Optimizing Digital Marketing and Implementing Endorsements to Increase the Pineapple Chips Business Capacity

The Entrepreneurship sector plays an important role in the nation progress. The partner in this Community Service is Maju Tani Group in Pakpak Bharat Regency. The purpose of this activity is to improve the pineapple chips business of the Maju Tani group in order to maintain business continuity. The problem found is the product less recognized by the community. The solution offered to overcome this problem is to conduct digital marketing training and endorsement of pineapple chips on social media. The method of implementing this activity is training and mentoring. In this service activity, the service team helped partners create business social media and make a video endorsement of chips. All of this aims to increase the business capacity of partners. Overall, the service activities went smoothly.The Entrepreneurship sector plays an important role in the nation progress. The partner in this Community Service is Maju Tani Group in Pakpak Bharat Regency. The purpose of this activity is to improve the pineapple chips business of the Maju Tani group in order to maintain business continuity. The problem found is the product less recognized by the community. The solution offered to overcome this problem is to conduct digital marketing training and endorsement of pineapple chips on social media. The method of implementing this activity is training and mentoring. In this service activity, the service team helped partners create business social media and make a video endorsement of chips. All of this aims to increase the business capacity of partners. Overall, the service activities went smoothly.


INTRODUCTION
The Entrepreneurship sector plays an important role in the progress of a nation.In August 2022, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reported that the number of unemployed people in Indonesia was 8.42 million.This unemployment problem is the reason for the importance of the entrepreneurship sector to be addressed because the unemployment problem will have an impact on other social phenomena such as low welfare levels, increased social crime, etc.In addition, the spirit of entrepreneurship needs to be promoted because the number of entrepreneurs is increasing.In addition, the spirit of entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged because the number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia is still low, which amounts to around 1.5% of the total population (Nova & Jamaaluddin, 2020).Entrepreneurs have a major role in economic development through the creation of innovation, employment, and welfare (Khamimah, 2021).Empowering productive groups in entrepreneurship is one of the real steps in mobilizing the entrepreneurship sector.The partner in this Community Activity Program is the Maju Tani Group.
This group of entrepreneurial farmers in Boangmanalu Village, Salak District, Pakpak Bharat Regency is named "Maju Tani".This Farmer Group was formed on January 11, 2021 with 20 members.The main purpose of forming this group is to produce pineapple chips.They are pineapple farmers who produce pineapple chips as an economical processing of their own agricultural products.In other words, these farmers plant, harvest and process pineapples into chips for sale.They are producers of their own products.The group has been producing and marketing pineapple chips since 2021.
Based on the situation analysis conducted, there are problems faced by partners namely in the field of marketing.The first problem is that the product is less attractive to the public, even though the taste of pineapple chips is quite good.Based on an interview conducted with Mr. R.Boangmanalu, Head of the Maju Tani Group, he said that their main buyers are still limited to the closest people and family.When looking at the taste of pineapple chips, the taste of these chips is standard and delicious because for the production of pineapple chips, this group has used a chip frying machine, namely a Vacuum Frying machine.

Picture 1. Vacum Frying Machine for Producing Pineapple Chips
The second problem is the product is less well known by the public.The target market for this pineapple chips business is the community around Salak city, more broadly all people in the Pakpak Bharat Regency area, and also all people outside Pakpak Bharat.So far, the sales of these chips have not expanded to a wider area, even though in terms of taste these pineapple chips are no less competitive with other pineapple chips.The factor causing this is thought to be due to suboptimal promotion.This product has never been promoted, due to the limited ability of business managers to carry out product promotion.This farmer group already has social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp, but they often do not understand how to manage social media so that the implementation of promotion is not optimal.Based on this, Maju Tani group members need to be given training on the use of social media to market products.In addition, there is currently a contemporary marketing method, called endorsement.(Hardilawati et al., 2019) in their article entitled Endorsmnet Today's Marketing Media said that endorsements are effective in attracting consumers, especially consumers from millennials.Thus, digital marketing training and implementing a product endorsement promotion policy to market is very necessary.
Based on this, improvement of the group's pineapple chips business is needed.The purpose of this service activity "Improving the Pakpak Pineapple Chips Business of the Maju Tani Group in Salak District, Pakpak Bharat Regency" is to improve the pineapple chips business of the Maju Tani group in order to maintain business continuity.Handling this problem is urgent to do because they are a productive group of "entrepreneurship-based farmers" who are very potential preneur farmers.They are farmers who strive to improve their own welfare, as creatively as possible processing their agricultural products into products of economic value, with all the limitations they have.The empowerment of this pineapple chip business also benefits Pakpak Bharat because pineapple chips have the potential to become a typical Pakpak Bharat souvenir

IMPLEMENTATION AND METHODS
The problem faced by partners is the lack of recognition of pineapple chips in the eyes of the community.This is due to the Maju Tani group members' lack of understanding in using their business social media accounts.Therefore, to overcome this problem, it is necessary to hold training using Digital Marketing, namely social media as a means of product promotion.In addition, the solution offered to overcome this problem is to carry out a product promotion policy, namely endorsement of pineapple chips products on social media, namely on Instagram/Facebook/Tiktok. Promotion through social media can increase business income and make it easier to disseminate information to the world community without being limited by space and time (Rio et al., 2021).Currently, in the midst of technological advances, social media is one of the most effective promotional media, especially coupled with advertising / endorsing products.Thus, this solution is expected to overcome partner problems.

