Creative Ventures and Enterprise - Essay Example

Introduction: Creativity has always been a part of human nature. The world we see today is entirely, the result of human creativity. Technology, lifestyle, the inventions, communication, healthcare, entertainment etc are some of the areas where human creativity and genius have played a major part. Had there not been creativity associated with the human mind, we would still be living as animals in caves without any culture to speak of. Culture too, has developed in part to the creativity of our race and in a way is related to each other. Things have progressed to such an extent that many countries in the now include creative industries as a part of their economy. This report is about my aims and aspiration as a product designer to understand all the areas of this industry including creativity, business and administration. My basic areas of interests are in product designing along with branding and merchandising. This will make me a part of the creative industry. The focus of this paper will be on product designing with particular reference consumer cultures in Taiwan, Russia, US and the UK. All other areas related to the creative industry will also be covered. It is my intention to work in Taiwan in a government department and initial steps in the form of a scholarship has already been applied for. Scope: The main scope of this paper is to study all aspects of the creative industry with specific focus on product design in Taiwan. After completion of this work it is hoped that I will get sufficient information to get me started on my intended career as a product designer. Creative Industry: Creative industry can be defined as "those industries that are based on individual creativity, skill and talent. They are also those that have the potential to create wealth and jobs through developing intellectual property." (Creative Industries: The Definition of the Creative Industries. 2007). From this it is clear that creativity, skill and talent that can create wealth and jobs is what differentiates it from other areas of business. Since creativity is involved, the question of intellectual property rights is also raised here. Creativity is a very broad term and hence what constitute a creative industry also varies. For example, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport of the UK Government groups creative industries under predetermined areas of business. In other words, advertising, designing, film making, performing arts, publishing, software etc are considered to be a part of creative industries. The UK was the first country in the world to recognise the existence of such industries and classify them as such. "The UK was the first, in 1997, to systematically promote the creative industries. Australia and New Zealand followed shortly afterwards." (Creative Industries in Hong Kong: Introduction. 2002). Growth of Creative Industries: This industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. All areas that are considered to be creative had existed long before the concept of creative industries came into existence. But the potential of each of these sectors taken separately gave rise to classify them as creative and efforts for growth as a collective entity has now begun. The United Nations is also looking at this industry seriously as a means of economic development of under developed and developing countries. Being such a vast area, exact current figures are difficult to estimate. But according to UNCTAD, total value of creative industries world wide stood at 225 billion USD in 2005 fro 234 billion USD in 1996. This is an average growth of 8.7% making it one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. "Creative industries have emerged as one of the world's most dynamic economic sectors, offering vast opportunities for cultural, social and economic development. International trade in creative goods and services surged to US$445.2 billion in 2005 from US$234.8 billion in 1996, according to preliminary UNCTAD figures." (Creative Industries Emerge as Key Driver of Economic Growth with Trade Nearly Doubling in Decade. 2008). Current estimate of the value of this industry is nearly 3.4 trillion dollars and this figure is expected to be 6 trillion by 2020. "Worldwide, the creative industries are growing faster than other economic sectors, reflecting the changes in today's wealth-generating economies." (Creative Industries: Creative Industries in Australia and the World. 2007). This will give an indication as to the potential of this industry and its benefits to the economy of a country. Technology and creative industries: One of the major factors for the explosive growth of this industry the availability of technology, especially the internet. Since creativity, at least in the initial stages involves only ideas, communication of such ideas became easy due to the availability of the channels like the internet. Broadband has also helped because transfer of large volumes of data became possible. This, coupled with opening up of economies many countries through globalization has resulted in open communication between the different players in the creative field. A person sitting in USA can request a company in India to create gaming software. All details including the final product and payment can be exchanged through the internet. Availability of graphic software has also helped in easing creativity. Art can now be created and modified using software. Spectacular special effects for movies and advertisements that once cost a lot of money and involved people and time can now be achieved with very little