Design Management in Taiwan Jeans Market
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How might Design Management Perspectives aid the development of the Local “Trendy Streetstyle” Jeans Market in Taiwan? Chen, Yang University of the Arts, London London College of Communication School of Creative Enterprise MA Design Management Email: [email protected] September 2010
Transcript of Design Management in Taiwan Jeans Market
How might Design Management Perspectives aid the development of the
Local “Trendy Streetstyle” Jeans Market in Taiwan?
Chen, Yang
University of the Arts, London
London College of Communication
School of Creative Enterprise
MA Design Management
Email: [email protected]
September 2010
This work is dedicated to my lovely parent.
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Thank you!
This Master thesis would not be accomplished without help and support of various people
whom I would like to thank here.
Firstly, I would like to thank my parent and my aunt for either in their economical or
emotional support.
Secondly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Audrey Kirby, has been giving me advices and
inspirations during the development of this thesis. Special thanks to our course tutor David
Griffiths for his support and willingness to share his knowledge and experience.
Finally, I appreciate my interviewees, Zhun, Kai, Q, and Chun Hei Cheng, who were willing
to be a part of the contribution in this thesis. Also, I am grateful to the people who have been
patient to be the participants in the market survey of this thesis.
Chen, Yang
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- 1.1 Aim of the Research
- 1.2 Research Question and Objectives
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- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Literatures
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2.2.1.1 Defining fashion brand identity
2.2.1.2 Strategies:
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2.2.2.1 What is fashion marketing? – Defining fashion marketing
2.2.2.2 Strategies:
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2.2.3.1 Original blue jeans
2.2.3.2 Wash and fade
2.2.3.3 Damaged
2.2.3.4 Pattern
2.2.3.5 Colour
2.2.3.6 Length
2.2.3.7 Style of cutting
2.2.3.8 Special cutting and design jeans
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2.2.4.1 Defining sub-cultures
2.2.4.2 Defining street fashion
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2.2.5.1 What is design management? – Defining Design Management
2.2.5.2 Design as a strategy in design management
2.2.5.3 Strategic design management tools
2.2.5.4 Design management strategies for the branding aspect
2.2.5.5 Design management strategies from the marketing aspect
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- 3.1 Introduction
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- 3.2 Research Strategy
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3.2.1.1 Qualitative
3.2.1.2 Quantitative
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4. Finding & Analysis
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Data Description
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- 4.3 Data Analysis
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5. Discussion
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 Qualitative and Quantitative
- 5.3 Literature Review in the Aspects of Branding and Marketing
- 5.4 Role of Design Management in Branding and Marketing Aspects
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- Appendix 8.1 - What is Fashion? – Defining Fashion
- Appendix 8.2 - The 21st century fashion consumption environment
- Appendix 8.3 - Example of NIKE Marketing Strategy
- Appendix 8.4 - History of Jeans
- Appendix 8.5 - Jeans Design
- Appendix 8.6 - Subcultures
- Appendix 8.7 - Design Management
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- Appendix 8.8 – Interview Transcripts
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- Appendix 8.9 –Questionnaire Form
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Jeans, said to be the universal outfit in the wardrobe, especially for teenagers, have strongly
affected people’s concept of dress. Massive brands have been established across the world and
jeans are not only for the working class anymore. “In 1964, (…) jeans were continuing to
gain in popularity as a quintessentially American fashion statement” (Harris, 2002, p.57).
Taiwan, particularly the mixed culture capital city, Taipei, is now an irrefutable potential jeans
market for the fashion industry where people can easily receive the information from the
world because of the geographic location, however, no local jeans brands are as famous as
Levi’s or Diesel in the global market. On the other hand, the young generation in Taipei has
gradually improved its sense of streetstyle and the viewpoint of fashion dress influenced by,
for example, Japanese culture from the East, and American style from the West. It is
interesting that the concept of streetstyle is different from luxury dress. It comes originally
from the street as a subculture like the style of rocker, punks, and skaters, which are the
classic subcultures. For instance, “Neighborhood” is one of the most famous Japanese
‘trendy’ street brands in the world. Their jeans design is based on military and street graffiti
style. (see Figure 1.)
Picture 1. Source: Overdope & O’logy (2010)
Defining “trendy” through observation:
Basically ‘trendy’ is a part of fashion. The word “trendy” is used instead of “cool” because it
has the meaning of “chao” as will be described below. It is related to the combination of trend
and streetstyle fashion for the Asian impression. It is not just “cool”, but it has a meaning
regarding streetstyle fashion which is ahead of its time.
Furthermore, the new word pronounced “chao” in Chinese, has been created recently to
represent the “cool” street style dressing. Also, the special phenomenon of the brand image of
“chao” in young people’s mind in Taipei is a specific noun differing from the word “fashion”
of the luxury brand. And this subculture seems to increasingly appear as a potential market as
well as there is no specific street style jeans brand which has been well-developed in Taipei,
even in Taiwan.
The author of this study, as MA Taiwanese student of design management course, came to
London in 2009. Since then he started to discover the creativity of design thinking and sought
to discover how the design management perspective can apply in the real business world as
well as positively affect the brand identity toward consumers. After some time he realised the
importance of bringing the knowledge into the Taiwanese jeans market. In this thesis, even
though some issues and discussions have been raised for the future research, the intention is
to outline the position that design management can adopt in the brand development of jeans.
Also, to discover the hidden design thinking which already exists as well as exploiting it for
the future jeans industry in Taipei.
2.2.1 Aim of the Research
The research of a certain market development shall be split into two major subjects, branding
and marketing aspects.
For branding and marketing aspects:
a. Identify the gap between international and local branding (marketing) strategies.
b. Investigate the possibility, accessibility, and feasibility of the brand and market
development for “trendy streetstyle” jeans in Taipei.
The role of design management in the investigation of branding and marketing aspects:
a. If positive, the design management knowledge for boosting brand identity for the market
shall be further analyzed.
b. If negative, a new way to exploit a brand image and marketing strategy by design
management knowledge shall be found.
1.2 Research Question and Objectives
The study would specifically focus on how design management actually helps the
development of local trendy streetstyle jeans as well as creating a valuable brand identity and
marketing strategy.
Therefore, the main research question shall be posed:
How might the Design Management Perspective help the development of Local “Trendy
Streetstyle” Jeans market in Taipei?
In order to approach the answer, the following four objectives have been developed and
established in the beginning of the thesis. (see Figure 1.)
Figure 1. By Yang Chen
It is crucial to understand the reflection of jeans design partly comes from the particular
culture circumstances in the consumptive market. Therefore, cultural aspect will eventually be
contained in the design aspect, but it still indirectly contributes to the research aim.
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To understand how others promote jeans, particularly in trendy streetstyle jeans brands from
Japan, U.S. or Europe. To understand what their effective marketing strategies are and how
they can complement local strategies in Taipei.
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To find the elements of successful creative jeans design, as a key contributor to branding and
marketing strategies. These may be technologies such as imprint and adjustable jeans.
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To explore what represents popular streetstyle jeans in Taipei, from the historical and cultural
perspective, and which international subcultures influence young people in Taipei.
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“Design thinking, processes and methods are practical ways to enable organisations to
compete” (Best, 2006, p.118)
To search for the most appropriate design strategy and design thinking, from the design
management knowledge base, to apply to the context of jeans branding and marketing
strategies in Taipei.
By separately studying each of these aspects in detail, the results of the research will emerge
and be combined.
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2.1 Introduction
The literature review will be based on the objectives. Therefore, it will be conducted in five
major parts, which are outlined below.
2.2.2 Fashion branding strategy
2.2.3 Fashion marketing strategy
2.2.4 Design of jeans
2.2.5 Streetstyle culture
2.2.6 Design management
Firstly, in each part, the purposes in the beginning of each section of the literature review will
be illustrated in detail. Also, the article will list the main branding and marketing strategies in
the first two parts. In addition, some particular brand strategies will be introduced as
examples in the field. On the other hand, in order to clarify the research more specifically,
five definitions of fashion (see Appendix 8.1), brand identity, streetstyle fashion, fashion
marketing and design management will be discussed in each specific section.
2.2 Literatures
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Figure 2. By Yang Chen
Since the main study focuses on the development of the brand identity and marketing strategy
of streetstyle jeans in Taipei, the first step is to determine the current brand strategies, as well
as comparing the strategies launched by successful international jeans brands across the world.
In order to understand successful fashion brand strategies worldwide, including the way in
which they actually promote their brand identity backed up by academic theory, this will
firstly be researched by reviewing existing literature from a theoretical approach. This will be
followed by a search of the lack of branding knowledge of jeans brands in Taipei, and the gap
between international brands and Taiwanese brands will be identified. Eventually, because
branding strategies are partially based on different locations and cultures, an investigation into
why some strategies cannot specifically be used in Taipei, and how design management
knowledge could fill this gap will follow the literature review.
Having read the current literature, it appears that the primary concepts of fashion branding are
similar. Apart from others, the major literature of branding from Fashion Brands by Tugate
and Luxury Fashion branding by Okonkwo will be combined as a whole picture in this article.
2.2.1.1 Defining fashion brand identity
“The brand identity comprises the brand personality and the brand image”
(Okonkwo, 2007, p.110).
Brand personality and brand image are the two core factors which are consciously chosen by
consumers, and this is as much about how the brand views itself as how others view it
through their impression of the products. From the fashion aspect, brand identity is strongly
embedded in the garments. “You don’t buy clothes, you buy an identity” (Tungate, 2008, p.1),
and this is because consumers who tend to buy highly-priced fashion brands surely want
something different from ordinary brands. Apart from buying quality, they want clothes that
are more than just clothes, and this is what a branding strategy can give them. “In a lot of
ways, branding is simply telling a story” (Tungate, 2008, p.25). Brand identity here is for the
brand story, and it is not hard to establish that consumers pay for the whole sense of the story
around what they are wearing, as well as wanting to be part that story. “When people buy a
very high-priced garment, they want to see the patience and the craftsmanship that has gone
into it. They are paying for the process. And sometimes, when it’s a famous brand, they are
paying to be part of the story” (Tungate, 2008, p.26). The psychological drive of the brand
story is sometimes much more important than the physical drive of the garments’ quality. ”It
is rather a statement of the fact that luxury fashion provides a means to lifestyle that is
triggered by deep psychological and emotional needs, which is expressed through ingenious
products” (Okonkwo, 2007, p.2.). The important point here is that the products reflect the
personal attitude and lifestyle desired by consumers, as well as them wanting to show these to
the people surrounding them in their daily lives. We know that some fashion brands, such as
Louis Vuitton and Burberry, have a strong and lengthy heritage to rely on, but even brands
with no strength of heritage, such as Diesel and JP Tod’s, have created successful stories for
themselves. (Tugate, 2008) In other words, the branding strategy which can provide the right
narrative for the merchandise to fulfill consumers’ desire, wins. Based on understanding the
value of brand identity, the main successful branding strategies will be discussed below.
2.2.1.2 Strategies:
To be different and unique:
According to Diesel founder Renzo Rosso, “The reason this company has succeeded is
because we’re always trying to be different” (Tungate, 2008, p.34). Although this concept
sounds simple, it is relatively crucial. The main purpose is to attract consumers’ attention,
which is what advertising is all about. As mentioned previously, fashion brands focus on
creativity and innovation. Moreover, for the purpose of clarifying this explanation, the
excellent branding strategy of Diesel will be provided as an example below.
Diesel was the first brand to create the word, “vintage” in 1985, which fundamentally
revolutionised the second-hand jeans image into a fancy dress style. (Tungate, 2008, p.34)
Anti-fashion as it were became another fashion concept. Diesel did not depend on a
coordinated look, but preferred to design its clothes and jeans on an item-by-item basis. On
the other hand, “if you think back to 1991, fashion advertising was all black and white”
(Tungate, 2008, p.36), So, in order to be unique, Diesel decided to launch its advertising as
colourfully as it could. The strategy effectively caught consumers’ eyes and it became a
popular lifestyle, that everyone could be different instead of only following the fashion road.
“Everyone had big catwalk dreams, but I wanted to design clothes that I would see on the
streets.” – said by the brand’s creative director, Wilbert Das (Tungate, 2008, p.35). It is said
that the most creative and original concepts come from the streets, as well as inspiring fashion
designers back on the catwalk. Basically, from the words of Das above and historical
observation, fashion is created by people, and what people wear in their daily lives on the
street can undoubtedly inspire fashion. This is streetstyle.
Communication:
“We’ve always considered our consumers to be intelligent, not brand junkies
who go to a single store for an entire outfit” (Tungate, 2008, p.35).
