These are the community members of bus fans in Indonesia, which they named as “BisMania” Community (BMC) (Refer Figure 1). This community was founded in 2007, to the present membership of about 17,000. The vision is to support business activities of bus transportation services in Indonesia; to add value for the benefit of employers, consumers, or other industry related to the bus transportation services.
Figure 1. BisMania Community. © 2013, BisMania Community, Used with permission.
Its mission is: to gather; integrate; and accommodate bus fans across Indonesia through a range of activities related to the bus transportation services; to establish close cooperation and mutual benefit among members and with the bus transportation service providers; and to share knowledge and experience in the automotive sector particularly among the BMC members. The BMC is a forum for all bus fans in the country who wants to express his/her hobby, share knowledge, and experience, as well as the benefit of taking part in the BMC. BMC is also as a mediator between the consumer and the bus rental service providers in order to improve services so as to provide and encourage the public to make the bus as a viable transportation option (BisMania, 2013).
By observing in BMC’s gathering event and interviewing with BMC’s members, author found some phenomena of interactions that occur between the companies and BMC, such as: BMC was invited by the company to design a bus, especially graphic design of bus body. Some designs were very attractive, thus affecting customers to rent the bus. In addition, BMC represents the companies which offer customize travel packages to the public at competitive prices, thereby benefiting the companies with no need to pay for marketing promotion. On the other hand, companies fully support the community events by providing transportation services to the BMC Central Java chapter with a bus that has a unique design - 6 wheels- to attend a national BMC gathering at Jakarta, without gasoline charges. On another occasion, the company providing transportation service served to the BMC without charging the cost of gasoline, when the community visited and helped mitigate the impact of natural disasters of Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta, Central Java. It is in lines with the companies’ and community’s missions that they care for people and environment (Bluebird group, 2013; BisMania, 2013).