problem on a small island, with an area of only about 340 hectares (Muhajir, 2016). Capacity is limited, but waste continues to grow. Research results by Gili Eco Trust in August 2017 revealed that the number of visitors to Gili Trawangan reached more than 2,700 tourists per day. The high number of tourists affects the volume of waste, reaching 20 tons and 10,000 glass bottles per day.

Therefore, researchers wanted to discover Gili Eco Trust’s social marketing strategy in building public awareness to care about the environment to realize Gili Trawangan Zero Waste and describe the inhibiting factors in its implementation. Social marketing is the adaptation of commercial marketing into a program to influence voluntary audience behavior to improve community welfare (Andreasen, 1994). Social marketing can be implemented to various situations and communities to shape behavioural changes. Social marketing can be implemented wherever there is a target community and a behaviour that needs to be changed (Bach&Alnajar, 2018). This concept or strategy takes advantage of two science fields, utilizing communication techniques and considering marketing principles. From a communication perspective, applying a social marketing strategy must consider the essential elements in communication, such as communicators, messages, media, and communicants, to overcome social problems (Pudjiastuti, 2016: 2-4).

In marketing principles, the marketing mix is an essential element to consider. It consists of four elements supporting one another for particular marketing to occur. It is often referred to as the 4P consisting of product, price, place, and promotion (Kotler and Zaltman, 1971: 7). Two social marketing elements, partnership and policy, distinguish it (Rizal, 2020: 258).

The difference between social marketing and commercial marketing is the bottom line in each program. The key purpose or bottom line of social marketing is to have an effect on public behaviours that can be measured by improvements in the actions of the target communities, while commercial marketing often has a bottom line in financial profit that can be easily measured in monetary values. Social marketing campaigns could well be considered success where change happens, but there is little direct benefit to the social change organizations (Bach&Alnajar, 2018).

Organizations, institutions and businesses of all sorts must make themselves known to the public. They need the public to know their name, their goods and their services. To be known to the public, the right form of communicating is necessary as a bridge between them and their audiences. Bernando Garcia Izquierdo in Communication and Advertising in NGDOs: Present and Future by Román-San-Miguel, A., & Díaz Cruzado, J. (2019) stated, communication is fundamental value for organizations in several issues. First, when structuring the programs to be offered, it would be important to focus on the audiences that the organizations aim to reach. Second, when searching for candidates to deliver the service, it is also important to analyze which community you choose to partner with in the project. Third, during seeking for fund, one should ask what social sectors would be interested in offering financial assistance to the organizations.

A social product is anything that can be offered to the market to be noticed, obtained, used or consumed to meet the expectations, wants and needs of society in overcoming social problems. The quality of life is, therefore, expected to be better. The community becomes healthier and cares about the environment (Pudjiastuti, 2016). Hence, the main purpose or aim of social marketing is to bring about positive behaviour change within individuals, families and societies (Bach&Alnajar, 2018).

There are two forms of price in social marketing, monetary and non-monetary costs. Monetary cost is an amount of money that must be paid to obtain social products, while the non-monetary cost refers to time and perceived risk that must be borne by the target adopters (Kotler in Pudjiastuti’s book, 2016).

Place in social marketing includes the place and distribution of social products. A social product will not reach the audience if its existence is far from the audience’s position. The primary step in promoting social products is to determine the target first. Mass communication will be used for mass targets, while for individual targets, the promotion will employ a direct approach (Pudjiastuti, 2016). A direct approach can be promoted in two ways: selective communication and personal communication (Kotler in Pudjiastuti’s book, 2016).

Policies are made based on an agreement between the parties related to the work program. The policies are expected to provide encouragement and motivate audiences to change their behavior. The institution’s policies are made as the basis to implement its program following the objectives. These policies usually involve the government. To run its program, an organization or institution needs to collaborate with external parties to achieve its goals. Social marketing will be meaningless if partnerships are not made as an organizational goal. It takes a long time to change audiences’ behavior, for that cooperation or partnership is essential to support the program’s success.

According to Kotler in Pudjiastuti (2016: 33), in general, social marketing management has four stages. (a) Defining the product-market fit; at this stage, the social marketers analyze the environment and collect several data types. The data collected includes economy (income development), politics (government-made regulations), technology (techniques and tools development), culture (knowledge, beliefs, and behavior), and the development or effectiveness of earlier programs (Kotler and Zaltman, 1971: 10). (b) Designing the product-market fit; social marketers create social products as a solution for target adopters. (c) Delivering the product-market fit; social marketers are ready to bring their products to the target adopters and let them try the social products offered to ensure these social products’ benefits. (d) Defending the product-market fit; social marketers support, change or modify social products to meet the market as a response to developments relevant to the environment and the target adopters’ population (Kotler in Pudjiastuti, 2016).

