From Awareness-Raising to Business Decisions: Brand Differentiation and Positioning of MSMEs Around the Sungai Suci Tourist Attraction in Central Bengkulu
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70550/sowel.v2i2.312Keywords:
Differentiation, Brand Positioning, MSMEs, Community Empowerment, Destination-linked ProductsAbstract
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) located near tourist destinations need recognizable product identities to compete and connect with the places where they operate. This study examines product characteristics and marketing constraints among MSMEs around the Sungai Suci tourism area in Central Bengkulu, Indonesia. It also explores how a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)-based extension programme helps participants formulate product differentiation, brand positioning, and packaging concepts. An evaluative descriptive-qualitative approach drew on observation, group discussions, extension activities, simulations, and documentation of product concepts. The analysis indicates differences between business groups: producers of modified cassava flour (mocaf) had a potential local attribute to communicate but lacked consistent packaging, whereas producers of more common cassava snacks still needed to define credible points of difference. Internal barriers included limited marketing and packaging knowledge, capital, and confidence; external barriers included market access and weak integration with destination promotion. The documented outcomes were participants’ initial differentiation ideas, intended brand positions, and draft packaging concepts, rather than verified changes in sales or visitor behaviour. The study offers a Positioning–Differentiation–Brand (PDB)-based empowerment framework linking extension knowledge to proposed business decisions; its destination-promotion propositions require further empirical testing.
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