Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City

Mei-Ting Lin1, Po-Hsien Lin2, and Jun-Liang Chen2

1 Department of Commercial Design, Hsing Wu University, Taiwan [email protected] 2 Graduate School of Creative Industry Design, National Taiwan University of Art, Taiwan [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract. After holding 2011 Design at the Edges in Taipei, the global design thinking and styles have entered into Taiwan; design have improved the stan- dards of industries, creative thinking, design capabilities, talents training and living environment, changed multiple levels in Taiwan society, and the design atmosphere in the cities thus enhanced both the people and the knowledge. Therefore to manage the city by design and to improve the people's quality are important factors how Taipei City won the bid to hold 2016 World Design Cap- ital on November 19th, 2013. This study attempted to understand how Eslite Group contributes and influences the city through document analysis of relevant published documents, and realized that the development of Eslite Group may be divided into three stages. First stage is "chain bookstore brand competition pe- riod"; second stage, "publication platform development period"; and third stage, "ambience development period". Through the three stages, Eslite Group devel- oped the initial business philosophy: culture, art, creativity and life. First off, it provides consumers with good shopping services and the comfortable spaces for free reading; next, it provides online digital platform and publish design publications, virtually improved the consumers' aesthetics quality; in recent years, it incorporates new stores with local aesthetics, both the indoor and out- door spaces provide consumers with great ambience and experiences. Over the past 24 years, Eslite Group 's services have invisibly improved the people's quality and taste; a "bookstore", although a commercial space, is also a carrier of culture and knowledge as well as an important symbol of the people's taste of life, which is able to influence the life styles and knowledge development. Es- lite Group has successfully improved the people's taste and influenced the de- velopment and design value of the city.

Keywords: Innovation, Taipei City, Eslite Group.

1 Introduction

A desirable city is where economy, society, culture and environment develop coor- dinately, which provides good living environment, satisfies material and spiritual needs in life, and where suitable for human to work, live and reside. Speaking of

P.L.P. Rau (Ed.): CCD/HCII 2014, LNCS 8528, pp. 650–659, 2014. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City 651

"globalization" and "glocalization", Taipei is the center of Taiwan's knowledge circle, the publishing center of "Traditional Chinese", and the city of many colleges and universities which produced great talents and works. If we say the "local specialties" or "local attractions" are Taipei 101, Shilin Nightmarket, National Palace Museum, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall or the Presidential Office completed in the Japanese era, what continuously improve the city's quality and culture is nothing else but Eslite Bookstore [11]. Eslite Bookstore has created many First in Taiwan over the past 24 years: the first 24-hour bookstore, the first Asia's Best bookstore, the first bookstore that contacts with local readers with diverse store types, and the first company of the cultural and creative service category listed in the "Top 100 Taiwanese Brands" by the MOEA. In order to discuss whether the group has provided critical influences for Taipei City to earn the bid of 2016 World Design Capital, this study analyzed and compiled the past documents related to Eslite Group through document analysis me- thods, and discuss how it influenced the development of the city and how it improved the quality and culture of the city.

2 The Development of Design and Bookstore

The development of global economic trends follow the design, thus the terms of aes- thetic economy and creative economy were created. As Taipei was officially ap- proved for 2016 World Design in November 2013, "Adaptive City" is the central focus of Taipei City Government on the city development, striving to shape Taipei City with unique city design while performing the researches and application of "De- sign Evolution and City Upgrade" in the physical urban spaces and virtual informa- tion spaces in the digital era of intellectual environment. In the past decade, the City Government has continued to strengthen the basic infrastructure required for the de- velopment of the design industry, including the establishment of industrial parks, creative tribes, industrial counseling services, cultural and creative design exhibitions and forum activities and so on, with which Taipei has gradually developed into a city full of features and quality. For the people, the development of culture and the eleva- tion of art are the factors to improve the taste of life, however, the most direct factors come from different directions; following the influences of education, the develop- ment of bookstores is also critical. Bookstores may improve the urban quality and culture while providing knowledge.