Communication between fashion brands and consumers is an important key for brand image
and brand identity. Advertising is one of the major communication skills for brand identity,
such as short films, posters, and internet media. Furthermore, the products themselves can
even be communication tools, so that the different sense of product design brings a different
feeling to consumers. No matter what the methods of communication are, the purpose can be
achieved as long as the image can leave enough of an impression on consumers. For instance,
Diesel presented consumers with various choices of products with special and unique images.
In contrast to famous fashion brands in that period, such as Dior, because it lacked a long
brand history and reputation, Diesel tried to convince people not to buy all the products it
offered, and this stupid impression of slavish customers was completely communicated from
the brand to the consumers. In this case, one of the most successful strategies it applied was
the conceptual communication of provocation, which broke down the consistent followers of
other fashion brands. (see Figure 3.) As it said, “the rise of Diesel proves that building a
fashion brand is as much about communication as it is about clothes” (Tungate, 2008, p.37).
Figure 3: By Yang Chen
Strategic branded environment:
“The store is an integral aspect of luxury retailing and is crucial in representing
the brand identity and meeting the expectations of visitors” (Okonkwo, 2007,
p.81).
Since customers can initially have real physical contact with the store, the concept of the
brand concept can directly project the brand identity by means of a strategic store
environment. Moreover, for consumers, the existence of the store guarantees a brand’s
visibility with a reliable image. Although, in the modern world, it is popular to shop and buy
merchandise on the internet, the convenience of online shopping cannot be replaced by
literally shopping on the street. The only aim fashion brands plot do is to transfer the
formation of consumers’ purchasing behaviour to experience the shopping environment and
enjoy it as a lifestyle for entertainment. Therefore, it is important that fashion brand stores
represent an aura in order to attract more people to go there and have a look, even if it is just
for window shopping. Importantly, in order to create this environment, not only the design of
the interior, exterior, and the decor of the fashion boutiques, but also the design of the lights,
smells, locations, and colours around the store must be taken into account. All of these factors
are keys to the brand reputation which becomes embedded in consumers’ minds by creating a
sensational and themed environment. In addition, the strategy for a fashion brand can elevate
the level of consumers. As it said, “Mass brands such as Nike are also FffingFizing on using
the store concept to appeal to the lucrative upper-end market” (Okonkwo, 2007, p.84). In a
Brand A Brand B
-One brand follower mode-
Brand A Brand B
-Diverse brands consumption mode-
Communication Strategy
sense, a strategic branded environment is able to change the concept of shopping psychology,
namely, feeling the experience of shopping, rather than buying the product straightaway.
Cross-over and co-branding:
“People aren’t hesitating to mix Lavin with Topshop. Everything is becoming
more democratic” (‘Mr. Nice Guy’, Nume’ro, August 2004, source: Tungate,
2008, p.41).
The current fashion trend is for apparel which gradually becomes more person-intelligent. In
other words, nowadays it is not considered to be sufficiently fashionable to simply buy a logo.
The reputations of mass-fashion brands such as H&M and Zara have been much more
enhanced recently because of their strategic collaboration with well-known designers.
Wearing the trendiest dress is no longer about the logo and price, but is more about taste.
Therefore, traditional fashion brands are beginning to break through the boundary between
fast-fashion and luxury fashion. (see Figure 4.)
Figure 4: By Yang Chen. Source: (Okonkwo, 2007, p.240) and (Drew, 1992, p.35)
Future co-branding: Lifestyle
It should be noted that, for future co-branding,
“…both lifestyle as well as emotional values were frequently cited as playing an
increasingly important role in the field of co-branding” (Dorozala &
lifKohlbrenner, 2008, p.68)
Example of co-branding strategy: NIKE
NIKE saw that it could earn a massive profit among the trendy fashion market, but it also
wanted to capture global changes, as well as aiming to cross the barrier of sports wear.
Therefore, NIKE’s motivation is clearly seen in terms of stepping into the streetstyle culture
by making its products crossed with other brands, such as the famous street fashion brand,
Atmos. Cross-over, which reveals the combined meaning of brands, has actually provided
multiple benefits for NIKE. The strategy of this step is trying to link to another different area
and layer of consumers, as well as adding extra meaning to the product. From the
psychological aspect, consumer want shoes which are suitable for all occasions, not only
high-end parties, and as long as NIKE can achieve a combination of different cultures for the
brand, NIKE shoes are no longer just for sport.
Picture 2. An example of co-branding strategy between NIKE and the famous street fashion
brand PHANTACi in Taiwan. Source: (Overdope, 2010), <http://www.overdope.com/>
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This is similar to fashion branding strategy.
The marketing tactic of jeans is crucial. In other words, it needs to be known that the tactic to
be launched will effectively increase profits in the market. The market environment in Taipei
is complex, as well as consisting of a lot of mixed market elements from Japan, Hong Kong,
and Western cultures.
2.2.2.1 What is fashion marketing? – Defining fashion marketing
Easey mentioned that “fashion marketing is the application of a range of techniques and a
business philosophy that centres upon the customers and potential customers of clothing and
clothing-related products and services in order to meet long-term goals of the organisation”
(Easey, 2002, p.4). The basic purpose of a marketing strategy is to sell the product.
Accordingly, the main purpose of fashion marketing is to sell clothes and clothing-related
items. The marketing strategy can be regarded as building a bridge for transportation between
consumers and organisations, which is the concept of the brand and the profit from consumers.
“Marketing is a management process concerned with anticipating, identifying and satisfying
customer needs in order to meet the long-term goals of the organisation” (Easey, 2002, p.3).
It can be seen from the above quotation that the need for consumer satisfaction is the key to
marketing. Since the fashion industry for consumers is based on creativity and innovation for
desire as well as challenging traditional designs, in practice, the fashion marketing is split into
two views, design-centred and marketing-centred as is shown in Figure 5.
Sample Fashion marketing is the Design should be base
Statements same as promotion solely on marketing research
Assumption Sell what we can make Make what we can sell
Orientation Design centred Marketing centred
Alleged High failure rates Bland designs
Drawbacks Relies on intuition Stifles creativity
Figure 5. Two views of fashion marketing. Source: (Easey, 2002, p.5)
As a matter of fact, good marketers and designers always admit the importance and need of
each other. Both of them share the common value of the knowledge in Figure 5 and tend to be
in agreement with the balance, “In the history of fashion, there’s definitely a pre-Tom Ford
and a post-Tom Ford period. He was one of the first contemporary designers who really
understand the power of marketing. He was not a snob about his work – he wanted to sell”
(Tungate, 2008, p20), which is why a fashion marketing strategy has to be launched.
2.2.2.2 Strategies:
Instead of concentrating on strategies such as discounts and concessions, the focus will be
more on primary and basic marketing strategies in the following literature review.
Segmentation:
A full explanation of the two types of segmentation strategies is provided in Fashion
Marketing by Easey: “Segmentation strategies can range from the choice of one target
market or segment within the market to the selection of several segments in the market, each
with a different marketing mix. The selection of only one segment is known as concentration
strategy and the selection of two or more segments is called a multi-segment strategy” (Easey,
2002, p.103). Firstly, the concentration strategy focuses on a specific target group as experts
in the market in order to satisfy these particular customers, since it is relatively easy to
maintain prestige for loyal consumers. However, the risk in this strategy is that it has lower
flexibility for a downturn in one particular market, which can increase the possibility of
companies’ recession, especially nowadays, when individuals’’ consumption behaviour has
changed to become intelligence-led instead of blindly following one fashion brand. (Refer to
21st century fashion consumption environment and Figure 3. in the Appendix 8.2)
Secondly, “a multi-segment strategy can provide a measure of stability in times of rapid
market change by spreading risk across several segments” (Easey, 2002, p.103). Compared to
concentration strategy, this separates the single market risk by expanding the target groups.
Companies strategically keep producing different appropriate merchandise to attract various
levels of consumers in order to maintain growth rates. Nevertheless, the supposed difficulty of
this strategy is maintaining a balance between quality and quantity, as well as having
sufficient marketing sense and a full comprehension of multiple consumption behaviours.
However, many companies have changed their marketing strategies to adopt the current trend.
For instance, one of the most successful brands in the UK is Topshop, and Topman has been
separated from Topshop. As it said, “labels offered at Top man are aimed at satisfying
different customer segments” (Easey, 2002, p.104).
Pricing:
It is significant to take into account the strategies of pricing and payment which directly affect
the profits of a company. According to Fashion Marketing, “Pricing plays a vital role in
fashion marketing because it is the only part of the marketing mix which contributes to
profit; … It is important in the company’s overall strategy because the strength of the
company is measured in financial terms, whether it is profit, turnover, or return on capital
employed” (Bohdanowicz & Clamp, 1994, p.104). Traditionally, people expect high quality
clothes from highly-priced fashion brands. Thus, the pricing also represents part of the brand
reputation and the level of its positioning in the market. Therefore, most high-end fashion
brands always have a high pricing strategy. From Fashion Marketing, “usually the
expectation is that high quality goes with high prices and low prices reflect low quality or
possibly out-of-date or out-of-season clothing” (Easey, 2002, p.137). However, the rule of
pricing as an ordinary expectation of customers has been broken down recently, and it has
been determined that a cheap price does not necessarily mean unfashionable. The global
brands in the following example are using a reasonable pricing strategy to hit the market.
IKEA: “IKEA was born out of the theory that you don’t have to be rich to appreciate good
design” (Tungate, 2008, p.45).
H&M: “H&M says that one of the successful factors is the best quality at the best price”
(Tungate, 2008, p.45).
UNIQLO: “UNIQLO is among the top casual wear retailer in the world…It offers
fashionable, high-quality basic casual apparel as reasonable prices…offers a wide range of
products…” (Butod, 2009, p.34).
Celebrity:
“…stars give brands a well-defined personality for a minimum of effort, and
bring with them a rich fantasy world to which consumers aspire” (Tungate, 2008,
p.122).
Fashion brands which use celebrities to represent their style of brand are not special because
of their marketing strategy. Customers will naturally be eager to dress like their favourite
movie stars. As it is said, “When a celebrity wears something, it has directly impact on sales”
(Tungate, 2008, p.122). One of the obvious examples is Michael Jordan with NIKE. (see
Appendix 8.3)
Mass customisation:
“Mass customisation allows firms to produce only things their customers want (or produce
after they have orders in hand). This approach, make-to-order, brings many benefits to firms
in terms of cost and profit because of lower inventory levels, maximum sales, elimination of
material waste, flexible production and, most of all, customer satisfaction” (Pollard, 2008,
p.77). It can be seen from the current trend of the fashion environment (see article above), that
consumption behaviour and shopping modes are becoming more and more complex, as well
as being seen as a form of entertainment. The strategy of customised products enables
customers to reflect their personality even more (see branding strategy b), which is why
Levi’s have launched this strategy. “It is one of the reigning companies in terms of
personalization… ‘Create your own jeans’ is the slogan behind Levi’s strategy, and it has been
met with wide acceptance, especially among young customers” (Valdés, 2005). In other words,
it is about contextualising consumers to make their own story rather than just buying the story
of the brand.
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Brigitte Borja De Mozola stated that “in theory, design and marketing share the same
mind-set of development an understanding of customer needs and the factors that influence
those needs in order to establish healthy customer relationships” (Brigitte Borja De Mozola,
2003, p.81). The design aspect is one of the important parts of a brand image, especially in the
fashion industry. Understanding the original concept of jeans’ design and the process of jeans’
production helps to develop the creativity of the process management aspect, or the brand
strategy in the modern jeans market. Logo, label, texture, shrink, patched and battered, all of
these elements which can normally be seen in the current market have to be analysed, as to
why and how they were designed as particular elements of jeans. Finally, a combination of a
design concept for a street style can be developed. Also, the design varies according to the
local weather and the shape of the human body.
In this part of literature review, different types of jeans’ designs will be diversely explored by
showing pictures of detailed designs, as well as classifying the major design trends of the
jeans market. The majority of literary resources are from The Jeans Encyclopaedia, Vintage
Denim and The Blue Jeans.
2.2.3.1 Original blue jeans
These are jeans without any extra design and the colour is the original blue.
Picture 3: Original blue jeans – Front look by Yang Chen
Source: (Little, 1996), (Michels, 2004)
Picture 4: Original blue jeans – Back look by Yang Chen
Source: (Little, 1996), (Michels, 2004)
2.2.3.2 Wash and fade
The design of wash and colour fade jeans is an imitation of old jeans, as well as creating the
style of a second-hand and retro outfit. The principle of wash can be referred to in the
Appendix 8.5.