resources. Products can be designed, viewed and approved visually on the computer. "The rapid and sometimes bewildering growth of creative industries linked to digital technology has been ascribed to two phenomena: the integration of the world economy in which the sharing of creative ideas and processes becomes easier and the global growth in disposable income." (Wilson and Henderson 2005). Product design and packaging: Product design and packaging is a complicated process. Whatever the features and qualities of a product, people have to notice and appreciate it for the product to be sold. In effect a product has to be visually appealing to the customer. Of course different people will appreciate a particular design differently depending upon their culture and gender. The same rules apply for product packaging. Packaging is the first thing that a customer will see, if it is a packaged product. "When we talk of a product being attractive we rarely refer to its sound, feel or smell. This is a striking reminder that human perception is dominated by vision and that product style is usually an abbreviation for visual style." (Baxter 1995, P. 32). Apart from design, the colour of the product is also of importance. For example, products intended at children will tend to have bright colours. Some cultures have a special affinity or objection to certain colours. Such factors should also be taken into consideration. Packaging and product design will have to be given serious consideration as a part of the creative industry. Customer perception and behaviour: Since creativity is relative to the eyes of the beholder, care must be taken to see that design is done in accordance with the culture where the product is marketed. This is generally relevant only in the case of international marketing. This is apart from the fact that customers in the same market have different behaviours with regard to age, gender, social status etc. "Each culture contains "sub-cultures" - groups of people with share values. Sub-cultures can include nationalities, religions, racial groups, or groups of people sharing the same geographical location. Sometimes a sub-culture will create a substantial and distinctive market segment of its own." (Buyer Behaviour - Cultural Factors). International difference in behaviour is more difficult to study and implement. In developing countries, such behaviour is based on the behaviour of the community more than thorough advertisements and promotions. Another factor for this might be that literacy will be low in such countries. "To sum up, when we adopt a psychological approach to customer behaviour in the developing world, we see that it is community-oriented rather than inner-directed." (Carr and Schumaker 1996, P. 144). The consumer behaviour in advanced economies is more complicated. For example, factors affecting consumer behaviour in USA are: Whether the product is manufactured in the country The Brand Quality Long time usage or nostalgia National brands over store brands (For example, brands marketed by Wal-Mart in their own name) Cost Recommendations from peers "American consumers are loyal to national brands of food, beverage and consumer products." (Brand Loyalty high among American Consumers. 2008). Being culturally similar, there is not much of a difference between the US and UK consumers. But Russia has distinct consumer groups that can be studied for marketing products. In the early days when the country opened its markets, consumer behaviour remained traditional and many international players found it difficult to operate there. But recent trends have shown the following classification among consumers in the country. Innovators: There has been a steady rise in this category. Innovators simply mean that they are ready to try out new products. They are young, well off and buy more than average value of goods. Spontaneous: They are people who buy spontaneously. Men are more dominant in this category. Self realised: They are mature consumers. They are quite traditional in nature, but their buying potential is high. They rely on established quality products. Settled: Traditional buyers preferring existing brands to new or novel products Traditionalists: Comparatively low buying with traditional attitudes. Thrifty: Older people who are very money conscious. Russians especially traditionalists have an affinity towards Russian made products though international brands have become popular there. Russian brands are also cheaper in comparison to imported ones. "Consumer goods manufacturers, distributors and advertisers have recently started showing increasing interest in the structure of the Russian consumer market and segmentation based on consumption habits and styles rather than traditional demographic gender-and-age and income characteristics". (Seven primary consumption styles, Consumer behaviour in Russia: Highlights on Consumer Segments, Brand Perception, Advertising, and Channels). Gender perceptions: As I am more interested in the behaviour of women customers, a brief look at gender perceptions is also given here. The gender schema theory is quite relevant in this context. Schema in a psychological context means "an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world." (8 Results for: Schema. 