Picture 2. Endorsement on Instagram
The solutions offered in this activity can be summarized in the

Endorsement of pineapple chips on social media
The method of implementing activities to implement the solutions offered by the training and mentoring method.Training is an activity carried out in order to train or develop a skill and knowledge to oneself or others related to certain competencies.Mentoring is a job done by facilitators or community assistants in various program activities.Mentors are also often referred to as Mentorship.The mentor acts as a facilitator for an activity that is being trained.
The approach method for implementing the above activities can be described as follows: 1. Preparatory Stage ✓ Situation Analysis At this stage, the activity proposing team conducted a survey or situation analysis regarding the condition of the partners, namely the Maju Tani Group through direct surveys and interviews with partners.Situation analysis is a stage of data collection or problems before the team carries out activities.

✓ Problem Identification
After conducting a situation analysis, the proposing team identifies the problems faced by partners and selects priority problems that are urgent to be addressed.
✓ Focus Group Discussion (FGD) After knowing some of the problems faced by partners, the proposing team conducted a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to discuss several things, namely the solutions offered to partners and the technical implementation of activities.

Activity Implementation
After all the preparation stages have been completed, the activities can be carried out using training and mentoring methods.Training activities include providing material to participants related to the solutions offered, and training will be accompanied by mentoring.

Evaluation
Evaluation is the last stage after all stages have been carried out.At this stage, the implementation team will evaluate whether all the solutions offered have been implemented and are able to help partners overcome their problems.At this stage, activity reporting will also be carried out to the agency.

Picture 3. Activity Implementation Method
The participation of all members of the Maju Tani group who are partners in this activity is as participants in the implementation of service activities.In addition, partners coordinate with the service team regarding the schedule for implementing activities, attend training, provide a place for The implementation of this service activity will be monitored and evaluated in accordance with the activities carried out.The success of the activity implementation will be evaluated through giving questionnaires to activity participants to find out whether the partners are satisfied and helped by the activity.This activity is also planned to hold sustainability in the next year, namely assisting farmer groups to take care of business licenses and increasing the scale of business to become Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) or Commanditaire Vennotschaap (CVs).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This service activity was carried out on Thursday, August 03, 2023.Before the activity was carried out, the service team had coordinated with partners regarding the schedule and place of implementation of activities and other matters.The service activity was carried out at the pineapple chips business production house of the Maju Tani Group, namely on Jl.Lae Ordi, Boangmanalu Village, Salak District, Pakpak Bharat Regency.This activity was attended by the Head of the Maju Tani Group along with 10 group members, the service team, and also assistants from LPPM Unimed.The Head of Economic and People's Welfare of Pakpak Bharat Regency, Maston S Manik, S.ST, M.Si, was also present at this activity.The activity was officially started by the Head of the service team.
Picture 4. Remarks from the Head of Service In the community service activities, Digital Marketing training has also been conducted to help partners become more proficient in operating social media accounts for promotional media.Partners consist of the age group of 50 years and above so they are overwhelmed in operating social media.However, with this training, partners feel helped in operating it.Partner social media consists of Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, and Tiktok.The existence of social media is very helpful for product marketing.There are several consumers from out of town who have ordered because they saw pineapple chips product posts on social media.Social media gives the ability to reach customers anywhere, anytime, build brand awareness, and build connections with customers.So, if want to build a successful business, make sure to make the most of social media (Siagian et al., 2020) (Achmad et al., 2020).Picture 5. Social Media of Maju Tani Pineapple Chips Business Picture 6. Pineapple Chips Endorse Video In addition to Digital Marketing training, the service activity implementation team helps partners promote their products by using the services of celebrities, namely Endorse.Endorsement is a form of advertising using famous figures who are recognized, trusted, and have the respect of the people.The figure or celebrity chosen to be an endorser is responsible for promoting the company's products or services (Achmad et al., 2020), (Ramadhan et al., 2020).Endorsements can be done in various ways, such as publicizing the use of products, making positive reviews about products, and persuading the public to buy a product.Endorsement aims to attract potential customers who have an interest in a public figure (Sakinatun, 2023).Several studies have shown that endorsements play a powerful role in introducing products more widely to the public and are able to increase sales (Yudiawati, 2021), (Fenny & Loisa, 2021).Therefore, endorsement is an effective promotional tool to make our products more famous.
In Finally, the partners thanked the service team for organizing this activity.The partner through the group leader hopes that the service team will not stop monitoring the group's pineapple chip business so that it can improve into a large-scale business.
this service program, the pineapple chips endorse video has been launched on Instagram and has been watched 3,995 times as of August 16, 2023.This service activity was also attended by the local government, namely the Head of Economic and People's Welfare, Maston S Manik, S.ST, M.Si.Picture 9. Take a Photo With the Head of Economy and People's Welfare, Maston S Manik, S.ST, M.Si.

table below :
Tabel 1. Target Output Plan of Solution