Picture 5: Wash & fade jeans by Yang Chen
Source: (Little, 1996)
2.2.3.3 Damaged
- Torn and ripped
Pictures 6 and 7: Torn & Ripped jeans by Yang Chen
Source: (Little, 1996), (Michels, 2004)
Picture 8: Torn & Ripped jeans
Source: Overdope (2010)
- Patched
Picture 9: Patched jeans by Yang Chen
Source: O’logy (2010)
- Stain (oil-painted)
Picture 10: Stain jeans by Yang Chen
Source: O’logy (2010)
2.2.3.4 Pattern
Picture 11: Pattern jeans by Yang Chen
Source: (Little, 1996), (Michels, 2004), O’logy (2010)
2.2.3.5 Colour
Picture 12: Colour jeans by Yang Chen
Source: UNIQLO (2010)
2.2.3.6 Length
Picture 13: Colour jeans by Yang Chen
Source: ZUELEMENTS (2010), ANDMOREAGAIN/SOLD (2010)
2.2.3.7 Style of cutting
- Straight
Picture 14: General cutting classification by Yang Chen
Source: Levi’s (2010)
2.2.3.8 Special cutting and design jeans
Picture 14: Special jeans by Yang Chen
Source: (Michels, 2004)
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The importance of the cultural aspect is to find the most adaptable and popular streetstyle for
the market, as well as applying design management knowledge to exploit more accessibility.
(see Figure 6.)
Figure 6: By Yang Chen
The fashion industry in Taiwan is just in its infancy, and historically, no fashion or jeans have
originated from Taiwan. As the capital city of Taiwan, the influence of the fashion market in
Taipei is mainly based on mixed cultures from foreign countries, especially subcultures, such
as American hip-pop. In addition, the “trendy” fashion in Taipei is strongly influenced by the
media or the internet. However, a trend of streetstyle is gradually developing with Taiwanese
local culture, such as a style called “chao”. Therefore, the cultural context is relatively crucial
for the appearance of the product, in this case, jeans, and the cultural context needs to be
analysed if the study is subjected to market development. The interpretation of streetstyle
culture can be split into two parts, which are street fashion and sub-cultures. The following
literature is based on these two aspects for further discussion.
2.2.4.1 Defining sub-cultures
Drew said “sub-cultures are smaller cultures co-existing within the common
culture and may be grouped according to: social class, ethnic origin, religion
politics age.” (Drew, 1992, p.30)
Thus, it depends on different groups of people with their own particular lifestyle.
2.2.4.2 Defining street fashion
Drew also mentions that
“…sub-cultural style is now a constant part of the fashion scene and is known
popularly as street fashion. It has influenced mainstream fashion today as much
as any designer creations.” (Drew, 1992, p.30)
According to the above citation, streetstyle apparel can be inferred to be mainly based on
sub-cultures.
The major street fashion sources of literature are “The business of Fashion” and “Street
Style” (ibid, 1992). For this research, the typical and recognisable sub-cultural streetstyle
which effectively influences visible dresses, especially jeans, is illustrated below.
Firstly, Little mentioned the jeans of ‘Hippies’ (see Appendix 8.4), “denim became as free and
colourful as the idealistic hippies…The tapered and pegged skintight jeans…were out of
style” (Little, 1996 p.70). Secondly, for the outfit of “B” boys, fly girls and homeboys with
hip-hop (see Appendix 8.6), Drew said “…the fly girl and homeboy listen to hip-hop and any
type of rare groove funk… their casual clothing is so over-sized” (Drew, 1992, p.32). Thirdly,
Drew propose the jeans style of Bikers, “the biker, however, also wears the colour of
dissension – black – with the material of rebellion – leather – mixed with a touch of dirty
denim” (ibid, 1992, p.33). Also, he posed jeans style of ‘Teddy boys’, “it is a little more
casual and folksy with check shirts and western-style jeans but retains the bootlace tie detail”
(ibid, 1992, p.35). And ‘Mods’, “…’Modernists’, as they were originally called, wore sharply
styled imported Italian suits, later to be topped off with Parka jackets…Modettes wore 1960s
minimalist style, op-art mini shift dresses and well cut bobs” (ibid, 1992, p.34). Additionally,
he pointed out jeans style of ‘Skinhead’, “the skinhead style embodies an element of urban
storm trooper with its closely cropped heads, stomping Doc Marten boots, and any surplus
jackets over workaday jeans” (ibid, 1992, p.35). Fourthly, Polhemus mentioned about the
style of ‘Rockers’, “…at the time was most potently expressed in the form of scruffy leather
and jeans…the rockers emphasized decoration – the painted insignia, rows of metal studs and
heraldic badges” (Polhemus, 1994, pp.55-57). And the ‘Skaters’, “…the despised
rollerskaters typically wore tight-fitting…’baggies’ were a sure way of proclaiming the
skateboarders’ separateness from this group” (ibid, 1994, p.87). Also he said about ‘Punk’
style, “in this, the punks must be seen as anti-hippies…sinister black leather, aggressive metal
studs, perverse bondage trousers” (ibid, 1994, p.92). It shall note that they did not usually
wear denim which looks like hippies.
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For the final analysis and conclusion, design management knowledge will refer to the content
and be applied to the development of the jeans market. For instance, the prototype, design
thinking, and sense of emergence will be researched more in this thesis. According to the aim
of this research, the design management context will focus on the area of the development of
brand and market strategies, as well as using design knowledge to build a new brand value
and corporate innovation in the literature review. This can be regarded as a bridge to connect
design strategy and management theory, since the fashion industry especially is a combination
of design and business.
2.2.5.1 What is design management? – Defining Design Management
The first step toward knowing how to use design management knowledge is understanding
the nature of design management. The following article will summarise the basic viewpoint of
design management from major literature.
Design Management by Best:
There are a wide variety of perspectives of design management, which depend on different
scopes of operational activities.
“There is no single, universally agreed definition of the term ‘design
management’, just as there is no single agreed definition of ‘design’… the
activity of designing is a user-centred, problem solving process, which also needs
to be managed and therefore is another facet of design management” (Best, 2006,
p. 12).
However, Best clarifies the different roles of design managers at three levels in organisations.
Figure 7: Source: Best (2006)
Other definitions of design management by Grob and Brigitte Borja de Mozola can be seen in
the Appendix 8.7.1. In fact, the definition of design management already currently has
eighteen views of iconic text, which can be found in the Design Management Journal in 1998
(pp. 14-19). (see Appendix 8.7.2) Generally speaking, design management is no longer a new
concept. Instead, it can be any kind of problem-solving system, which uses design to find a
solution in practice by creating innovation through design thinking as a connection between
art and commerce in organisations, and market development such as the jeans market in this
study. The term, ‘design’ in design management is not only about designing the usual patterns
or shapes of objects; it is a thought process for other knowledge of practical improvement.
“…the design unit has migrated up to the users services direction and is now
finally called ‘Design Management.’’” (Brigitte Borja de Mozota, 2003, p.246)
The important role played by design management in the field of design, business, branding
and marketing can be proved by literature in terms of the research. (see Appendix 8.7.2)
According to the above, a possibility has emerged of both the branding and marketing aspects
being improved by design management. Therefore, the subsequent literature review will be
narrowed down by focusing on the format of design strategies in design management, and
determining the possible knowledge tools for development and contribution toward business.
2.2.5.2 Design as a strategy in design management
Liedtka addresses the fact that
“design is concerned with fit, and so is strategy. The metaphor of design offers
window into a deeper understanding of the strategy-making process for design
managers” (Liedtka, 2000).
For example, retail design as a branded environment conveys a marketing policy to seduce
consumers in terms of their willingness to enter the commercial centre or shop, which has
been strategically created for a total customer experience. Best points out an example of
IDEO (see Appendix 8.7.2) using design strategy method cards as a tool:
“First, ‘Learn’ is which analysing the information collected to identify patterns
and insights. Second, ‘Look’ is which observing people to discover what they do
rather than what they say they do. Third, ‘Ask’ is which enlisting people’s help
to elicit information that is relevant to your project. Fourth, ‘Try’ is which
creating simulations to help empathise with people and to evaluate proposed
designs” (Best, 2006, p.108).
Design Management by Brigitte Borja de Mozot (2003) outlines the main strategies of
business, design management tools, the design view of branding and marketing aspects for
business organisations. Firstly, a ‘cost-driven design strategy’ (Strategy dominated by costs)
means that the role of the design is to improve productivity. Secondly, an ‘image-driven
design strategy’ (Strategy of differentiation) identifies the role of the design as being to
reinforce the company’s market share through the quality of its image and brand. Thirdly, a
‘market-driven design strategy’ (Strategy of concentration) in which the role of the design is
to help to position the company as a specialist which appeals to a certain kind of user.
(Brigitte Borja de Mozot, 2003).
In order to develop a design strategy for different cases, she also mentions that the first
principal of development routes is ‘upstream and downstream integration’, and the second is
‘innovation’. In addition, the remaining principles are ‘diversification’, ‘internationalisation’
(e.g. assembling a multicultural design team), ‘withdrawal’, and ‘alliances’ (ibid, 2003).
2.2.5.3 Strategic design management tools
Brigitte Borja de Mozot also defines a ‘design-mix’ as follows:
“the design-mix expresses the division of the design budget between different
design disciplines according to the design strategy” (ibid, 2003)
The priority is to decide on the most important design disciplines, such as the graphic design
of the visual components, and then the integration of design strategies will be examined for
business coherence. Therefore, “he mentioned that ‘Controlling Design Performance’ which
implies financial auditing as the first tool. Secondly, ‘Human Resources Design Management’
which means creating internal and external networks for information exchange, building
relationship with design school, and identifying the reciprocal expectations of customers and
designers. Thirdly, he wrote about ‘Design Management and the Law’ in terms of improving
every aspect of design protection to build intellectual property” (ibid, 2003).
2.2.5.4 Design management strategies for the branding aspect
‘Creating a brand identity’ is the first strategy addressed, “designing the identity is seen as
‘brand strategy made visible,’ or customer relationships and benefits made visible” (ibid,
2003, p.202), and in order to properly create a brand identity, the brand should be analysed by
three parts, as well as splitting the brand essence into four parts, as illustrated in Figure 8
below.
Figure 8: Creating a Brand
Source: Borja de Mozota (2003)
Then ‘managing the brand image’ is the second strategy, and the following Figure 9 not only
illustrates the direction of brand image development, but also brand management as a
branding strategy.
Figure 9: Managing the Brand Image
Source: Borja de Mozota (2003)
The following strategy, ‘managing brand equity’ coordinates with above, and this is about
managing the brand story. As newly-designed tools for strategic brand management, these are
visionary and relational for the future. Also, ‘creating a vision’ is another strategy which
involves ideas rather than logos and focuses on getting closer to the truth of the organisation.
“In this new century ideas – radical, social, tangible – are that will matter” (ibid, 2003, p.
205).
After creating a vision, the purpose of building brand equity is for internal branding. Not only
the design, promotion or advertising, but every individual point of contact will be charged as
internal branding management, which is, ‘managing internal branding’. Additionally,
‘evaluating the brand’ as well as creating a brand evaluation system is the major
responsibility of a design manager, as well as measuring brand image and equity. On the other
hand, in terms of brand image and equity, it is important to measure the impact of the design
on the company, as well as the changes and effects of design, and this process is called
‘design/image evaluation and equity’. Finally, ‘selecting the brand’s value system’ is the last
strategy, which emphasises that a brand’s value can be assessed by the market price, costs,
potential benefits and a multi-criteria evaluation. (ibid, 2003)
2.2.5.5 Design management strategies from the marketing aspect
As a strategy of design management, design easily inserts itself into the marketing concepts of
segmentation (refer to marketing strategy) and positioning as a tool to distinguish products in
order to create differentiation. In other words, design can also be inserted into a marketing
strategy from an aesthetic angle. The following Figure 10 shows three product levels with a
design input as a marketing strategy.
Figure 10: Design Input in the Three Product Levels
Source: Borja de Mozota (2003)
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Firstly, from the branding and marketing aspect, general international branding and marketing
strategies have been found and their contribution to the market has been stated. Secondly,
from the jeans design aspect, the majority of jeans’ designs have been explored and
summarised, and various design concepts have been illustrated with pictures. Thirdly, from
the streetstyle cultural aspect, the main essential subcultures of streetstyle sources have been
addressed, as well as relating them to their street fashion outfit. Fourthly, from the design
management aspect, the design strategy has been regarded as being the key knowledge of the
design management of a business, and the strategic design management tools have been
addressed in the literature review. Additionally, the concepts which are implemented in the
branding and marketing aspect for market development have been stated.
Nothing has been found in the literature in terms of Taiwanese branding and marketing
strategies, from local trendy jeans retailers to consumer behaviour toward trendy streetstyle
jeans. Therefore, this is a gap which has been identified and taken into account for the
empirical data research which is the research methodology in the following part of the article.
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3.1 Introduction
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The literature review of the branding and marketing aspects outlined the general international
fashion branding and marketing strategies which have succeeded in the past. It not only
mentioned examples of jeans’ promotions, but also fashion outfits and trendy sportswear.
