EAPSI: Branding, business strategies, and economic change in Taiwan

Leykam Peter, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

As the industrial manufacture that fueled Taiwan's rapid economic growth shifts overseas, both the Taiwanese state and businesses are focusing on developing brands. But, a brand isn't simply a different kind of product, it relies on an expanded understanding of consumers, as well as design and marketing strategies, legal frameworks, and distribution methods. Through researching the development of Taiwanese brands, this research will provide a better understanding of business strategies, social trends and economic policies necessary for integrating developing economies into global markets. In collaboration with Teri Silvio, an expert in Taiwanese toy design, at Academia Sinica's Institute of Ethnology, this project looks branding in Taiwanese businesses to see how large scale economic transformations are carried out in everyday life. The ubiquity of branding makes it difficult to isolate what is unique to branding as a business strategy, and as a way in which consumers interact with commodities. This ethnographic research project will study societies where branding is emerging to examine branding as a set of practices which both respond to and enact social change; through reorganizing the design, production and distribution of commodities; and through reorganizing social behavior around commodities. Taiwan is ideal for studying branding, as many Taiwanese businesses are moving from a strategy of subcontracting production for multinational companies (MNCs) to the development of their own brands. This shift is driven both by the profit seeking of individual businesses, and by the Taiwanese state, which views the development of brands as essential to the national economy, as the manufacturing jobs which fueled its economic growth for the last several decades shift to China. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the National Science Council of Taiwan.