'Made to order' -- creative marketing for foreign buyers

'Made to order' -- creative marketing for foreign buyers

DENPASAR (JP): Balinese names are very characteristics of the people bearing them. Names disclose if a person is the oldest child in the family or the youngest. In Bali, common names are usually preceded with Wayan or Putu, Made or Nengah, Nyoman and Ketut. That is why, in the island's whole population (about two million), there are surely hundreds of thousands with the same first names.

What really draws attention to the matter is that many sizable nameplates carry the words "Made to Order". It could well run in the thousands. The three words could not possibly be a name, although the word "Made", meaning second child, is what it starts with.

It appears that the words are a combination of the verbs "to make" and "to order". They later evolved into a sort of Balinese- English expression.

The words actually mean that orders can be placed for a certain product. In Bali, this would usually cover silver jewelry, leather jackets, wood carvings, clothes and many other goods. Artists and craftspeople take the orders.

The "Made To Order" signs, thus, is not at all a Balinese name. It possibly started to appear in the 1980s in Celuk, the silver handicraft center of Bali. Since traditional silver designs from Bali are often thought unsuitable to the taste of non-Indonesian buyers, several creative persons solved the marketing problem with this idea.

Whatever design or form, the order will be followed to the instructed details. This explains those name plates "Made To Order".

The three simple words, integrated into the Balinese language, eventually became sacred words. After the word's initial start in silver workshops, the three magic words soon decorated fronts of handicraft, leatherware and apparel shops. Anything that is made of leather, cloth, wood or iron. As long as the shops maintain a reasonable pricing system, the prospects of "Made To Order" products of Denpasar, Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Sanur, Batu Bulan, Peliatan, Ubud and a host of other villages will remain secure.

Made

The name Made has become the popularity mark -- especially to visitors and foreign tourists. Small signboards and giant billboards flaunt these words. The English word "made" and the Balinese name "Made", describing a man's place in the family, have grown into a whole new meaning.

"Most words, used commonly, refer to the order of a person's birth. The first child of a Sudras family is called Wayan; Putu or Gede are first names for the higher castes. The second child will be called Made or Nengah, the third will be named Nyoman and the fourth, Ktut. The order is for subsequent children. Satrias add the word Ngurah to other titles, indicating the purity of their descent, for example, Anak Agung Ngurah Gede," writes Miguel Covarrubias in his 1937 book, Island of Bali.

It follows then, that the first child to the fourth will be named Wayan to Ketut. Alas, many Balinese families count more than four children. Not to worry, there is a solution. Just add the word Cenik, meaning little, behind the fifth child's name, as in "Wayan Cenik," and "Ketut Cenik", for the eighth child. The diminutive Cenik is added to identify the younger Wayan from the first. The name Cenik is only a nickname and does not appear on ID cards.

Balinese people customarily wear their adult name in the second order. It is the second name that identifies all Wayans, Mades and Ketuts from one another. But, with all the namesakes on the island, the name Made seems to outdo the others.

After reading the sign, people usually say with a smile: "That's Bali for you. How about that?"

Let's hope that there are no Balinese called Made To Order. If there are any, it most possibly means that their parents would like them to become reliable businessmen or merchants, receiving many orders that would have to be Made To Order.

-- Ketut Ketik