Beyond the point of purchase: Conveying brand values through experiential retailing. A case study of the Iittala brand

Brands are no longer isolated entities that only represent the products they offer; now they are often closely associated to their environmental contexts, cultures, and shared values. This presents a challenge for companies that are experienced in their domestic markets but desire to expanding globally, as the strong cultural connotations they have worked so hard to form may become lost in translation. The brand that this study focuses on is Iittala, a premium Scandinavian home goods brand owned by the company, Fiskars. This thesis aims to explore the methods of storytelling that are effective in brand communication and education for international brands such as Iittala, when expanding globally. To this end, this study looks specifically into the Asia-Pacific, a market of interest, to explore the qualities of Scan- dinavian design and products that appeal to its consumers. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to de- termine ways for brands to better understand its international customers. The research was conducted with a purpose of understanding the perspectives of the key players, including the local store clerks, the target consumers, and management. Literature reviews and ethnographic interviews were employed, as well as in-store observations and shadowing at various Iittala retail locations. The results indicated a need for rapid response to the ever-changing needs of Asia-Pacific consum- ers, and the need for a better understanding of their customers’ shopping behaviours in order to align the brand’s retail strategies. This study will propose a re-designed customer journey that incorporates the MyIittala platform as a tool of data collection, and offer a method of introducing this initiative through the implementation of a pop-up pavilion

The production and consumption of "Experiencescapes" in Eslite Bookstores, Taiwan

In the era of online business, digital devices, and electric books, bricks-and-mortar bookshops are in decline. Although the future of physical bookstores has received much anecdotal attention, little examination has occurred in the academic context. With a specific focus on the development of a comprehensive understanding of bookstore experiences, this research employs more-than-representational theory in order to conceptualise the ‘operational logics’ of bookstore experience. Through an ethnographic investigation of Eslite, one of the leading bookstore chains in Taiwan, this thesis argues that in order to thrive and sustain its bookselling business Eslite bookstores are produced as experiencescapes through performance. In these experiencescapes, consumers act as creative artisans who are able to re-configure any given situation, enacting countless possibilities through their embodied practices. Likewise, I suggest that cultural meanings, values, and ideological thoughts are connected to these embodied practices, spaces, identities and lifestyle through consumers’ book experiences. In addressing how practice constantly engages with corporate plans, cultural meanings, identities, and personal ways of life, this thesis contributes to wider debates on the processes of how the (more than) representational is presented and performed, and therefore invites researchers to develop a greater sensitivity to ‘doing’ geographies of consumption and spatial practices

Creative industries policy in Taiwan: the effects of neoliberal reform

Since 2002 Taiwan has transformed its cultural policy, following the lead of the UK's creative industry discourse in particular and neoliberal policy regimes in general. This thesis investigates the processes through which neoliberal thinking shaped changing cultural policy and the impact this has had on cultural workers and practices in Taiwan s cultural landscape. I examined policy making documents and interviewed a range of involved actors, including government officials and cultural workers to learn more about the policy process and its impact. The research argues that the creative economy has heavily influenced the development of cultural policy discourse and generally failed to promote the public interest in Taiwan. The results of neoliberalisation have been embodied in several salient characteristics such as the privatisation of public space, marketisation of public subsidy and investment, commercialisation of higher education, and flexibilisation of cultural labour market. I argue that cultural policy needs to be reshaped to represent the public interests and diversity of our cultural landscape

Cinema as a Sensory Circuit: Film Production and Consumption in Contemporary Taiwan

Using post-2000 Taiwan queer romance films as a case study, this thesis examines the relationship between the film industry and its audience. It revisits scholarly distrust of the culture industry to address how, and to what extent, the power of capitalism has privileged the industry at the expense of the audience’s freedom or personality. Ethnographically informed, the thesis deems political economy and cultural studies approaches to the research question to be unsatisfactory. Both neglect the sensory aspects of cinematic communication. Drawing inspiration from actor-network theory and the analysis of late capitalism by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, it approaches the film industry-audience relation as a volatile, affective (dis)connection mediated by physical entities, including media technologies. This (dis)connection reflects an era in which the film industry invests in technoscience, tie-in products, ancillary markets and media convergence in order to seduce the senses of the audience. Core arguments are pursued along two lines. The first revolves around film text and cinematic apparatus, the second around film marketing and computationalnetworked communication. Looking at productive and consumptive activities, the main chapters reconsider issues of cinematic embodiment, genre filmmaking, film value production, and the (un)productivity of the human body. They locate cinematic embodiment in object-refracted bodily citation of film content, and define genre filmmaking as body-inflected reiteration of formulaic language. Due to the specificity of the Internet medium, which extracts valuegenerative labour from communicative actions by the audience and the industry, the thesis argues that Internet film marketing is a collaborative project of film value production. The productivity of such collaboration is, however, potentially hindered since bodily agency, manifested in the capability of action, retains an ultimate quality of unpredictability

Textile Society of America Newsletter 25:1 — Winter 2013

Symposium Reports from SNPS Award RecipientsFrom the PresidentTSA Programs and EventsTSA NewsTSA Member NewsIn Memoriam: Terry Satsuki MilhauptSymposium Reports from Workshop Scholarship RecipientsFeatured Collection: The Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, Rajasthan, IndiaBook ReviewsConference ReviewsTextile Community NewsCalendar-Conferences & Symposia, Exhibitions, Lectures, Workshops, Tour