2.1 Design Development in Taiwan

"Culture" is a lifestyle, design is a taste of life, and "creativity" is a kind of recogni- tion through sensations [1]. Today, the nation, cities, industries and the people are facing the impact of "economic globalization", thus, how to incorporate culture into crative design and form urman characteristics by "design localization" to confront the challenge of "market globalization" are the inital issues when we develop future cul- tural and creative industry and improve the city competitiveness by design [2]. 652 M.-T. Lin, P.-H. Lin, and J.-L. Chen

In the past, the development of Taiwan design was influenced by many aspects in- cluding policies, education, technology, society and foreign design thinking. Before 1961, Taiwan has gone through the Japanese era and the entering of national govern- ment, the products focused more on the functionality and were mostly for daily uses, practicality was the highest basic principles, and the industries were of OEM stage. Between 1961 to 1981, the industries and economy of Taiwan started to take off, with the support of China Productivity Center, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Min- istry of Education, Professor Koike Shinji (pioneer of Japanese industry) and Oochi Hiroshi gave speeches in Taiwan, injected new concepts of industrial design into do- mestic industries and deeply influenced the presentation of design style back then. With all kinds of effort, Taiwan earned a place in the international economy as one of the "Four Asian Tigers"; with the rapid changes of the entire economic environment, the industries were in great need of designers, thus facilitated the establishment of design education. From 1981 to 1991, the government has realized the importance of design for the national competitiveness, therefore Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic, planned and pushed the three five-year projects in order to transform design industry: the first five-year project from 1989 to 1994 focused on the industrial transformation, which triggered the trend of commercial design; commer- cial design and visual design were then gradually separated from fine art and became independent professional fields; design and industrial development had entered the stage of ODM in this ten years. The second five-year project took place from 1995 to 1999, focused on fully improving the product design capabilities. Together with the rise of digital media and internet, the thinking of new media art was introduced to design, personalized and fashion digital design had become the mainstream. The third five-year project started from 1999 and ended in 2004, together with the popular thoughts of "design leads competitiveness", design differentiation and design endem- ism has promoted the cultural and creative industry. Also in 2002, the government promoted the "Challenge 2008－National Development Plan", which was to realize "Global vision, Taiwan realization" with "people-oriented sustainable development" and "global connection, local actions" as strategies. It is obvious that "People + Cul- ture + Feelings + Sustainability + Creativity=Design" had become the most important nature of Taiwanese design, and the industries had also officially entered the OBM stage [4].

2.2 Development of Chain Bookstores in Taiwan The development of large bookstores in Taiwan started with the establishment of "Senseio Bookstore" in 1960; it started the first transformation trend of Taiwan bookstores for the cultural industry, and was also the first chain bookstore that incor- porated POS logistics system (Fig. 1). In 1980s, "Kinstone Cultural Square" appeared and brought the bookstore industry the first revolution from traditional to modern operations (Fig. 2); in 1990s, "Eslite Bookstore" led the second revolution of books- tore industry, while other bookstores focused on adding more branches, it made its name by the artistic book selection and spatial ambience (Fig. 3). Since the establish- ment in 1989, "Eslite Bookstore" has opened 40 branches in Taiwan and has become Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City 653 the symbol of Taiwan bookstores; 19 of the 40 bookstores are located in Taipei City, and the bookstores contact with local readers with different spatial design and opera- tional content which fully represent the local customs and culture of each town. With the influence of economic development, the theories of experiential marketing and experiential economic times emphasize that the consumer market wants more expe- riential cultural production in addition to the traditional industrial production. As for the selection process at the consumers, besides the rational function-oriented choices, the irrational shopping demand has become another focus [10]. Currently, Eslite ranks number one for the brand memory among Taiwan chain bookstores, followed by Kingstone. One of the major reasons is that Eslite Group established the first 24-hour bookstore on Dunhua South Road, Taipei, in 1999; in addition to the year-round ser- vices, it also provides the existence value of the people and the spaces as you may meet college professors, urban yuppies, movie stars, famous writers and people from different fields. Eslite Group is very influential to this city, as it was elected by the "Time" magazine in 2004 as the "Asia's Best Bookstore", and listed in the "Top 100 Taiwanese Brands" of the cultural and creative service category by the MOEA.