None of the literature particularly addressed ‘trendy streetstyle’ brands in Taipei or even in
Taiwan, especially for jeans. The main reason for this can be assumed to be that the market in
Taiwan is still developing, since no branding or marketing strategies have been applied in any
academic literature. In this case, it is necessary to initiate some empirical data research, as
exploring the essential concepts in this special fashion business. On the other hand, consumer
behaviour in terms of the particular phenomenon of ‘chao’ to ‘trendy streetstyle’ products has
not been researched according to previous academic literature. In order to explore how design
management implements and transfers international strategies to the local Taiwanese market,
the lack of local strategies will be clarified for this special marketing development research.
Besides, it will be necessary to collect data from Taiwanese consumers in terms of their
‘trendy streetstyle’ consumption motivations and behaviour as a contribution to this research.
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The following article will be structured in four parts, which are:
Research strategy:
The specific strategies for this research will be conducted in this part. The application of what
and how research strategies for the empirical collection of branding and marketing aspects
will be explained.
Data collection:
This section will explain how the data will be collected, such as using questionnaires,
observation or interviews. Also, it will provide the reason for choosing the particular
appropriate method.
Framework of data analysis:
After completing the data collection, the question of how the data can be analysed and the
findings presented will be discussed.
Limitations and potential problems:
Because there are practical limitations or problems connected to this individual research, the
issues regarding validity and reliability confronted by the author will be listed in this part.
3.2 Research Strategy
According to the previous observation, although a few local trendy streetstyle jeans brands
exist, there is no single particular brand which is essentially based on jeans as the major
product. Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore the possibility and feasibility of the
development of this certain jeans product. Therefore, a case study of local trendy retailers will
be the main research strategy in order to understand their approach, as well as their practical
strategies. In terms of trendy streetstyle markets in Taipei, basically most of the trendy
streetstyle retail stores are located around the ‘East’ and ‘Ximen’ districts in Taipei because of
the cultural environment. Generally speaking, the reason is based on these two areas, which
are the most fashionable locations in Taipei, as well as in the whole of Taiwan. So, initially,
the local retailers who design and produce their own jeans will be found in these two trendy
areas. The reason for applying a case study to local trendy streetstyle retailers is because they
are actually the minority who sell these particular products in the Taiwanese fashion field.
Also, they can represent the essential concepts of trendy streetstyle branding and marketing
strategies in Taipei. In this case, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the original
perspective of their strategies and product design, as well as how they established them, the
most appropriate research instruments for this part of the study will be interviews. Therefore,
interviews will be applied additionally to determine how these specific retailers promote their
jeans and how they define the phenomenon of ‘chao’ in Taiwanese subculture. In a sense, the
purpose of the interviews is not only to ask a specific question, but an open question to
comprehend the whole knowledge and concept of their products which create a brand identity
and market opportunity. This is more related to qualitative research, which will be adopted for
the branding and marketing strategies part. Therefore, it will contribute to the research aim of
finding common strategies as well as comparing them to international strategies in order to
determine the lack in the local market.
On the other hand, specifically for market accessibility, consumer behaviour will be taken into
account for the marketing research. Hence, investigating the potential consumption in terms
of whether or not consumers tend to purchase trendy streetstyle jeans is also essential. In
addition, it is necessary to ascertain the major range of age regarding the consumption of this
certain product to understand its advantages and disadvantages in the market. This will
eventually contribute to the aspects of branding and marketing strategies as a partial element.
In this case, a questionnaire will be designed for the general public who normally buy jeans as
the second research strategy. Furthermore, the questionnaire will be applied in order to
determine consumer behaviour toward local trendy streetstyle jeans, as well as the reasons
why they buy or do not buy them. Besides, it is crucial to investigate the question of whether
or not local consumers intend to buy them.
At this stage, the research strategy will be more relevant to the quantitative research in a
consumer survey. With mixed qualitative and quantitative research strategies, the step toward
approaching the research aim will gradually move forward.
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In this section, the plan to collect significant data by means of qualitative and quantitative
research will be separately explained below.
3.2.1.1 Qualitative
In line with the above research strategy, a case study of local trendy streetstyle retailers will
be adopted, since this can also represent this specific field of Taiwanese fashion. Also,
because it has previously been observed that only a few local retailers have their own brands
of jeans in the market, the qualitative research will focus on these groups to understand the
minority of the Taiwanese fashion business. Firstly, to find the appropriate sample for the case
study, a survey will be carried out of local brands in Taipei which produce their own jeans. In
this case, from previous experience, one of the useful sources of retailers is called ‘NMR’
which is deputised by most Taiwanese local trendy streetstyle brands to sell their products.
The website of ‘NMR’ illustrates new products, information, and an introduction of these
local brands. Having searched for new jeans products on the website, four brands ‘REMIX’,
‘OVERKILL’, ‘DESTROYLAND’, and ‘MANIA’ were found in terms of owning their own
jeans brands in Taipei. In addition, these brands were all located in either the ‘East’ or
‘Ximen’ district as mentioned above. Referring to the following picture 15, the website has
already concluded these samples for the research.
Picture 15
Source: (NMR, 2010), <http://www.wretch.cc/album/NextMobRiot>
Therefore, these brands, such as ‘MANIA’ and ‘OVERKILL’, which have recently been
selling their own jeans were found as well as being narrowed down in the next step of the
research. When applying a case study research strategy to several samples of these local
trendy streetstyle brands, the key of the local branding and marketing strategies will be able to
come much closer to the research aim. It is accepted that a good case study can involve
documents, observation, artefacts, and interviews for data collection. Therefore, the best way
to approach the aim of this part of the data collection is to interview these local brands’
executives and heads of jeans’ designers as mentioned above, and hopefully, collect samples
of their jeans’ designs as artefacts. On the other hand, in terms of professional retailing design
strategies, it will be really helpful if there is an opportunity to interview design consultancies
which are involved in the retail industry. Therefore, questions will also be prepared for them.
Finally, the main open questions are listed below, and these will be proposed to the
interviewees in the interview.
Note: Questions for local retailers in Taipei will be conducted in Chinese.
Opened questions:
1. What is your definition of ‘Local Trendy Streetstyle’ as a cultural phenomenon of ‘chao’?
2. What is your view of the differentiation between ‘Local Trendy Streetstyle’ (in Taiwan)
brands and international fashion brands (Both in USA and Europe)?
(For example with regard to the unique qualities of the product, the history of the brand, local
traditions, media influence.)
3. How did you create this particular market opportunity, brand identity, and brand image
through your products for the brand promotion, especially through jeans?
(For example, market survey, observation, designer choice, celebrity influence.)
4. What are the difficulties you might encounter in your brand promotion and market
exploration?
(For example, it can be with regard to competition, consumer choice, creation of brand story.)
The first question is to prove the existence of the phenomenon of ‘chao’ as well as to explore
the differences between so-called fashion in order to ascertain the view of branding and
marketing strategies among this particular market. Then, the purpose of the second question is
to gain a deep understanding of the essential brand strategy and image as opposed to those of
international fashion brands. The intention is to determine how they make their brand images
stand out from the many international brands. Therefore, the third open question, based on the
previous two questions, is to ascertain their core branding (marketing) strategy through their
jeans products, as well as how they mutually complement each other? Eventually,
understanding the problems they face will reveal the lack of branding and marketing
strategies.
Note: Questions for the design consultancy will be conducted in English.
Opened questions:
1. How and what the design strategies concepts were implemented into the retailing
company?
2. Is there any difference between design strategies and other strategies (such as branding and
marketing)?
3. How can the design strategies help or add values of those strategies in your previous
projects? Could you take like branding and marketing aspects for examples?
From a different angle to the local retailers, another way to approach the development of
branding and marketing aspects is by referring to design consultants. In this case, the first and
second questions will focus on the actual concept of design strategies they have used other
than traditional branding and marketing strategies. The final question will aim to address
actual intangible values in the retail industry.
3.2.1.2 Quantitative
This section of data collection will focus on the marketing survey in terms of potential
consumer behaviour. In order to investigate the possibility, accessibility, and feasibility of the
particular Taiwanese jeans market, the statistical data will be collected through a
questionnaire, and the quantitative data will indicate the current market condition. Firstly,
although the research is for market development, which includes a wide variety of random
people, the aim is based on a particular style of jeans and culture. Therefore, the target group
for the research will be focused on people who wear jeans, since the technique of random
sampling will be more reliable. To make the data collection simpler in terms of the sample,
the questionnaire will be applied to a jeans and streetstyle discussion board in the biggest
online Bulletin Board System in Taiwan, the ‘PTT’, which currently has over one million
registered members. (PTT, 2006) Hence, the people who access the jeans discussion board
can represent a reliable data source for the research. Secondly, the following section will list
the main questions in the questionnaire.
Note: Questions for classification- age, gender, occupation, income, etc…
Closed question:
1. Do you wear jeans? Yes or No
2. If yes, what do you prefer to buy, international (e.g. Levi’s, Diesel) or local (e.g. Remix,
Overkill) brand?
3. How important do you think the following choices for buying or not buying?
(On a scale of 1-5, not important – very important)
A) Brand image
B) Design style
C) Quality (texture)
D) Quality of service (store, website, or other)
E) Price
F) Others _____
4. What do you think the major factors that effect the brand image and reputation are for you?
(On a scale of 1-5, very not important – very important)
A) Store environment
B) Influence of celebrity (local or other)
C) Importance of style
D) Advertising
E) Media (Movies Music video etc.)
F) Sub-group friends
G) Others _____
Apparently, the first question will be a yes or no question in order to further distinguish valid
questionnaires. The second question is designed to be a question to conduct respondents to the
further question, and the third closed question will involve the choices of intention toward
brand image and reputation, design and style, quality, service and price. Finally, the choices of
the major factors for consumers are decoration of the store for a branded environment,
celebrity, concept of style and jeans, advertising, and cross-over or unique. The full
arrangement of the questionnaire can be seen in the Appendix 8.9, and it intends to obtain the
statistical data. An explanation of how the data will be analysed will be given in the next
section.
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Data analysis framework for qualitative research:
In order to efficiently analyse the qualitative data after the interviews and questionnaire
collection, the plan for analysing the raw data is stated below.
Firstly, the raw data of the interviews will be collected and classified into separate themes. In
addition, the empirical data description, followed by an interpretation of the data, will be
introduced at the beginning of the analysis. Each individual will be asked four questions,
and therefore the answers will be classified into different themes. The characteristic of open
questions will give the interviewees a space to develop in-depth answers, and the answers will
cross each specific field. At the same time, once the themes from every interviewee’s answers
have been combined and classified, a comparison will be made of their different perspectives
of design, branding and marketing strategies, and the strategies from previous literatures will
be discussed as a cross-reference.
Secondly, the fourth interview question will be the crucial step for helping the comparative
process, combined with the literature and other interviewee perspectives. Finally, the
strategies from local retailers will be revealed and show the commonality and weaknesses
compared with international strategies.
Data analysis framework for quantitative research:
Because the retailers may possibly not have sufficiently researched the customer’s perspective,
the aspects of the enquiry will be explored from the customer’s point of view through the
questionnaire, that is, the quantitative research. Firstly, the statistical data of international
brand buyers and local brand buyers will be collected, in addition to the ranges of consumers’
age, income, and occupation.
Secondly, for the further investigation of the accessibility of the local jeans market, the
advantages and disadvantages of both local and international brands will be interpreted
through a statistical diagram (see diagram) of the consumptive purposes and motivations
which come from the third question.
Finally, to understand the deeper driven factors of the branding aspect, the most important
factor will emerge from the statistical scales of the fourth question. Therefore, the essential
issues will appear by comparing the statistical data with the strategic parts in the branding and
marketing literature and the perspectives of the retailers interviewed
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Research strategy:
Although applying mixed qualitative and quantitative methods of research seem perfectly
logical for the complementation, the quantitative method may lack accurate opinions of local
jeans brands. The purpose of using a questionnaire as the main strategy instead of
interviewing customers is to gain more data from more samples, since the statistics from a
larger number of consumers will be more reliable and convincing. This single research project
is not able to interview an adequate number of samples, which makes it easy to compare the
analysis with the interview results from the retailers. That is the major limitation of a
quantitative research strategy here.
Interviews:
Firstly, it is not possible to interview large numbers of local trendy jeans retailers because this
particular market is new and is in the initially stages of development. Additionally, retailers
do not really regard their jeans as being the major product of their brand. In other words, it is
not similar to the brand image of Levi’s which is based on jeans. Secondly, some of the local
trendy streetstyle brands with a high reputation are established by celebrities, and therefore, it
is really hard to build a proper connection without any original relationship. Also, even if an
interview could be arranged, they may tend not to contribute too many of their current
strategies to the research.