2008). To put it in simple terms the theory states that children right from the time when they are able to understand gender differences learn and imbibe notions about how they should behave in gender terms. For example boys will play with guns while girls will play with boys. The nursing profession is associated with women and that doctors are men. Even when grown up certain notions like women like to cook while men don't are still imprinted on their minds. This notion of how a person of a gender behaves will affect consumer patterns also. "Being male is associated with specific behaviours (gardening), specific roles (homemaker), specific occupations (elementary school teacher), and specific traits (nurturance). (Golombok and Fivush 1994, P. 100). Business Knowledge: Apart from design knowledge and consumer psychology, it is imperative that a person who is looking seriously at this industry should have certain business skills also. Skills such as accounting, marketing, administration, human resources, audit etc is valuable. This is because in spite of being in a creative field, it is also a business and hence such skills are essential for long time survival in the industry. Another important factor to remember is that creative industry is closely related to intellectual property rights. Any person, especially those in the creative field should respect this fact. It should be remembered that stealing such IPR's is not only unethical but counter productive. Some one can do the same thing to our creations too. Creative industries in Taiwan: A look at the creative industry in Taiwan is warranted here because I have applied for a scholarship to work a government department in that country as a product designer. The country appears to be a very creative economy. Focus on creative industry started only in 2002 through the initiative of "The developmental project of Cultural & Creative Industries". But as seen from the graph given below focus on this sector seems to have paid off. Figure 1:Sales volume of Taiwan's Cultural & Creative Industries from 2003 to 2005 (In NTD$ billions). (Taiwan Culture & Creative Industry. Cultural & Creative Industries in Taiwan. 2007). Growth rate is very high at 7.5% per annum. "Among Cultural & Creative Industries, crafts, radio & TV, publishing, architectural design, advertising, designing, and digital entertainment sectors have higher added value, and these sectors have a lot potential in Taiwan." (Taiwan Culture & Creative Industry. Cultural & Creative Industries in Taiwan. 2007). Since product design is among the items mentioned above it seems that spending time in that country will be worthwhile. A break-up of the different sectors that make up the Taiwanese cultural industry is also given below. It can be seen that the design industry looks very promising here. 2005 Number of companies Sales volume Added value Number of employees Visual art 3,086 (-1.12%) 5,287,954 (0.13%) 3,807,327 (0.13%) N/A Music and performing art 1,019 (16.86%) 6,616,260 (17.96%) 4,565,219 (17.96%) N/A Crafts 10,892 (2.02%) 67,468,353 (1.03%) 38,456,961 (1.03%) N/A Exhibition and performing arts facilities 273 (13.75%) 2,696,308 (30.31%) 1,860,453 (30.31%) N/A Movie 648 (-1.67%) 13,078,510 (-0.34%) 6,539,255 (-0.34%) 4,694 (-19.99%) Radio & TV 1,743 (-1.08%) 100,931,894 (4.01%) 50,465,947 (4.01%) 30,669 (-3.66%) Publishing 3,581 (5.76%) 71,583,504 (-1.83%) 42,950,102 (-1.83%) 40,554 (3.97%) Architectural design 8,249 (-0.54%) 81,237,538 (10.20%) 61,740,529 (10.20%) 14,246 (5.37%) Advertising 11,766 (5.29%) 141,125,342 (0.51%) 42,337,603 (0.51%) 46,158 (9.48%) Design 2,096 (8.88%) 50,257,096 (4.19%) 35,682,538 (4.19%) 19,939 (16.2%) Digital entertainment 8,315 (4.62%) 21,764,800 (8.96%) 15,017,712 (8.96%) 34,128 (4.62%) Creative life 74 (39.62%) 19,019,690 (66.97%) 5,049,450 (52.41%) 5,296 (47.56%) Total 51,742 (3.25%) 581,067,249 (2.6%) 308,473,095 (4.39%) 195,684 (5.34%) (Value in NTD$ 1000's) (Taiwan Culture & Creative Industry. Cultural & Creative Industries in Taiwan. 2007). Moreover, if the number of awards for design especially in consumer electronics sector are any indication, designing of products in that country is worthwhile enough to understand in detail. Taiwan, in earlier days was known for its cheap and mass produced goods. But it is no longer the scenario that exists today. They have successfully begun an earnest attempt to compete with other Asian giants like Japan and South Korea. "Results achieved in international design competitions by Taiwanese companies such as BenQ, Asus, Qisda, Tatung and design studios such as Duck Image and Nova Design account for this fact." (Asia's Creative Heart is Beating in Taiwan. 2008). Conclusion: A broad look at most of the issues regarding the creative industries have been made here. Staying on in Taiwan if possible for a period of at least two years would be extremely beneficial. By this time I would have got a relatively good picture of how the Taiwanese go about their creative capabilities. The learning outcome that I will get from such an association will stand me in good stead elsewhere also. It has become clear that this sector has a bright future. As mentioned earlier it is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. It does not require too much capital to enter into the field at least in a small way. Being creative does not cost money. This is also an area where a person can start in a small way. In the future after my stint in Taiwan, I can get into the field on my own and try to grow into a big business unit slowly and steadily. Bibliography Asia's Creative Heart is Beating in Taiwan. (2008). [online]. reddot online. Last accessed 15 May 2008 at: http://en.red-dot.org/2678.html BAXTER, Mike (1995). Product Design: Practical Methods for the Systematic Development of New Products. [online]. CRC Press. P. 32. 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Last accessed 15 May 2008 at: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/schema Read More