The Administrative Turn in Contemporary Art: The Figure of the Arts Administrator — a case study of the Taipei Biennial (1996-2020)

This PhD uses “the Administrative Turn” to describe the specific, but also the more general, changing nature of the local and global administrative networks which support contemporary art. Through a case study of the figure of the arts administrator at the Taipei Biennial (TB), this research examines these changes in three ways – on (1) changes in institutional principles of arts administration, (2) changes in administrative methodology, and (3) changes in function for arts administrators. Taking a transdisciplinary approach drawing on Arts Management, Curatorial Studies, Museum Studies and Art History, this thesis engages critically with the value of “the administrative” as a necessary approach to catalyse a shift in focus away from the highly visible and spectacularised norm of the global contemporary art world, towards the infrastructural significance of the backstage. This change in perspective through the study of the TB arts administrators sets out to present a missing puzzle of what makes that art world functions as it does and how in fact the support network of the contemporary art practices have transformed because of changes in the administrative capacity in terms of its institution, methodology and function. Chapter 1 details the developmental history of the system of arts administration at TB, as an institution situated within a government-backed, museum-based, contemporary art exhibitionary ecosystem, and finds that the institution history and design principles of arts administration are not only a reflection but also an active author of Taiwanese national identity. Chapter 2 demonstrates how arts management and its methodology as a practice-centric tradecraft based on the narrative of professionalism and a stewardship process, is iterative and relies on a balance of control and care. With a close analysis of the administrative capacity, Chapter 3 establishes the figure of the arts administrators as reflexive and its function pedagogical and consultative. This research concludes that acting as critical infrastructure, arts administrators as ascending co-development stewards, possess the transformative agency to radically re-imagine their sphere of practice and re-conceptualise how the support network could better function for a fast-evolving and increasingly multi-stakeholder production reality, which underpins the culture of contemporary art biennials globally

An exploration of the differences between cover design for commercial women’s fiction in the UK and Taiwan

The book cover design has gathered great importance in recent years. However, while visual design in general has been extensively investigated, book cover design is relatively unexplored. This research project seeks to explore how book cover design influences the process of publishing process of women’s commercial fiction. It will compare cover design within this genre in the UK and Taiwan. It will compare the different markets of Taiwan and the UK; it will also explore and analyse publishers’ commercial strategies, and practical marketing considerations that influence decisions regarding various local or translated female fictions. The research relates to the wider context of how content is presented to gain maximum investment by stakeholders, both industry (e.g. retailers, stockists and reviewers) and end-user (e.g. readers, purchasers and borrowers). The findings suggest that publishers in the UK consider market appeal and resulting likely commercial profits more than publishers in Taiwan. In Taiwan, with less commercial awareness or emphasis, editors and designers seek to express themselves and create personal style in the products they bring to market; therefore, marketing is not the most influential department within publishing houses. These findings have implications for decision making about covers in women’s commercial fiction, and for design considerations for different markets

The Transplantation of Theatre-in-Education from Britain to Taiwan

The British-born Theatre-in-Education (TIE) is now an international phenomenon. Theatre and education practitioners worldwide have come to recognise TIE as an important resource for the reinforcement of institutional or orthodox education. In Taiwan, by way of cultural exchanges and in accordance with the practice of the well meant, but not so well planned education reforms, TIE has also been gradually adopted by drama specialists and professional theatre groups over the last decade to provide young students with alternative experiences of active learning. During this process of transplantation, the representation of TIE has become an issue that demands careful deliberation in the island. This dissertation surveys the development of Theatre-in-Education in Taiwan from a personal perspective, as well as demonstrating the interdisciplinary relationship between TIE and regional/community theatre through a case study on the encounter of the Greenwich and Lewisham Young People's Theatre (GYPT) and the Tainan Jen Theatre Troupe. By making use of first-hand experience of TIE transplantation (from Britain to Taiwan) and of interviews with TIE practitioners, the author intends to contextualise the Taiwanese TIE movement by relating it to an international trend of audience-oriented theatre. Within this framework, the author argues that the localisation of British TIE in Taiwan is best embodied, and therefore can be expected to find strength in the association of TIE and those Taiwanese theatre groups of or with a community-friendly nature; in addition, the continuing social, cultural and educational reforms will create a better environment for the growth of Theatre-in-Education in the island

Metaphors of the Nation: the architectural programme of the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek’s rule in post-war Taiwan

This is a study of nationalism and its visual representation in Taiwan’s architecture. Although nationalism studies have achieved significant theoretic breakthroughs in sociology, politics and history over the past decades, its close relationship with architecture has not received enough attention. In recent related architectural literature, too much emphasis is placed on stylistic analysis concerning ‘national style’, and less on those wider social, cultural and political factors which also play an important role in shaping nationalistic architecture during nation-formation. In order to bridge the gap, this thesis attempts to carry out a cross-disciplinary study, engaging architecture with the notion of nationalism and other relative perspectives in a quest for better understanding. In doing so, Taiwan’s nationalistic architecture is divided into four different building types: the martyrs’ shrine, the museum, the parliament building and the memorial hall. By examining these types and cases, this thesis argues that nationalistic architecture is a particular type of building created by specialised architects who were encouraged to select certain visible and cultural markers, establishing a symbolic link connecting the current nation with its previous ethnic roots in the service of politics during the age of nation-building. As a part of a growing body of research on nationalism and its architectural representations, this thesis aims to advance our understanding of the important issue regarding the relationship between nationalism and architecture in Taiwan, and to contribute to future research on similar topics