Questionnaire:
One possibility of inadequate reliable data is that not enough of the general public are really
familiar with local streetstyle brands. Therefore, their response to the survey will be limited,
as their motivation to purchase the products is also limited. On the other hand, they are also
unlikely to be able to distinguish which brands are international and which are local.
In this case, the question will offer more examples of brands in these two choices.
Furthermore, the design of multiple-choice questions cannot offer too many choices because
the questions need to be simple. Although the last choice of the question allows people to
write their answer, they may think it is too time consuming to complete it. Finally, as
mentioned previously, the research focuses on the people who really wear jeans, so a
limitation may be that it neglects those who could be potential consumers of jeans, and they
would be likely to give some useful advice for the marketing research.
44.. FFiinnddiinnggss aanndd AAnnaallyyssiiss
4.1 Introduction
This chapter reveals the results from the interviews and questionnaires, as well as the data
analysis of both parts. Firstly, in order to clearly and logically differentiate the useful
knowledge which has been found from the deeper understanding of the concepts related to the
topic, the first step of this chapter is to provide a description of the data from both the
interviews and the questionnaires. The answers from each interviewee for each question will
be combined and summarised in a description to approach the core concept as the latter
analysis. Then, local branding and marketing strategies, as well as the issues they confront,
will be classified and categorised by themes. Additionally, the statistical data from the
questionnaire will be summarised by charts or diagrams for analytical purposes. Secondly, a
data description will be provided with brief summaries of the interviewees, and summaries of
qualitative and quantitative feedback in the following part.
Note: Details of full interview transcriptions and interviewees’ backgrounds can be found in
the Appendices.
4.2 Data Description
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The following answers will be summarised for each question, including those of two retail
executives and one head jeans designer from local trendy brands: Chainloop, Destroyland,
and AES.
Note of the names of the executives and head designer: Zhun of Chainloop, Kai of
Destroyland, and Q of AES.
Q1. What is your definition of ‘Local Trendy Streetstyle’ as a cultural phenomenon of ‘chao’?
Summary of findings and pre-analysis:
According to Zhun, Kai, and Q, although there are still slight differences of opinion about the
phenomenon of ‘chao’ in Taiwan, generally, several commonalities have been found from the
interviews. Firstly, the term ‘chao’ is a conceptual and phenomenal integration of ‘trendy
streetstyle’ in Taiwan. Furthermore, this integration is fundamentally mixed, effected, and
immigrated from overseas sub-cultures such as New York Hip-Hop or UK Punk. In other
words, because of the advocacy of the culture to others, which even more reduces the original
lack of Taiwanese fashion culture and sub-culture, the phenomenon of ‘trendy’ or ‘chao’ in
Taiwan is basically equal to stable elements, independent concepts, and the long-term lifestyle
of overseas sub-cultures.
Secondly, generally Taiwanese consumers lack a cultural understanding compared to
foreigners. In a sense, the reason for the relatively short-term cultures is that there is no
foundation of sub-cultures in Taiwan. Taiwanese people pick up stable sub-cultures from
others as being an interpretation of the words ‘trendy’ and ‘fashionable’, not even
understanding why these sub-cultures exist. In contrast, the Japanese have embedded these
sub-cultures into their own culture by deeply understanding them (Zhun, Kai and Q, 2010).
Therefore, to sum up, the definition can explain as the following equation: ‘Local trendy
streetstyle’ in Taiwan = ‘chao’ = overseas sub-cultures
Q2. What is your view of the differentiation between ‘Local Trendy Streetstyle’ (in Taiwan)
brands and international fashion brands (Both USA and European)?
(For example with regard to the unique qualities of the product, the history of the brand, local
tradition, media influence.)
Summary of the findings and pre-analysis:
The content of the interviews can be summarised by three commonalities for the
differentiation of international and local brands as follows:
a. Promotion and application of local culture
All three interviewees mentioned the strategy of applying the element of Taiwanese local
culture. Firstly, in terms of actual market effectiveness, they apply the unique internet
tendency of local blogs and bulletins in Taiwan, rather than traditional advertising, such as
posting advertisements in magazines. In a sense, sharing their personal lifestyle on blogs is a
way of telling the brand story and attitude. Secondly, because of the lack of fashion culture,
they have turned to using other local cultures which have a relatively longer history in Taiwan,
such as using the element of local tribes in design in order to provide some resonance with
consumers (Zhun, Kai and Q, 2010).
b. Customisation
The consumption phenomenon in Taiwan is that basically consumers tend to imitate
foreigners, although they do not want to appear to be too specific or exaggerated. Therefore,
this leads local retailers to adopt a more market-orientated strategy than other countries. For
example, the styles and shapes of local brands of jeans change every year compared to other
overseas brands, which contain the consistently stable sub-cultures mentioned above. That is,
changing other sub-cultures as the word ‘fashion’ overseas is the key to meeting consumers’
desires in the local market. This is because consumers in Taiwan are not as loyal as other
foreign sub-culture groups, which originally belong to their mother countries and cultures
which they fundamentally understand. However, on the other hand, it means that retailers in
this particular field may understand the market and consumers’ behaviour more than foreign
retailers do. They imitate foreign brands, but the concept of the imitation is to focus on the
general direction of the style, and make it current according to their own perceptions and
observations of the local market, as well as surviving along with the market flow. For them,
this is creating a design without barriers and distance for particular customers (Zhun, Kai and
Q, 2010).
c. Innovation from imitation
‘MIT’, the term ‘made in Taiwan’ has a potential market nowadays, so they add imitation
products to the mix, as well as exploring a new ‘MIT’ potential market. The self-awareness of
historical lack makes them strategically combine foreign brands by means of brand-to-brand
collaboration as a complement to brand history. This is like the local brand name,
‘Destroyland’, which can be interpreted as destroying and breaking all the boundaries of
sub-cultures, as well as creating a new mixed style for the market. As the executive, Zhun,
says, ‘DIT, Design in Taiwan’ (Zhun, Kai and Q, 2010).
Q3. How did you create this particular market opportunity, brand identity, and brand image
through your products for brand promotion, especially jeans? (For example, market survey,
observation, designer choice, celebrity influence.)
Summary of findings and pre-analysis:
They are all more likely to conduct observation directly through their practical experience of
the market to find the current tendency, as well as absorbing the key trendy elements, instead
of doing an actual market survey, such as questionnaires. For instance, popular products could
be an important factor to consider. Namely, they are searching for market opportunities and
learning experience by means of feedback from their consumers. However, they did mention
some relevant concepts, especially for jeans, which are summarised below.
a. Proper mixture and Partial imitation
The style will be mixed elements of foreign sub-cultures and local favourites. Having found
the popular favourites and tendencies, they slightly change the details of the elements and
make a small break-through. On the other hand, as already mentioned, local retailers tend to
consider the whole style or idea of popular foreign brands as a reference instead of fully
copying them to suit local consumers who only partly understand the brands.
b. Sub-culture enforcement for the recession of celebrity’s effectiveness
Too many celebrity brands nowadays leads to the market being less effective. Celebrity
brands without original break-through and quality of design will not survive. Without the
effect of celebrity, they build their brand images by supporting events and competitions, as
well as trying to monopolise the market.
c. Post-process of jeans
They all agreed that the ‘post-process’ of jeans can mainly represent particular images of
sub-cultural styles, such as the design element of damage or patches. This is a crucial point
when creating a brand image.
Q4. What difficulties might you encounter in your brand promotion and market exploration?
(For example, this can be in regard to competition, consumer choice, creation of a brand
story.)
Summary of findings and pre-analysis:
General issues:
Three interviewees admitted that they had difficulty in establishing a brand identity for
long-term loyalty of customers. Also, it is hard for them to make consumers feel familiar with
a particular style. If they do not maintain a stable or even a unique brand image, customers
will turn to other cheaper brands with a similar quality or design, which means the loss of
consumers’ loyalty. Additionally, traditional advertisements are not really useful, and this is
also because the brand identity has not been embedded in the minds of the general public. On
the other hand, it is difficult to balance personal favourites and the market because most
streetstyle retailers from sub-groups made the brands because of their original interest.
In terms of jeans:
Firstly, the ‘myth’ of bad quality associated with the term ‘Made in China’ is still embedded in
the minds of Taiwanese consumers. The truth of China’s good production quality cannot be
fully accepted by the Taiwanese. However, in practice, the issue is technical quality control
for the process of jeans production. Secondly, although they reach the same quality or design,
or even make the whole production process in Japan, Taiwanese consumers are still more
likely to prefer Japanese brands with relatively better identities.
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Summary of design strategies:
Based on his point of view of fashion retailing, the design strategy is much different from
other strategies, since it varies with different circumstances by implementing appropriate and
tangible design solutions. The essential concept is to research every element relevant to the
project, such as involving staff or visitors in the project in order to narrow down clients’
needs. In addition, design strategy plays a role as a communication platform for brand
expression, keeping consistency of the brand image and design language, innovation, and
understanding the brand culture. The impact of the design will not be just the tangible design
if the company applies design into a holistic view and the whole company structure (Chun
Hei Cheng, 2010).
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A questionnaire was distributed via an online survey website and eventually 234 responses
were received from people of various backgrounds and ages. The survey link was posted on
the electronic discussion bulletins of jeans and streetstyle. Besides, the 234 samples were
based on people who normally wear jeans and basically have their own knowledge of
streetstyle and jeans. The period of the survey was about a month from the beginning of July
2010, and the last response was received on the 13th August.
Note: Details of the full questionnaire are in the appendices.
4.3 Data analysis
Since the aim of this paper is to investigate local branding and marketing strategies, the data
analysis part will focus on identifying and analysing the branding and marketing strategies
applied by local executives and head designers from the results of the interviews in order to
cross-reference them with the previous literature in the discussion chapter.
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From the cultural aspect, the trendy streetstyle jeans market, in either Taipei or Taiwan, is
essentially a particular market for overseas sub-culture fans. It is not for the general public
who expect normal or high-fashion styles. Local retailers initially set their brands with a
different perspective from other fashion brands by creating an atmosphere of ‘chao’ for
sub-groups. They call it the ‘chao’ brand. In terms of the local market, originally local
retailers initiated their streetstyle brands according to their own interest based on a limited
budget. In other words, they could not create a high-fashion brand, such as Zara, which needs
huge investment to start. Instead, they concentrated on the loyalty of sub-cultural groups,
which is relatively stronger than that of the general public. Based on the content of the
interviews and observation, they keep trying to split the fashion market, while at the same
time, generating a new one for local consumers.
From the branding aspect, with the disadvantage of local fashion history and the advocacy of
foreign cultures in Taiwan, they try to combine other heritages and local cultures in fashion
retailing, such as supporting local events, using local tribes, applying some Chinese
conventional patterns and current popular slogans on T-shirts in order to strengthen the brand
image, as well as promoting the brand story. This also embeds other more impressive
elements into the brand image for brand communication. For example, designing massive
patches during the post-process on the jeans represents an expression of western riders or
hippies, and this is similar to a co-branding strategy. From the interview, most of them did not
really mention specific branding strategies. They are still learning from experience by
observing and imitating the current trend and foreign sub-cultural elements. Initially they just
make different streetstyle outfits to suit the trend of the local market. More customisation
means more consumption. Compared to foreign streetstyle brands, local brand images are less
stable, and in this case, they can tell any story they like to consumers. Sub-cultural images
become more varied in the local market, which means that it is easier to create an appropriate
brand image for communication between brands and consumers. However, the head of jeans
designer Q from AES mentioned that it is hard to maintain a brand image with a stable style in
an unstable and developing market. (see the Appendix 8.8.3) Therefore, it can be interpreted
that continuing to search for a key design element for the brand is a better way to contribute
to the brand reputation over the long-term.
From the marketing aspect, the interviewees did not practically mention specific marketing
strategies, but only the general ideas they have been using. Firstly, the basic idea of
innovation for them is to customise the local market by creating product details, which are
different from the imitations of foreign brands. Most of them think they are familiar with the
local market from observation, but not from a practical survey. Secondly, celebrity is another
marketing strategy, and a lot of trendy streetstyle brands are funded by local celebrities who
have the advantage of their own public reputation. They have probably noticed that
consumers are gradually becoming more independent, hence the recession of the celebrity’s
effectiveness is increasing. In this case, they slightly change their strategy to promote
sub-cultures through events and competitions. On the other hand, the pricing strategy they are
running is to set up a higher price to differentiate themselves from others, as well as trying to
build a better quality image of the product and brand through the interior design of the shop.
However, because the price is still relatively much higher than normal local brands and just a
little lower than international brands, local consumers are more likely turn to foreign brands,
even if the quality is similar. Their marketing strategy is mutually affected by the branding
aspect. Local brands have not completely broken through the inherent image in local
consumers’ minds.
