Show menu

From New York to Java, This Gucci Marketing Maven Brought Her Skills to Indonesian Batik

When Cecilia (Ceci) Wang, a media planner at Gucci, came upon the opportunity to volunteer with a fledgling Indonesia-based artisan enterprise uniting shibori and batik textile design techniques, she didn’t waste a moment’s time in filling out the online forms offered through her employer.

Ceci’s task was to work alongside Putri Komar, a young entrepreneur from a family with more than five generations of traditional batik production to its name, in launching her new fashion brand combining both the shibori tie dye and batik wax resistant dye craft techniques. Together, Ceci and Putri collaborated on new strategies to improve brand storytelling, marketing materials, and digital communications – and identified ways for Shibotik to build its marketing strategy into the context of a larger business plan.

Ceci guided Putri in building a more thoughtful framework around her brand positioning, and also focused on bolstering her sometimes wavering confidence. Says Ceci: “Putri had great ideas to further her brand; however she needed some encouragement and reassurance that she was on the right path in interpreting global trends to appeal to both a domestic and international customer.”

For Ceci, the close to two weeks spent in Indonesia came with certain cultural awakenings, like how a different structuring of time can create discrepancies between global artisans and the brands they seek to work with. But the slower pace in Indonesia brought lessons for Ceci. She reflects: “My experience made me appreciate the time and effort these artisans spent crafting a product, and the valuable resources that we often take for granted.”

NEST_X_BLACK