It is exciting to be spending time in a country bursting with such astonishing potential.
Taiwan is nimbly reforming itself from a mass commodity producer to a high-end creator, profiting from the fast-rising margins that market leadership delivers. Despite short-term fluctuations, its economy is enjoying sustained benefits arising from democratic freedom and decades of economic growth.
This transformation has occurred after a bleak, unspoken era of martial law that only ended in 1987 after almost four decades. Taiwan now walks on the world stage with a quiet, almost shy confidence, but the swagger of adolescence is unmistakable in this country’s collective stride.
The country has yet to pin the tail on its first unicorn, but this brash milestone is sure to be marked soon. Electric scooter manufacturer Gogoro is tipped as a frontrunner, but there are enough rockstar start-ups from the Republic of China galloping forward for this island-nation to anticipate a thriving unicorn herd within the next decade.
Standing proud alongside these fast-growing companies are long-established innovators such as Brogent Technologies, taking its i-Ride experience around the Earth from Kaohsiung, or global leaders like Giant, the world’s largest bicycle maker.
The vast empire of Taichung-headquartered Johnson Health Tech should leap even further forward when fitness centers begin connecting virtual-reality headsets to their array of Johnson exercise equipment.
Collaborations between local conglomerates promise to deliver large-scale new innovations too. For example, automaker Yulon Group’s partnership with Acer’s autonomous driving system has already delivered the nation’s first self-driving vehicle — a feat Taiwanese should be proud of.
Embryonic start-ups (collectively demanding to be known as Taiwanese) are bursting into prominence, delighting audiences who crave exclusive, authentic brand stories. Tales of luxury chocolatiers such as Fu Wan, with its unique double fermentation of cocoa beans sourced from the plantations of Pingtung; the emerging brands driven by the revival of Hakka and a renewed respect for Aboriginal culture; or in the high-tech field — HTC’s leadership with its Vive range of virtual-reality headsets will spawn local start-ups under the protective umbrella of their ecosystem.
New start-ups spanning the full breadth of the nation’s technology and engineering prowess are constantly being uncovered.
If a list of the next generation of leading global high-tech successes from wan were to be written, two likely candidates working in virtual reality would be Kaohsiung start-up Phalanity, with its somatosensory “SynSeat” for immersive entertainment, and Taipei film production company Funique, whose mischievous virtual worlds are created with impressive technical expertise.
In the Internet of Things category, keep an eye on Taipei-headquartered NextDrive, which is destined to be a market leader.
With so much to share, the surprising aspect of all of this is that Taiwan has been unnecessarily timid in a collective celebration of these successes offshore. The country is being left behind in its nation branding. It is time to right that wrong.
As a humble outside observer, it appears timely to take a fresh look at creating greater national brand cohesion, with some new thinking centered squarely on the nation’s international customers, and then deploy greater investment in strategic marketing under this national brand umbrella.
A national brand would leverage the best of the existing “Made in Taiwan” brand values, weave in “Made of Taiwan” messaging and align this with “Come to Taiwan,” providing clear and unequivocal brand attributes to definitively position Taiwan abroad.
In carefully crafting a united country vision, Taiwan has an opportunity to position itself in similar fashion to Switzerland. The comparisons are compelling to consider.
Switzerland has built a respected global brand on the concept of luxury premium products, including chocolate, watches and precision manufacturing.
In similar fashion, Taiwan can leverage its globally recognized electronic manufacturing prowess and channel these prestigious brand attributes into other high-value niches.
Beyond similarities to Switzerland of neutrality, freedom and transparency, the novelty and authenticity of Taiwan will give rise to a new exposure of indigenous brands that will enter the consciousness of discerning offshore consumers.
Marques of quality and trust can also be firmly tied to Brand Taiwan if manufacturers can continue to maintain, improve, demonstrate and promote messages of premium production and ethical values.