From the aspect of design strategy, the design consultancy’s perspective is to begin with
research which involves every relevant detail in the beginning in order to generate the design
solution later. Based on the results of the retailers’ interviews, it seems that no practical design
research was mentioned. They may have some branding and marketing strategies, but there is
a definite lack of a design strategy for management. Additionally, the difficulty of maintaining
the brand image and design language has been noted by local retailers, which is the point
where the design strategy can play the role of a communication platform to keep the brand
expression consistent. This implies that the design strategy might not be entirely understood
and applied to the brand culture and the whole company’s structure. From Figure 6 in the
literature review, the design level where they are located is the level of tactics and process.
Although Cheng just mentioned the basic design strategy concept in an organisation, space for
strategic improvement gradually emerged.
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This part specifically focuses on a statistical analysis by providing pie charts and bar charts.
The charts below firstly indicate the participants’ gender, age, and income in terms of their
basic backgrounds.
Chart 1: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
Chart 2: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
Chart 3: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
Chart 4: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
Chart 1 shows that the survey intended to choose people who wear jeans as samples.
Unexpectedly 100% of the participants in this survey wear jeans, and no one chose any other
option. The samples came from Jeans and Streetstyle discussion boards, so it is reasonable to
assume that the people on the Jeans board would be jeans wearers. However, this implies that
jeans are a crucial item for the streetstyle and sub-cultures.
Chart 2 shows that, in terms of streetstyle jeans, there are more male jeans wearers than
female jean wearers in the online survey. The majority of sub-groups in the market are male.
Chart 3 shows that apparently most streetstyle jeans wearers are aged around 20 to 30.
However, there is still a range of consumers aged from 10 to 20. In summary, most of them
are young. In terms of the local market, this matches the interviewees, who said that the
streetstyle remains ‘trendy’ but is not as stable an image as jeans from foreign countries.
Chart 4 shows that the majority of people are located in the area, which represents that they
just have a basic income, and this matches the condition of young people. The highest salary
part is just 9.2%.
In terms of question 2, Chart 5 below shows the proportion of people who prefer to buy
international brands and those who prefer local brands.
Chart 5: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
The proportion of people who prefer international brands is more than 90%. The Taiwanese
prefer overseas brands, which matches the information provided in the interviews. Therefore,
question 3 was split between international and local brands preference in order for
participants to continue in the two survey areas. The following pie charts will show the results
of the two different survey areas.
Results of international brands:
Chart 6: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
The x-coordinate in Bar Chart 6 represents 10 multiplied by the actual numbers of samples.
The design style, brand image and quality of the cloth are the three crucial influencing factors
of the consumption process. Also, the price factor is equal to the brand image. Among these
three factors, the most important factor which influences consumers to purchase is the design.
Results of local brands:
Chart 7: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
According to Bar Chart 7, it seems that all of the factors from brand image to price are
relatively important for customers. However, the quality of the jeans influences the
consumption process most, and the following factor is the price. The design factor is left
behind, but it is still significant. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that a small group
of people think that the brand image and the quality of the service are totally unimportant.
Question 4 is basically the same survey method as question 3. Participants who complete the
international part will continue to question 4, and so will those who complete the local part.
The charts for the results of question 4 are shown below.
Chart 8: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
It is evident that style is the most effective factor of brand image. Apart from the style, the
store environment and sub-group friends are given a similarly normal amount of
consideration. Also, the numbers of people who think that the store environment, celebrity,
media, and sub-group are very important are almost equal. Additionally, the factor which is
considered to be the most important for brand reputation is the store environment.
Chart 9: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
For local brand jeans wearers, style is also the first concern, and the secondary factor is the
store environment. It should be mentioned that the store environment, celebrity, media and
sub-group friends play approximately equally important roles for brand image. However, the
number of people who think that celebrity, media, and sub-groups are unimportant factors is
equal to those who think they are important.
A further analysis combined with the literature, and qualitative and quantitative data results as
a cross-reference will be presented in the discussion chapter.
55.. DDiissccuussssiioonn
5.1 Introduction
Referring back to the aim of the research, in order to discover the role played by design
management in the aspects of branding and marketing to aid the local trendy streetstyle jeans
market, by firstly identifying the local branding and marketing strategies as a reason to
conduct interviews. On the other hand, a practical local market investigation seeks to address
the weaknesses and strengths by conducting a survey of both international brand consumers
and local brand consumers’ point of views. Therefore, this is the way determine how branding
and marketing aspects can be developed.
In the discussion chapter, in order to find a gap to embed the knowledge of design
management, a comparison will firstly be made between the results of the qualitative and
quantitative research for the purpose of deeply understanding the current issues. Then, the
previous literature will be brought into the subsequent discussion to compare the current local
market issues in order to find space for market improvement. Finally, the design management
role in the research will be further analysed and addressed in the last discussion.
5.2 Qualitative and Quantitative
When a brand has been established in the market, it must try to do anything it can to attract
consumers from other preferences. It must launch its own particular branding and marketing
strategies, as well as finding any method to support them. From previous analytical charts of
the market survey, the chart below combines four charts from closed questions 3 and 4, and
shows the whole picture of the essential concept and perspective of local brands.
Chart 10: By Yang Chen. Source: SurveyMonkey (2010)
The charts on the left hand side are the data results from the perspective of international brand
consumption, and the two charts on the right hand side are from the perspective of local brand
consumption. Firstly, it is easy to see that, in the first row, almost every factor is very
important for local buyers compared to international buyers. Apparently, international buyers
are more focused on the design style and quality of the jeans, whereas the price and brand
image are relatively less important. Logically, this phenomenon can infer that international
brand images have already made a good impression on Taiwanese consumers. Therefore,
instead of considering the price and brand image, they more consider the product quality and
style of the jeans. In contrast, in the absence of a nice brand image and brand familiarity in
the local market, customers care about all of the visible elements, such as the whole
atmosphere in the shop and the detailed design of the products, and especially, the price. This
means that Taiwanese consumers do not care about the price if they have had a great brand
image in their minds. Also, this cultural phenomenon matches the admiration of Taiwanese
consumers for foreign goods from the previous statements of the executives. On the other
hand, a similar situation can be seen to have occurred in the survey from the second row in
chart 10. This can be interpreted that a lack of brand image and identity still exists, as well as
the effectiveness of celebrities is a direct image feedback from consumers. Although the
subcultural promotional strategy was mentioned in the interview, when it does not have a
strong enough brand identity, the level of requirement for local brands will be much higher
than international brands. In other words, all of the other factors will be carefully considered
to convince themselves to purchase. Hence the investment will be split into several segments,
and this will lead local retailers to resolve other problems rather than the core problem which
needs to be urgently resolved, which is the brand image. In this case, the statistical analysis
shows that the design style influences the brand image most, which implies that the design
strategy should be better implemented among the entire process of formulating the brand
image.
When looking back to chart 10, in terms of consumer absorption, local retailers have put a lot
of effort into tactics such as customisation, imitation, and combining local culture. However,
apart from the cultural combination, customisation and imitation are still the concepts to cater
to consumers, not creating a unique brand image or story to make them followers as
international fashion brands do. The issue of the long-term loyalty of local brands has not
disappeared. The Destroyland executive, Kai, talked about a situation whereby even though a
local brand completely makes its entire jeans production process in Japan with a price just a
little lower than Japanese brands, consumers are still more likely to choose the brand
originally from Japan. However, these products may have been made in China, as well as not
having such good quality as local brands (Kai, 2010). Therefore, the only two things which
may make them hesitate are the design style of the jeans, which is attributed to brand image,
and the price.
5.3 Literature Review in the Aspects of Branding and Marketing
According to the literature review, to be different and unique is the first important concept of
branding strategies. Most successful international brands have their original, unique concepts
and stories different from others, such as Diesel and Levi’s, and local brands without any
history and story are searching for a way to strengthen this area. For example, the normal way
is to mix an aboriginal pattern and hip-pop elements on the jeans to create a new style, but the
consistence and coherence are hard to match and maintain for the long-term. This is why the
majority of successful local brand owners used to be celebrities whose personal images sold
their products in the market without having to put too much effort into building the brand
image. To create a personal interest, other local retailers try to reach the same high quality and
level of design as foreign fashion brands to look ‘trendy’ in the local market. They plan to
create high-end streetstyle fashion brands, but simultaneously narrow the range of consumers.
No matter how they try to distinguish themselves from other low-level local fashion brands
by upgrading the store environment or quality, the way to innovate still originally involves
imitation. Although Japanese streetstyle brands also come from imitation, some of the
founders have lived in core subcultural areas, such as New York, for more than 10 years, as
well as being able to bring perfect foreign subcultures back to Japan (Q, 2010). Unlike the
Japanese market, the subcultural understanding and fashion level of Taiwanese consumers
have not yet reached a deep level, but this complicated market is developing. For example,
local consumers may no longer regard celebrities as an important factor, as well as turning
their focus to choosing styles to suit their personalities. However, they probably still do not
entirely understand the core of the culture. It is difficult to build a brand image to fit the local
market by fully bringing back the concept and promoting the essence. The above direction
would involve higher investment and lose middle-class consumers. Also, upper-class
consumers who really understand the culture prefer to buy products from the source of the
subcultural location, and lower-class consumers do not care where, how and why the ideas for
the products are made. It seems that the strategic concept of being unique is hard to
implement in this complex local subculture market. Therefore, the strategy may be better
turned to a communication strategy which focuses on fundamentally changing the
consumption process and motivation for the development of the brand image.
According to the communication strategy in the literature, the basic concept of
communication is to keep unconsciously implanting ideas in consumers’ minds. The
communication strategy of Diesel is to continuously give an impression of smart fashion to
consumers in the market by picking products to suit their personalities but not stupidly
following one single brand. Initially, this successfully attracts middle-class customers who
cannot afford to buy all of the items of a luxury brand, and eventually affects both upper-class
and lower-class customers. In a sense, based on interviews, a similar situation also occurs in
the local market. One of the most effective communication strategies is telling stories in an
online blog. The Taiwanese trend nowadays is to check other personal blogs to absorb news,
fun or knowledge. Online information is much more acceptable than books or magazines for
the younger generation, which is why local retailers are more likely to write articles or stories
for brands and new products on a blog, as well as saving the cost of post and TV advertising.
However, apart from teenagers, an online communication strategy is not sufficient for the
general public. If they have spare funds to invest, topical and controversial elements such as
co-branding with other unexpected brands, which can directly gain people’s attention, are
better choices than investing in extra high quality products to compensate for the weakness of
the brand image.
In terms of observation of the pricing strategy, local brands still believe that a high price
means high quality and design, as well as being able to attract upper-class consumers.
However, this rule has been broken, as mentioned in the literature review. International brands
such as UNIQLO have given people the idea that cheaper prices can also be accompanied by
great quality and design. In terms of this impact, local consumers in Taiwan have already
accepted this concept and it makes it more difficult to convince them to buy local brands with
only a little lower price than foreign brands. On the other hand, one of the marketing
strategies of local streetstyle brands can be inferred as being concentration segmentation in
the literature review. They try to seduce middle-class consumers to upgrade to upper-class
consumption and convince them to spend more money for a better design and quality, when in
fact, as mentioned above, this has the opposite effect of losing both lower-class and
middle-class consumers. For the current market, they choose a way which is more difficult.
General speaking in reality, the price is still more important than other factors for local brand
images. In this case, the multi-segment strategy is relatively more appropriate for the jeans
market in order to apply to a wide variety of consumers. The local brands do apply a
customisation strategy, but this is not completely the same as the international
mass-customisation marketing strategy. A mass-customisation strategy is suitable for
consumers who have their own strong opinions of the fashion market. In contrast to
mass-customisation, local retailers do not tend to give them full power to design their
products, but instead, they customise them themselves by observing the trend of popular
products. This actually just involves putting popular elements into the product design without
changing the design process for customisation. Since people who know jeans well are still in
the minority, theoretically local retailers are always chasing the market trend. In a word, either
applying mass-customisation or a customisation strategy may not be sufficient to gain a good
effect in the local market. This is probably why local retailers think that local brands which
make jeans their major product are hard to sustain in this complicated market.
5.4 Role of Design Management in Branding and Marketing Aspects
From the following Figure 11, which was summarised in the previous discussion, the role of
design for local fashion retailers is in the stage of operation, tangible and touch. The main
purpose of this section is to push the design up to be close to the strategic level.
Figure 11: By Yang Chen. Source: Borja de Mozota (2003)
According to the previous discussion, the four major gaps in the local trendy streetstyle
market can be summarised as below.