2. Method

This study utilized a qualitative research method with a case study approach. Qualitative research is based on the philosophy of postpositivism, used to examine the conditions of natural objects. Researchers are key instruments, data collection techniques are carried out in triangulation (combined), data analysis is inductive or qualitative, and qualitative research results emphasize meaning rather than generalization (Sugiyono, 2018: 8-9). According to Maxfield in Nazir (2017: 45), a case study refers to studying a research subject’s status concerning a specific or distinctive phase of the whole personality. Research subjects can be individuals, groups, institutions, or communities.

This analysis collected data through three techniques: in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. Researchers used participatory observation, in which they were involved with the daily activities of the participants observed or those used as a source of research data. While observing, the researchers participate in the data source and feel joy and sorrow (Sugiyono, 2018: 227). In this study, the researchers participated in what was done by the participants, but it was incomplete; it was called active participation.

This research applied a semi-structured interview included in the in-depth interview category. This type of interview aims to discover more open problems, in which the interviewee is asked for their opinions and ideas. In conducting interviews, researchers listen carefully and record what the informants say (Sugiyono, 2018: 233).

Documentation is a record of past events in writing (diaries, life histories, stories, biographies, regulations, and policies), pictures (photographs, living pictures, and sketches), or a person’s monumental work. Documents in works, such as art, can be in pictures, sculptures, and films. Research results will also be credible if supported by existing photographs or academic and artistic papers (Sugiyono, 2018: 240).

The Miles and Huberman model was employed as the data analysis technique. Activities in qualitative data analysis were carried out interactively and continued to completion. Activities in data analysis by Miles and Huberman, in Sugiyono (2018: 246), consists of (a) data reduction; a flow where the researchers summarize and sort data to focus the data on essential things, (b) data presentation; an activity conducted to analyze and classify the data after the data reduction stage. The data presentation is carried out to understand the data quickly, and (c) the final flow, carried out by concluding the previous stages and explaining the cause and effect and the problems of the study.

Researchers used a triangulation technique in testing data validity. According to Wiliam in Sugiyono (2018: 273), source triangulation is used to test data validity by checking data obtained from various sources. Meanwhile, technical triangulation is a technique for testing data credibility by checking data from the same source with different techniques. Researchers obtained data through interviews, then checked by observation and documentation.

3. Results and Discussion

Gili Eco Trust has an essential role in changing the behavior of the people, entrepreneurs and tourists to care more about the environment to realize Gili Trawangan Zero Waste and positively impact humans and the environment. To change the behavior of the community, businessmen and tourists, Gili Eco Trust conducted education on target adopters to be wise consumers by reconsidering the products purchased, sorting waste from sources, and disposing of waste in its place. It also carried out community-based waste management through the Garbage Bank and sought to benefit from reducing the amount of waste entering the landfills by performing upcycle glassware and collecting recyclable waste.

Before making social products, Gili Eco Trust analyzed the environment, economy, technology, culture, politic and previous programs run by Waste4change and the Mandiri NTB Waste Bank. The analysis aimed to collect data covering social problems, target adopters’ needs and habits, developments in waste management technology, and local regulations governing the collection of waste fees by third parties. However, the analysis carried out by Gili Eco Trust was unstructured and unsystematic because the determination of the problem was only based on Delphine Robbe’s observations as the founder and coordinator.

Then the next stage was designing social products. Gili Eco Trust made social products based on environmental analysis results and made programs following target adopters’ needs. At this stage, Gili Eco Trust designed social marketing elements, namely product, price, place, promotion, policy, and partnership. Gili Eco Trust has four social products offered to target adopters to change their behavior to be more concerned about the environment, including:

One thousand five hundred trash cans—Gili Eco Trust distributed trash cans and provided education for sorting waste for three days to target adopters. There are three colors of trash cans: blue for paper and cardboard waste, green for organic waste, and yellow for plastic waste. It aims to allow target adopters to sort waste based on the source and stop littering.
Debris Free Friday—a cooperation activity to clean up the beach, performed by target adopters every Friday. Before starting the activity, the target adopters have been educated on the types of waste and how to reduce waste production in Gili Trawangan and their respective areas.
Waste Bank—this social product takes the forms of waste picking services, recycling organic and inorganic waste, and providing education to target adopters to sort waste from sources and recycle home organic waste. For those performing sorting of waste, the fee will be deducted according to the agreement between the two parties.
Gili Tour Recycle—one of the educational tools used by Gili Eco Trust to show target adopters real evidence of the waste amount in Gili Trawangan. The target adopters are invited to cycle around the island to see the landfills, integrated waste processing site (TPST), the process of making brick blocks from glass bottle waste, the Waste Bank, and ending up at the eco shop, which also serves as the Gili Eco Trust office. Not only are they invited to tour the island, but they are also educated on the impact caused by waste, the types of waste, the waste management system and what efforts must be made to avoid polluting the environment.