Brand Taiwan must crystallize a clear vision of where the country’s future stories lie. It must embrace being loud and proud — traits normally shunned by the gentle people of Formosa. The brazenness of modern social media and its self-absorbed flavor of promotion are a necessary evil to drive greater economic prosperity. Celebrate the clever. Indelibly connect the country’s name to the artisans of the island and the technologists who are reshaping the world beyond the Taiwan Strait.
There are many more stories that the country is yet to nurture and expose internationally.Taiwan’s unique flora and fauna make for a tourism marvel that most of the world is yet to experience. Its location and horticultural expertise can feed the elite in body and mind.
Anyone who has ever taken a bite of the Emerald Green Taiwan Jujube fruit will acknowledge its export potential. This southern delicacy deserves to be to Taiwan what the kiwifruit is to New Zealand. Let us embrace our marketers, package the super-food qualities of the Taiwan Green Jujube (Kaohsiung No. 2 Cherish) with its first-class crispy crunch and take it to the world. The jujube can be served segmented and chilled to business-class passengers of leading global airlines, carrying with it a carefully crafted brand story celebrating its homeland.
There is also the single plantation cocoa reared in the cacao trees of Pingtung, then painstakingly crafted from bean to bar into award-winning chocolates that extract premium prices. These are the future stories to shout out as Taiwan’s voice matures.
Taiwan can promote the mindfulness gains of therapy vacations to the nation’s hot springs and national parks that showcase the beauty of the island.
Further demonstrating its natural storylines, fresh initiatives to incentivize major film productions to shoot in Taiwan are being driven by the Ministry of Culture. This positive step could showcase more of Taiwan’s sheer beauty to a voracious content-consuming world.
In addition, a new wave of animation and film production companies is being cultivated with co-investment to drive greater local onshore content production.
These stories must align with a carefully considered national positioning for Taiwan that binds together the rural and the rustic with the cutting edge innovation and the country’s visual beauty. These traits must fuse together as more than a national campaign, but be a vision for the country’s production sector to align behind.
The cost of small-scale, sporadic efforts or misaligned promotional budgets is not just in the wasted resources, but in missed opportunities that allow other nations to fill gaps. In this next decade from 2020, local marketing expertise must be nurtured, mentored and celebrated alongside Taiwan’s technology talents.
Nation branding has moved beyond mere sloganeering to strong salesmanship and confident communications. So it is vital that Taiwan can advance a coherent image and a shared sense of purpose in its storytelling. Sourcing and deploying sufficient marketing capability to guide government and corralling resources will be critical in positioning Taiwan.
There is much more to be done tactically and proactively as well. For instance, let us take virtual reality to the world with a homegrown content-centric Kaohsiung Karnival, perhaps better named “WanLove” (referencing Bob Marley’s One Love), in the spirit of that city’s new mayor.
It could be a festival that tours the globe with a month in each city, showcasing Taiwan’s top creative immersive content alongside the world’s best, displayed on the finest hardware from Taiwan.
Refreshing the national talent pool is vital, but luring start-up companies to relocate and export from Taiwan is a highly competitive business. Taiwanese subsidies available to inbound businesses with global potential are generally in place, but initiatives to communicate these directly to prospective offshore founders must be better undertaken.
English is the language of business for many potential markets, therefore the value of quality translation and a refresh of international-quality packaging of our promotional material is a vital first step forward.
The exciting challenge ahead for Taiwan is to deliver storytelling that connects the passion that comes from “the heart of Asia” to the soul of its business expertise. The substantiation brings together the rich natural resources, diverse creative talents and high-tuned production abilities that allow this country to already stand atop the world in many fields.
Communicating stories in this way will ensure that the world not only hears Taiwan’s voice, but feels an empathy and a connection to collectively buy what this country has to sell.
Michael Gregg has traveled from New Zealand to establish a boutique virtual reality experience studio in Kaohsiung and to open the PROJECTRR XR Center specialist technology incubator in Taipei. He has a 30-year career spanning strategic marketing and technology, and has worked in immersive tech since 2016.
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