Brand reputation:
It is easy to create a brand image for consumers who have a superficial understanding of
subculture, but it is difficult to establish a great and well-known reputation. This must be
earned by the consumer’s judgment to reach a high level and loyalty.
Brand image maintenance:
Although the brand image is simple to create, maintaining it is relatively difficult while
keeping it consistent in the floating market.
Pricing strategy:
Local brands putting the price up from the level of middle-class consumers in the local market
is actually a stumbling block from the marketing aspect.
Customisation:
Two extreme sides of customisation cannot be a suitable marketing strategy in the current
situation.
The above issues faced by local brands can be referred back to the international strategies
from the literature review. However, apparently international branding and marketing
strategies cannot fully cover the extended issues of the local market, and this is where there
are gaps. Therefore, the role played by design management knowledge and strategy in these
gaps will be discussed in the following paragraph.
Firstly, one of the design strategies as a design management tool which is applicable for the
issue of brand reputation is an ‘Image-driven design strategy’. Nowadays, the market share in
Taiwan is generally split into two parts, which are a preference for international brands and a
preference for local brands, and this is greatly relevant to the effectiveness of brand reputation
in the market. Also, as shown in the competitor analysis under the brand analysis in Figure 8,
the majority of the trendy streetstyle jeans market share is apparently international brands,
especially since there is no major local brand making jeans products. The lack of a jeans
brand history and story is definitely an obstacle preventing consumers’ motivation from
breaking through the barrier between international and local brands. It is even worse trying to
collaborate with international jeans brands without a brand reputation. However, an
image-driven design strategy can play a role to reinforce the local brands’ market share. With
the issue mentioned above as self analysis in Figure 8, local brands which are familiar with
local cultures can work on designing special and unique concepts representing other local
cultures, such as conventional Chinese or aboriginal patterns to enforce their reputation and
strengthen their local image. Having built a certain level of a local image, local brands can
turn to apply a co-branding strategy with foreign brands or celebrities if their purpose is to
absorb international brands’ consumers. They can work on further developing their
international relationships. Additionally, by the time the level of local consumers becomes
higher, they can even concentrate purely on designing a concept of other local cultures
without producing jeans, and simultaneously selling co-branded jeans. This even benefits the
issues of the cost and quality of jeans, and at the same time, facilitates the hardest part of
subcultural jeans stories.
Secondly, the design strategy of ‘managing brand equity’ is a practical tool for brand
maintenance. This is the design management knowledge of managing design from the aspect
of brand management. Design strategy of local brands is crucial at every point of contact,
promotional and individual, for keeping the coherency of not only the external but the internal
brand image. If retailers establish a subcultural image of the brand but fail to keep a consistent
core subcultural element for the design, and instead, flow with the market trend, long-term
brand maintenance cannot be successful. They should focus on managing brand equity instead
of trying to maintain consistency with different styles of product. Thirdly, if local brands have
to consider their pricing strategy, instead of setting high prices as above, the design strategy
development route will be the first concern, such as the three concepts of upstream and
downstream integration’, ‘internationalisation’ and ‘diversification’. The following Figure 12,
which combines the previous discussion with the literature, illustrates the pricing strategy of
local brands.
Figure 12: By Yang Chen, source: (Okonkwo, 2007, p.240) and (Drew, 1992, p.35).
Figure 12 addresses the local pricing strategy and communication strategy in the market. The
local pricing strategy which sets the price in the middle of the upper-class and middle-class
market levels, loses consumers from both middle-class and lower-class levels, because local
consumers are still developing an understanding of subcultures and the knowledge of
streetstyle jeans. A communication design strategy uses the concepts of ‘diversification’ and
‘upstream and downstream integration’ which are the idea of suiting consumers’ personalities
and simultaneously partially applying subcultural elements. The communication design
strategy attempts to break the boundaries of different sub-groups, as well as attracting other
groups, and even international consumers, by setting a normal price with the segmentation of
every subcultural element. In a word, the design strategy should enforce the movement from a
concentrated segment to a multi-segment base, and this will actually build a bridge between
mass-customisation and customisation in the local market.
In summary, these issues seem to have caused a big gap in the local jeans market, but there
are still some design solutions which can be implemented. The trendy streetstyle jeans market
with a turning point of the traditional local strategy can be inferred to be a positive market in
the future.
77.. BBiibblliiooggrraapphhyy
Books:
- Best, K. (2006) Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and
Implementation. Switzerland: AVA
- Biggam, J. (2008) Succeeding with your Master’s Dissertation: A step-by-step handbook.
Berkshire: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
- Bohdanowicz, J. and Clamp, L. (1994) Fashion Marketing. London: Routledge.
- Brace, I. (2004) Questionnaire Design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for
effective market research. London: Kogan page Limited.
- Brigitte Borja de Mozota (2003) Design management: using design to build brand value and
corporate innovation. New York: Allworth Press.
- B. Willis, G. (2005) Cognitive Interviewing: A tool for improving questionnaire design.
London: Sage Publications Ltd.
- Drew, L. (1992) The Business of Fashion. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.
- Easey, M. (2002) Fashion Marketing. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd.
- Evans, D. (2007) Cool hunting: a guide to high design and innovation. London: Southbank
Publishing.
- Gorb, P. (1990) Design Management. London: London Business School Design
Management Unit.
- Hannouille, E. (1990) Jeans: Levi’s story. Paris: Minerva.
- Harris, A. (2002) The Blue Jean. New York: powerhouse Cultural Entertainment, Inc.
- Little, D. (1996) Vintage Denim. Utah: Gibbs Smith.
- Michels, M. (2004) The Jeans Encyclopedia. New York: SPORTSWEAR
INTERNATIONAL.
- Okonkwo, U. (2007) Luxury Fashion Branding: Trends, Tactics, Techniques. New York:
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.
- Polhemus, T. (1994) Streetstyle. London: thames and Hudson.
- Robert, G. & Stephen, P. (1998) NIKE Culture. London: SAGE.
- Silverman, D. (2005) Ding Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
- Tungate, M. (2008) Fashion Brands: Branding Style from Armani to Zara. 2nd ed. London:
Kogan Page Limited.
Internet:
- Butod, M. (2009) What makes UNIQLO as a popular casual wear brand in Hong Kong.
[Internet]. P.34. Available from<
http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/09/what-makes-uniqlo-as-a-popular-cas
ual-wear-brand-in-hong-kong.html> [Accessed 27 May 2010].
- Levi Strauss & Co Europe S.C.A./Comm.VA (2010) Levi’s Official Website. [Internet].
Available from< http://eu.levi.com/en_GB/index.html> [Accessed 11 June 2010]
- Overdope, [Internet]. Available from <http://www.overdope.com/> [Accessed 1 December
2009]
- Pollard, D. (2008) Strategies of Mass Customization. [Internet]. Vol.6 p.77. Available
from<http://www.cluteinstitute-onlinejournals.com/PDFs/1005.pdf> [Accessed 30 May
2010].
- Shea, D. (2006) PTT Bulletin Board System. [Internet]. Available from<
http://www.ptt.cc/index.html> [Accessed 21 June 2010]
- Sister_Drella (2010) ANDMOREAGAIN/SOLD. [Internet]. Available from<
http://andmoreagainsold.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html> [Accessed 11 June 2010]
- Valdés, P. (2005) Levi’s, custom-made trousers for the customer. [Internet]. P.34. Available
from<
http://www.daemonquest.com/en/research_and_insight/2005/03/21/levi_s_custom_made_trou
sers_for_the_customer > [Accessed 27 May 2010].
- ZUELEMENTS (2010) ZUELEMENTSDENIM & KHAKIS. [Internet]. Available from<
http://www.zuelements.com/zuelements/ZU010SS/index.html > [Accessed 11 June 2010]
Interviews:
Hei Cheng, C (2010) Interview with a communication designer. ShangHai, 2 August. [Chun
Hei Cheng has wored in the Design Consultancy, IDEO since 2007]
Kai (2010) Interview with the local retailing executive. Taipei, 22 July. [Kai has owned a
fashion retailing brand ‘Destroyland’ as an executive since 2005].
Q (2010) Interview with the local head of jean designer. Taipei, 22 July. [Q has worked as a
head of jean designer in the fashion retailing brand ‘AES’ since 2006].
Zhun (2010) Interview with the local retailing executive. Taipei, 20 July. [Zhun has owned a
fashion retailing brand ‘Chainloop’ as an executive since 2008].
Journals:
- DMI (1998) 18 views on the definition of Design Management (Executive Perspective),
Design Management Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 14-19.
- Dorozala, N. and Kohlbrenner, A. (2008) Co-branding as a Tool for Strategic Brand
Activation: How to Find the ideal Partner – An Explanatory Case Study in the Fashion and
Design Sector. Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller.
- Liedtka, J. (2000) “In Defense of Strategy as Design,” California Management Review,
Spring, vol. 42, no. 3, 8-30
- Tim B. (2005) Strategy by Design: Masters of Design Fast Company, June, p.3
88.. AAppppeennddiicceess
Appendix 8.1 -What is fashion? – Defining Fashion
“Fashion originated in Paris at the end of the 19th century” (Tungate, 2008, p.9). The first
designers label was created in the market. Different from just the dress suppliers, dressmakers
started to create styles and dictate fashion. They began to make more sophisticated and
sumptuous fabric outfits for the market of upper-class consumers. Soon, customers began to
be aware of these elegant garment designs. It shall be noted that the man Worth, a marketing
genius as well as a flamboyant fashion designer who was born in 1826, established his
reputation throughout the fashion field. “He exhibited a high level of artistry, but of all the
dressmakers of that period he was the first to wrap his own name in a fairytale, and resell it
at a profit” (Tungate, 2008, p.11). Then, the brand-new world of fashion initiated. On the
other hand, “fashion is to do with change,” and “in order for the change which is intrinsic to
fashion to take place, the industry must continually create new product” (Easey, 2002, p.1,
p.2). These mean fashion is about the innovation and creativity for the trend. Therefore,
comparing to mass-produced garments for the ordinary public, fashion is normally high-end
brand containing with high-priced items in the beginning.
Appendix 8.2 - The 21st century fashion consumption environment
It is an important step to classify the current market environment in order to understand the
basic source of present fashion marketing strategies and plan future marketing strategies. By
the research of 21st century fashion consumption environment from Okonkwo (Okonkwo,
2007, p.69-70), ten factors of influencing customers’ behavior are listed as below:
1. The rapid growth of information, communications and mobile technology.
2. The increase in individual consumer wealth and wealth-creation opportunities.
3. The increasing spending power of women.
4. An increase in international travel, intercultural exposure and artistic exchanges.
5. Media saturation and information overload in the marketplace.
6. The changing retail environment.
7. The increase in consumer credit and payment options.
8. The effect of immigration and mass movement of consumers.
9. The lowering of the entry barrier to the luxury goods sector.
10. The increase in outsourcing of the manufacture of luxury products and services.
Appendix 8.3 - Example of NIKE Marketing Strategy
NIKE was focusing on the advertising and marketing strategy rather than manufacture. The
strategy can be traced back from the president of NIKE, Phil Knight, he has known the
business is not just emphasis on cutting-cost, but develop the research and innovation for the
company. That is why NIKE can catch the current changes to move the product line from
Korea to China. It is because NIKE also has the sense of emergence to observe the global
economical changes. Besides, one of the most successful strategies is exploit high reputation
athletes such as Michael Jordan to create NIKE particular images. From the following chart it
can be seen that how NIKE grew with signing the contract of Michael Jordan and started to
exceed Reebok as an important rival in 1985.
(Figure 4. source: Goldman & Papson, 1998, p.74)
Appendix 8.4 - History of Jeans
“Jeans…they were no longer work clothes; they were play clothes” (Little, 1996, p.60).
The following quotations from the significant literature, The Blue Jeans, will illustrate most
history of denim jeans.
- Origin
It still has controversy in terms of the origin of jeans after reading through the literatures;
“Whatever its origin, denim has always been important to the cotton industry and cotton was
vital to the economic development of America” (Harris, 2002, p.10).
- Time
“By the mid-1800s, sturdy twill had already established itself as a reliable cloth for
workwear…designed to be worn over day clothes – could be found hanging in railwaymen’s
shacks…” (Harris, 2002, p.13). It shows that the original purpose of jeans is for the railway
workers.
- Early important jeans companies
“Levi Strauss was not the only dry goods merchant to notice that a lucrative sideline in
workwear might make its own separate business…in 1891, they founded the Cone Export and
Commission Company…in 1904, the Hudson Overall Company (now as known as Wrangler)
was formed…in 1911, the H.D. Lee Mercantile Company…producing its own denim
workwear” (Harris, 2002, pp.14-15). It indicates the well-known jeans brands for publics
even now – Levi’s, Wrangler and Lee.
