IIUM Empowers Gombak Entrepreneurs Through Integrated Marketing Communication

By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aida Mokhtar

The intertwining of integrated marketing communication, community engagement, and entrepreneurship was exemplified by the Exhibition on Empowering Local Entrepreneurs in Gombak, held at the IIUM on 29 May 2024.

The event was organized by Integrated Marketing Communication students and the Communication Students’ Association of the Department of Communication. The department is one of the eleven departments of the AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS KIRKHS) of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

Prof. Dr. Shukran Abd Rahman, Dean of AHAS KIRKHS, the biggest Kulliyyah at the IIUM, has been encouraging the departments to conduct community engagement activities with one of the seven villages in Gombak that includes Kampung Kerdas that is the focus of the students’ integrated marketing communication campaigns and the exhibition.

There were nine entrepreneurs that set up booths at the exhibition: Tuns Anuar, My Qt Bites, Kek Hidayah, Mat Murtabak, D’Brothers Clean, Pak Din Satay, Salon Spa Muslimah, ⁠QQ D’Bloom and Mr. 23 Bakso. Groups of students formed integrated marketing communication agencies that have been conducting campaigns for their clients, the entrepreneurs, since the outset of the semester.

The Deputy Dean (Student Development and Community Engagement) of AHAS KIRKHS, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Noh Abdul Jalil, mentioned to IIUMToday, that the community engagement activities undertaken by the Kulliyyah was part of the “…the Gombak Project…initiated by IIUM Rector, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak who realised that there was a lack of engagement of the IIUM community with the public.”

The Kulliyyah’s Synergised Academic Activity initiative, that relates to the Gombak Project, focuses on identifying issues within the kampung community by conducting research studies that are then addressed through intervention programs. Community engagement can differ in definition, in this case it entails strategically partnering with a community and aiming for a positive outcome through problem solving while at the same time inculcating values.

The course, Integrated Marketing Communication, has been registered as a Synergised Academic Activity for a few semesters and this has made the students’ projects more meaningful with the direction given by the Kulliyyah. In the second semester of 2023/2024, the community that the students are encouraged to engage with for their integrated marketing communication campaigns is mainly the entrepreneurs of Kampung Kerdas with a few entrepreneurs from Kampung Tengah and Kampung Laksamana.

The aim is to encourage the students to apply their knowledge and skills beyond the classroom, to be of benefit to society through community engagement and to uphold the Sejahtera Academic Framework denoted by the IIUM as the university’s preparation of “individuals with Islamic attitudes and values through transformative and values-based educational initiatives.”

The integrated marketing communication campaigns conducted by the students combine both traditional and digital marketing communication efforts, realizing the importance of complementing them, to achieve sales. After all, Daft and Lengel claim that the richest form of communication for complex topics is face-to-face communication, because it can give out several cues for better clarity in communication as evident by the in-person exhibition that provides better comprehension through verbal and non-verbal communication cues without overlooking the use of digital marketing communication tools.

The opening ceremony of the exhibition was a grand affair with several welcoming speeches; one by the Dean who enlightened the audiences on the history of the community engagement activities at the Kulliyyah in relation to the Gombak Project; I, as Program Advisor, explained how the Synergised Academic Activity was translated in the form of integrated marketing communication projects and the Program Manager, Anis Ayuni Zaidi, detailed the program schedule.

Kampung Kerdas village head, Tok Nasaruddin Mohd Darwis, officiated the opening of the exhibition by expressing his gratitude for being invited, by advising all entrepreneurs to maintain their motivation by picking themselves up after each failure in order to be successful and by recognizing the diligent efforts of the Communication students.

The opening was also graced by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Noh; Head of the Department of Communication, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tengku Siti Aisha Tengku Azzman and Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rohaiza Abd Rokis.

Engaging with the local entrepreneurs in Gombak has been a humbling experience for all of us and we also look forward to more collaborations in future with Kampung Kerdas entrepreneurs.

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