Target adopters could adopt Gili Eco Trust social products for free, spend some money (monetary cost), and spend time (non-monetary costs). Gili Eco Trust’s social products were distributed in Gili Trawangan Hamlet, having an island length of 3 km and a width of 2 km. Gili Eco Trust distributed its social products using the one-step flow model, and social marketers distributed their social products directly to target adopters (Kotler in Pudjiastuti’s book, 2016). It also distributed its social products through social media and printed media called the two-step flow model. Social marketers distributed social products through media, which then took them to initial adopters, who then conveyed them directly to the final adopters (Kotler in Pudjiastuti’s book, 2016 ).

Gili Eco Trust promoted its social products through the Website, Instagram, Facebook FansPage, and print media using a direct approach. This approach was carried out in two ways, namely:

Selective communication, Gili Eco Trust informed its social products through direct mail and online media. Each audience who accessed the giliecotrust.com website was asked to enter their full name and email. Then every three months, Gili EcoTrust sent a newsletter and informed the target adopter of every activity. Gili Eco Trust’s social media have been highly active; they replied to comments and direct messages. Every 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Western Indonesia Time, Gili Eco Trust uploads social media content to promote its social products. It can be seen from one of the Gili Eco Trust’s posts in Figure 1, showing a picture of a friendly bank staff cleaning glass bottle waste. The caption describes recycling glass bottles starting from cleaning trash, the process of smelting glass bottles into glass sand, and becoming strong bricks. It also explains the advantages of the social product, and it fulfills the needs and desires of the target adopters. In the last sentence, Gili Eco Trust urges target adopters to visit Gili Trawangan without bottled water. However, they are advised to bring a reusable bottle to refill drinking water.
Personal Communication, Gili Eco Trust promoted its social products by visiting communities and entrepreneurs. As seen in Figure 2, Gili Eco Trust’s founder visits the shop owner to conduct education and practice sorting waste from sources.

Figure 02: The waste sorting process carried out by Delphine and the shop owner

Gili Eco Trust established a policy to collect waste bank fees from each member of the waste bank with the approval of the Regional Government of North Lombok Regency. The policy made by the Gili Eco Trust is the result of deliberation by the hamlet government and target adopters, such as waste fees and members’ obligation to sort the waste, as stated in Article 3 of the Cooperation Letter on Obligations.

Figure 03: Article 3 Point 2 Regarding Obligations in the Cooperation Letter between Gili Eco Trust and the target adopters.

Changing audiences’ behavior takes a long time. Gili Eco Trust has collaborated with a local community group, Environment-Concerned Community Front (FMPL), to realize Gili Trawangan Zero Waste. Initially, FMPL only transported waste from the source and then dumped it into the landfills. They did not perform waste management well. Then, Gili Eco Trust invited FMPL to cooperate in managing waste. In the future, Gili Eco Trust hopes that FMPL will run independently to carry out waste management in Gili Trawangan.

In the third stage, Gili Eco Trust brought its products to target adopters and let them try the social products offered to ensure these social products’ benefits. One example is Debris Free Friday. At the beginning of its formation, cooperation activities were carried out once a month around the neighborhood of each house and place of business. After seeing the target adopters’ high interest, Gili Eco Trust set the program once a week every Friday at 5 p.m.

In the last stage, the Gili Eco Trust monitored its social products. However, it has not been conducted in a structured and planned manner. Gili Eco Trust performed program evaluation or monitoring only when a problem occurred. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gili Eco Trust modified the waste bank program. Seeing the conditions declining public and business opinions, waste banks reduced adopters’ target cost to adopt these social products.

