“Slow life”, “High standard”, ‘Really cute”:Taking a look at digital archive cultural and creative brand licensingReturn
TELDAP e-Newsletter (June, 2009)
“Slow life”, “High standard”, ‘Really cute”:Taking a look at digital archive cultural and creative brand licensing
TELDAP e-Newsletter/Chen Tai-ying
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Of the products on display during this year’s Taipei International Gift & Stationery Show (Taipei Gift Show below) were products developed by a number of companies in the cultural and creative industries that were confident these products would attract a positive response on this matching platform. How will cultural and creative products with a strong Chinese flavor developed from the results of TELDAP do in the domestic and international markets? What messages do consumer behavior and preferences give us?
The most successful organization in terms of licensing its collection and the one that has developed the most complete industrial chain is National Palace Museum. For this reason the author interviewed sales personnel from two companies that have been licensed by National Palace Museum to develop products. These two companies dispatched their best sales personnel to the Taipei Gift Show to introduce and promote the products and these interviews should indicate, to some extent, the future sales situation for their cultural and creative products. The author also asked visitors to the shows about their feelings about the National Palace Museum products. Though the survey process was not scientific it is hoped that this article can provide some useful information about the future development of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries.
A scene in the National Palace Museum’s brand licensing area during the Taipei Gift Show 2009
Slow life The first company whose staff was interviewed is a jewelry company with a brand that is very popular with young people. Using eye-catching advertisements the company has established a positive image that people closely associate with “love”. The products are simple but fashionable and make bold use of LED technology in the jewelry designs, one of the main reasons they are popular with young people. Amongst the cooperation cases between the company and the museum this year is a mini green jade cabbage and the product has already received a substantial amount of media coverage in Taiwan.
Luxury products by Golden Life Gold Jewelry licensed by the National Palace Museum
Golden Life’s stunning Green Jade Cabbage
These products licensed by National Palace Museum aren’t cheap (around NT$30,000) and the level of acceptance of such high price products in Taiwan remains to be seen. Sales staff told the author that people from Taiwan probably won’t buy the product for their own use but would be willing to buy as a gift representing Chinese art and culture and art for a foreign friend. The company chose the Green Jade Cabbage as the main product because media reports had helped make it synonymous with National Palace Museum. When the author asked the sales person about the response of visitors from China she said “Visitors from China really like them but because time was too short they don’t buy”.
Tourist souvenir outlets are a good sales channel for low price souvenirs but these are often packed with tourists and mainly focus on selling large quantities of low cost items. Are they suitable for the sale of high price items? It is worth considering whether you would spend NT$30,000 in a shop that is as busy as a market, where people push and shove each other. I would expect to pay under NT$1000, not 30,000.
The travel mode of Chinese tourist in Taiwan at present is also not suited to the sale of high price items. Apart from the food, the other thing that Chinese tourists are least satisfied with about their time in Taiwan is that the itinerary is too rushed leaving many with “sleeping on the bus, getting off the bus to go to the washroom” as their main memory of their visit. The author couldn’t help asking himself: Would sale of these luxury products be better if potential buyers were able to enjoy a “slow life” Chinese style and the products were sold in a relaxed sales venue in which high level customers were treated to a Taiwanese tea ceremony experience? Would this make Chinese tourists more able to appreciate the Chinese culture that is an important part of Taiwan’s heritage? When thinking about becoming involved in the cultural and creative industries collection bodies would be best advised to first read the book by CEO Yan Chang-shou thoroughly and put his advice into practice and I am sure they will develop an attractive sales model.
High standard
Another company that attracted attention was one that made it name providing bedding to top-class tourist hotels and then moved into general home decoration product sales. The company was licensed by National Palace Museum to make bedding sets and bedroom products with the “Along the River during Ching-Ming Festival” theme. The products attracted a lot of attention during the China Beijing International Cultural & Creative Industries Expo. Maybe part of the reason was that there was a connection to “city administration”, a topic of debate at present in China.
“Along the River during Ching-Ming Festival ” bedroom products by Royal Home
Purple (Left) and rice colored (Right) “Along the River during Ching-Ming Festival” pillows
The design of the bedroom items is simple with the main visual image the accurate reproduction of the famous painting “Along the River during Ching-Ming Festival ”. With unlicensed (pirate) production of products rife in China, will unlicensed production and sale inflict losses on the original manufacturer? The author asked “Aren’t you worried that unlicensed “Along the River…” bedroom products will be made?’
The company sales person said : “Absolutely not, because the fabric design and method are from Germany. Quality control is very strict and it is very,very difficult to copy the products.”
A member of the company’s staff said that these six figure NT$ bedding set products will target China as the main market. They have great faith in the high level of German craftsmanship and believe that this insistence on the best craftsmanship will keep them well ahead of competition from unlicensed products. This combination of the dual power- Asian splendor plus Western craftsmanship-will, it seems, win the confidence and acceptance of the consumer.
Really cute
A cutlery set licensed by National Palace Museum won rave reviews from all who saw it during the show
Still in the National Palace Museum display area it was noticeable that, in addition to lifelike products, “cute” products have also been licensed. Quite a few young women stopped to admire these redesigned, ingenious products that reveal the culture within and uttered the words “So cute!” The products won a lot of praise and it seem that most people can find one or two products they love in the ranks of the National Palace Museum’s cultural and creative products. The show was not a sales venue so the good response of the public was not transformed into sales, however, the rapturous reception the products received from gift show visitors with no connection to the Museum shows that these products have very good future market potential. It takes more than just printing an image on a cup to make money in the cultural and creative industries. Understanding and respecting “human nature” and grasping technology trends is the best way to really achieve the objective of using culture to market Taiwan and create a multidimensional cultural and creative industries chain. It is hoped that more collections, capital and talented people will become involved in the cultural and creative industries so that Taiwan becomes a place renowned for its culture and aesthetics.
Publisher:Fan-Sen Wang, Vice President of Academia Sinica Editor-in-Chief:Zong-Kun Li Publishing Department:Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program, TELDAP Executive Editor:Sub-project: Digital Information - the New and Creative Way of Communicating Mailing Address:The Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica
No.130, Sec. 2, Academia Rd., Nangang District, Taipei City 115, Taiwan TEL: (02) 27829555 ext:310 or 183 FAX: (02) 2786-8834 E-mail:newsletter@teldap.tw
Issue:TELDAP e-Newsletter (June, 2009) Publish Date:06/15 /2009 First Issue:02/15 /2007(Published on 15th every 2 months)
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