- Early innovation
“Zippered flies, the next development, were first introduced by Lee on their denim ‘Cowboy
Pants’ in 1926…” (Harris, 2002, p.15). The original denim jeans was designed with the
buttoned flies, it caused the difficulty for the cowboy wearing gloves to take off.
- Craze
“In the 1930s…Once Hollywood discovered the cowboy flick, denim would never be the same
again…The movie glamorized denim, but other social factors cemented its popularity”
(Harris, 2002, p.27).
- Hit into fashion market
“In 1959, American denim laid seeds in another sleeping market when Levi’s was invited to
exhibit at the ‘American Fashion Industries’ show in Moscow…” (Harris, 2002, p42).
“It appeared on the cover of Vogue for the first time in January 1971…” (Harris, 2002, p.75).
- Unisex garment
“America had its first unisex garment…in the 1960s…” (Harris, 2002, p.59).
- Lifestyle
“…in the United States denim was becoming increasingly associated with popular
culture…young people were beginning to personalize their favorite worn-in-jeans with
patches and slogan” (Harris, 2002, p.59).
“…the official uniform for those interested in making love, not war” (Harris, 2002, p.59).
Jeans were not just the outfit, but were becoming to be able to reflect the personality as well
as spreading out the concept globally.
Appendix 8.5 - Jeans Design
Theory of jeans wash:
Appendix 8.6 - Subcultures
1. Hippies
“…wore long hair and bohemian-style clothing, and adopted a ‘love not war’ stance…Ethnic,
handmade or second-hand clothing was most popular with the original and now the modern
hippy” (Drew, 1992, p.33).
2. “B” boys , fly girls and homeboys with hip-hop
“Famed of break-dancing, a mid-1980s’ dance craze that involved lots of spinning and
robotic movements to electro or hip-hop music… because they often spun on their heads,
baseball caps were essential and were combined with satin bomber jackets, trainers and
baggy jeans” (Drew, 1992, p.32).
Appendix 8.7 - Design Management
88..77..11 DDeeffiinniittiioonnss ooff ddeessiiggnn mmaannaaggeemmeenntt
From Design Management by Grob:
Grob stated design management as “the effective development by line managers of the design
resource available to the organisation in the pursuance of its corporate objectives” (1990).
From Design Management by Brigitte Borja de Mozola:
“Design management is rooted in the shift from a hierarchical, Taylor model of management
to a flat and flexible organisation model, which encourages individual initiative,
independence, and risk taking” (Brigitte Borja de Mozola, 2003, p.67).
18 views of design management:
(…) the real value offered by design management to an organisation is its consistent
orchestration [author’s emphasis in bold] and nurturing of shared values and realities; design
management effectively masters change; design management functions in all places and
situations in which the organisation, through its structure, products, and employees, makes
decision about customer experiences and product quality; (…) design management is
visionary leadership; building and nurturing a team of internal and external contributors who
raise each other’s level of performance and enhance the creative experience is the primary
obligation of design management; design management is about applied innovation (…); (…)
design management has become asset management. Effective asset management reduces costs
and builds value. (…) Beyond asset management, design management is about attitude
management. It represents not just a company’s state of affairs, but its state of mind, as well;
design management is the process of guiding and shaping individual efforts to achieve a
larger goal. Design management requires a delicate balance between art and commerce. To
be successful, a design manager must maintain control without limiting creativity.
88..77..22 PPrroovveess
Prove of the importance from design management for development:
“The practice of design management is evident across a range of disciplines such as product
design, fashion, architecture, media, entertainment, advertising and software and game
design” (Best, 2006, p.16).
Prove of the significance from design management for branding aspect:
“Within an organisation, design management is present in the brand communications, the
product and/or service design, the corporate buildings and retail environments and the
websites and advertising campaigns of each enterprise” (Best, 2006, p.16).
Prove of the connection between design, management and marketing:
“…design is an efficient management tool for developing a more customer-focused culture in
the company. In business, relations between marketing and design are more complementary
than divergent” (Brigitte, 2003, p.82).
IDEO:
“IDEO are a design and innovation firm, their method cards have been instrumental to the
success of IDEO’s product, space, service and experience designs” (Best, 2006, p.108).
Appendix 8.8 - Interview Transcripts
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P�'°V¶|9»r�g`ab.Q9�ãî�´6�©×��~ .ãî��©×.�ì�{����Fè ?@¶|¹E·c��¡ÛÆ|KY��¶���û×ãì� P¶�»5í´ .Q¶|à|»r��.Q��Õ�½´ wå�½¹ãs´�Í�ïs´�z{ Y�[¶��+
88..88..33 IInntteerrvviieeww wwiitthh QQ,, HHeeaadd DDeessiiggnneerr ooff jjeeaannss iinn tthhee llooccaall ttrreennddyy rreettaaiill bbrraanndd,, AAEESS
1155 JJuullyy 22001100,, TTaaiippeeii }~���ite: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/aestaipei>
� �þ� E�¯°G.ß�5«���i_��`abº»J�� �.pâ�i_����º»J Y)33µ��>8� ̀ �o6�M¸�I8��Y.QE��5« T������ �[!"12#$�'(%&)*+bL�������¿(P+Z[�#$+��¾Ý®¬UWThe trend in U.S. and Europe is so called the world street fashion.
`T�\0r@� ]�i�b�[c And the majority is from subcultures in U.S.
7° ��m��} 32%&�t*¸ ±(IJ%&�z��3�%& 9�±(2%&�N���q.ò@\0���#$T��'�2%&ñ� �qn� ÕÓmN T�ðÕÓE5�dd� Y(9B����d ©'�%&�gh���bMëz{�c³S ~©���mN�B�À��'�®¬�Yû×�T��Ô£±(¬;%& Japanese
will imitate precisely because of the personality. But for Taiwan is already third hand information location
in terms of imitating Japanese cultures. We have not imitated as precise as Japanese. �q.Qà�õì�Ô£û×�\0�#$���bB��'c§�'�.ò@�12#$���Y���'c��D Yû×PQ�[�Õ12¹�Ô£�s��+� �õõ���P'(� PT3��ghIYèr �P���� 93Y��2%&N����.��.pâ� [email protected]â���\�.�5(û×��FEý 9 �̂B �B� �I� ��B �B� �.T�P� �/0A4û× ��%&=>��+.��PY^_".5( .�@PR�5�FEý�F��¶�¡8�V� P�.Ý�.��P�P�±(¬;�mN��£���Z����� bZ[ð©P�Æ�û× ̀ ÓPV�5(��G�� ¶�P��EP}5�uvwåP���û×�����\�12DE'c§��+� �12DE .Q312F�è�5(�3��gh^èr wå�PSË��Yc§���û×E5(þ��9ó½�¼� ����õ { Û��� V�«Û����Yð�FG� pâ.«¬��^_E�P�� ̀ �3��ghFW wåPFG� P9�3��â¬;¡¥rNE5(¢£¤¥¤¦9h§�h¨ó�öh�©P�gh35à \��¶�WX�û×��W¬;P�aY�z{ wåPR�w� R����¶�12��V|o�'5����\��/012��#$%&T�Ô£®¬�#$%&+� �Ô£û×�#$%&����q`EÔ£®¬��� �4 �qE¶|`�Ô£�û×��Ô£®¬��\�.ò@ ¶�¶|DE®¯� ±(#$¶|
T�õìT�¬;@°®3tö���Y12VR�Ô£7P�Å+M½9�12�5(%&�ñ� ]ª��;½�� �.ò@12 [email protected]:û×%&=>�ÁÂ� \�mû×�r@�3]Z[�^_ Pm�R�}5(.Q«�Ô£�4*�.�'cò@���\��ò@°®�¹�3®¬ ?@û×`Ô£®¬�� �4 .ò@°®�¹�93�{���%&@����� ©12'(Gª12��3�¬;û× '�;k��°±²³S+��[c�o�+��We have to find the local culture.
./0��¬�3¸%&�|�Ã3.g¸3'ظ����® �̄��¶�ù(ú§Å+� �T�'(.GH`¹3¬� .DE� ��?@AB78�u� .)3�IJb�c .`à�3Ô£ °�S� '`V�.Q�%&p5�`Ó.Q¶���FUb�c ¶�'V�.Q±®�%&��¥T�n dû×5c s�WX¬;�%& ws©P�GHG&��¬;�Y5²z{s�©P�³&�'c.Q¶|`à�Ô£û×w9�dû×�§�¬;�§�8�EFM�V· PT�©¬;��´µ¶3�) .ò@12'¶|V���?@3¸1%&312SÝ�F·s��In fact, we do
not have local cultures and foundation because the whole system was from immigration. � �Y��������Ö´���bL�d��5(�����SÝ bL��Þ<IÆ�¼ �[c±²³S�+� �±²³S .���Y(^_Eê³Sì(z{ ��Ö´���b'½����� �Þ<IÆ���.ò@��T�\0�¸ ¹̂ q�ºd ÷� �� g�� �3;k��E5¿��� '�û×6Óp« .QR^�»� '�7°5��¶�¡8�.ò@¸ ¹̂ �E»����q¼5(���IÆ�V�+�������%&�� �AB12uSE'c�%&�tö ½´¾rr�\�.Q�V|�)Z[��������Y¶�ª�5(Ö´�:¡Å+� �.ò@¶I '0��7P����è�~ �è¿��À�� .��������¿ýÅ+� �4 T�d¿ý T�.���� d.ÜÜÝ�3¸%& .������¶|¬;�b�����3¸%& Maybe find a aborigine to be the local culture.
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<Website: http://www.ideo.com/>
Y: Dear Cheng,
Hello, this is Chris Yang Chen, how are you?
I'm the person also from HK who was talking to you in the summer school, hope you still
remember. As our conversation last time, If you don't mind, I think the most convenient way
for you that we can just do the interview through emails.
Thank you at the beginning for your understanding.
Could you answer the following questions?
1. As you said you was involved in a retailing project as an IDEO design consultancy member,
how and what the design strategies concepts were implemented into the retailing company?
2. Is there any difference between design strategies and other strategies (such as branding and
marketing)?
3. How can the design strategies help or add values of those strategies in your previous
projects? Could you take like branding and marketing aspects for examples?
There might be few more questions after your answers.
Thank you very much for your kind help.
Best Regards
Cheng: Hi Chris
I have tried to answer the questions in the email reply below, i hope it all make sense.
all the best with your study and do let me know where it lead you.
was great to meet you in Shanghai and to see your passion within design.
Cheng: There are more than one example, but the core design process was involve with
research on the field, talking to the consumer or visitors to the retail space and also very
importantly talking to the staffs that are going to be working in the innovative new space. As
IDEO we would design, depends on the project's scope, service experience blueprint, service
toolkit, training guilds so that the client can implement the tangible design solutions. again,
the design solutions are different every time for different clients and projects.
Cheng: Yes, and also depends in which industry are you talking about.
Cheng: Do you mean how design strategy can impact and influence different parts of the
business? It really helps a company to understand the scope of the project and be able to help
to narrow down the need from the client, so that the implementation would be easier for the
client to take on. When the strategy is driven from research, to create innovative design for
the people, it helps to give better communication platform for the brand to express their
values and what they try to bring to their audience.
Y: Dear Hei,
Thank you very much for your kind reply, there are several questions I come up with from
your answers. Please take a look with the questions below. For example, co-branding and
celebrity are the kinds of branding strategies, do you think design strategy is related to these.
Because I think the design strategy is not just for designing the logo for the cross-over,
instead, it "designs a solution" for clients as you said. So, in your opinion, in what format can
design strategy involve in the company strategies? Designing a "celebrity" as a solution?
Thank you. Yes, I mean more specifically related to fashion retailing projects. Could you take
some examples for design strategies which add value into the brand or market. As you said
like "stories telling"? But more concrete. Thank you.
Cheng: I think you are talking more about brand strategies, and design is part of it. How a
company can understand design as an important role in a company culture. Design as
innovation! Design can play a role in keeping the brand image and design language consistent,
not only helping company to communicate to the audience with a same voice, strategy with
design value can also help company to communicate internally with a better understand of the
brand culture and their products. So yes, if the company is applying a strategy with design for
their holistic view and structure, the impact is not only on design for design.
Cheng: Here are the two great examples, one is for Havaianas, how IDEO help designing a
bag to match the essence of a brand and the spirit of a nation
http://www.ideo.com/work/featured/bags-for-havaianas
secondly, a NY fashion brand- Eileen Fisher- IDEO helps to shift focus for a major women’s
clothing brand and retailer
http://www.ideo.com/work/item/stitch-and-thread/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/fashion/11fisher.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&ref=style
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/articles/2010/04/08/eileen_fisher_updates_her_clothi
ng_collection_to_appeal_to_women_of_all_ages/
There might be few more questions after your answers.
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