During marketing its social products, Gili Eco Trust encountered several obstacles, including:

Unforeseen obstacles: In 2016, the garbage bank distributed garbage buckets to 15% of the waste bank members to support efforts to sort waste. However, this program was interrupted when an earthquake hit the NTB Province in 2018. In February 2020, Gili Eco Trust conducted a waste recycling training using the composter bin method. The target adopters’ enthusiasm was high enough to adopt these social products, but currently, the program cannot work due to COVID-19.
Facilities and funds: The next inhibiting factors were funding and land availability. When researchers observed, the organic waste recycling process stopped because they did not have a processing location. Gili Eco Trust has also been constrained by funding. Two programs were hampered due to a lack of funds: (1) the recycling process of organic waste using the felita method could not be reused due to the high price of raw materials, and (2) a program to form an eco rangers team.
The mindset of target adopters: The Gili Eco Trust’s target adopters are the community, entrepreneurs and tourists. However, many of them did not care about the waste problem in Gili Trawangan. Some people and entrepreneurs being members of the waste bank did not sort waste. They believed that it was the responsibility of the waste bank. Tourists were also an obstacle to Gili Eco Trust, as many of them brought products in plastic packaging. Bad behavior of tourists littering has been common in Gili Trawangan. Change in company management was also an obstacle because when company management changed, the policies also changed.

4. Conclusions

Gili Trawangan Zero Waste is an outcome of four social products marketed by Gili Eco Trust, namely 1,500 Trash Cans, Debris Free Friday, Waste Bank, and Gili Tour Recycle. It does not mean that there is no waste in Gili Trawangan. However, how can target adopters utilize waste as a resource? To make it happen, Gili Eco Trust has educated the public, businessmen, and tourists to become wise consumers by reconsidering the products purchased, sorting waste, and disposing of waste properly. It also carried out community-based waste management through the waste bank and reduced waste entering the landfills by performing upcycle glassware and collecting recyclable waste.

In a nutshell, Gili Eco Trust has possessed strategic steps to change target adopters’ behavior to realize Gili Trawangan Zero Waste. Before making social products, the first step taken by Gili Eco Trust was to analyze the environment, economy, technology, culture, politics, and previous programs run by Waste4change and the Mandiri NTB Waste Bank. The analysis was carried out to collect data covering social problems, target adopters’ needs and habits, developments in waste management technology, and local regulations governing the collection of waste fees by third parties. However, the analysis carried out by Gili Eco Trust was unstructured and unsystematic.

After conducting environmental analysis, the next step was designing social products. Gili Eco Trust made social products based on environmental analysis results and established programs according to target adopters’ needs. At this stage, Gili Eco Trust designed social marketing elements of product, price, place, promotion, policy, and partnership.

Gili Eco Trust had four social products: 1,500 trash cans, Debris Free Friday, Waste Bank, and Gili Tour Recycle. The four social products were based on education. Then, it carried out a social practice to change the target adopter’s behavior. Social products required the target adopters to spend a certain amount of money (monetary cost) and time (non-monetary cost). The social products were marketed in Gili Trawangan Hamlet, Gili Indah Village, Pemenang District, North Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara Province.

Gili Eco Trust promoted its social products using a direct approach, carried out in two ways: (1) selective communication—promoting social products through direct mail and online media; and (2) personal communication—establishing personal communication with target adopters.

The policy made by Gili Eco Trust is contained in a Cooperation Letter. The target adopters must separate the waste based on the categories set out in Article 3 regarding Obligations. The target adopters, members of the waste bank, should issue a garbage fee of IDR 100,000-IDR 3,000,000 per month. The North Lombok Regency Government has approved the fee.

Social marketing takes a relatively long time to change target adopters’ behavior. Thus, Gili Eco Trust collaborated with a local community group called the Environment-Concerned Community Front (FMPL). FMPL was assigned to manage the waste bank, starting from deliberations with entrepreneurs and the community for cooperation agreements and conducting education on recycling organic and inorganic waste.

Then, Gili Eco Trust took its products to target adopters and let them try the social products offered to ensure these social products’ benefits. Furthermore, Gili Eco Trust carried out monitoring and evaluation to ensure whether the social product continued without undergoing changes or modification to meet the market. It was performed as a response to developments relevant to the environment and the target adopters’ population. However, the evaluation and monitoring conducted were unstructured and incomprehensive. The evaluation was only carried out when there was a problem.

Gili Eco Trust faced three inhibiting factors in implementing social marketing: (1) unexpected factors, such as earthquakes and COVID-19 outbreaks; (2) availability of land and insufficient funding to recycle organic waste; and (3) the mindset of target adopters who did not care about the waste problem. Some people and entrepreneurs, being members of the waste bank, did not sort waste. They believed that waste was the responsibility of the waste bank.

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