Fig. 1. Sen- Fig. 2. Kingstone Flagship Fig. 3. Eslite Bookstore Source: seio Books- Store at Zhonghe Yuanhuan http://mbainlife.blogspot.tw/2011/05/blog tore Source: Source: http://www.flickr.com/ -post_05.html http://blog.ud photos/verybooks/5660352985/ n.com/jason0 80/2423389

3 Research and Analysis Related to Eslite Group

Since 1989, Eslite has continued to adjust its brand positioning and business practices with the new ideas and the market changes. With the continued correction of market- ing trends, activity design, spatial furnishings and brand positioning, Eslite has be- come a well-known successful brand and a major research subject. Previous studies about Eslite Group include brand positioning, business strategies, marketing strate- gies, activity design analysis and experience analysis on consumer point of view, from which we can understand how Eslite Bookstore continued to improve the quality and culture of the city within the past 25 years. 654 M.-T. Lin, P.-H. Lin, and J.-L. Chen

By searching "Eslite" as the title keyword on National Dissertations and Theses Website, we found 52 related researches about Eslite from 1997 to 2012; the research topics and results of each period are analyzed as follows.

3.1 Research and Analysis of Relevant Papers of Each Period

Here is the abstract analysis of the 52 papers, arranged by years: 2012－10 papers published. 7 of the 10 papers mentioned the ambience designed by Eslite, which improves the emotion and satisfaction of the consumers; 1 suggested that the innovative services and interface upgrade may generate positive critics of the consumers; 1 suggested that the consumers show more loyalty when the book pub- lishing industry perform its social responsibilities; and 1 discussed how the brand culture and product awareness influence consumers' choices of bookstores. 2011－1 paper published. The thesis is named "Marketing models of Taiwanese galleries for contemporary art－with Big Future Gallery, InSian Gallery and Eslite Gallery as examples"; as it is a topic research about three different galleries, it was not able to provide sufficient information about Eslite Bookstore. 2010－5 papers published. 2 of the 5 papers mentioned that Eslite Group provides more services to the consumers by multiple platforms, which improved the value and services and also set the differences from other bookstores; 1 discussed how Eslite outsourced art and culture activities to bring people closer to the brand and indirectly enhanced the brand awareness; 1 discussed about enterprise successors with Eslite as an example because it incorporated femininity by female succession; and the last one is about consumers' preference value for Eslite, where the spatial design and ambience improved the consumer preference for the bookstore, and created the impression of "enrich oneself", "utopia", "aesthetic appreciation", "life application", "sense of be- longing", "careful management", "relaxation" and "comfort". 2009－4 papers published. 2 of the papers researched the positive influences of store at-mosphere, emotional experience and store image; 1 analyzed how Facebook promotes the store image and activities to the consumers; 1 discussed how Eslite Bookstore influenced the urban fable, which is highly connective with this study, however, this paper merely analyzed the coexistence of contemporary Eslite and the city and focus less on the transformation and services of Eslite in different periods and how it influenced the urban development. 2008－6 papers published. 1 analyzed Esliste's plane advertisements and suggested that the advertising semantics improve the emotional brand connection and signific- ance construction; 1 analyzed how the art and cultural activities help to influence the consumer experience and produce economic benefits; 1 studied the new bookstore services－how Eslite targets the customers on top of the pyramid and intellectual elite, combines literature and art, promotes the in-store spaces and outdoor gardens, and presents special brand uniqueness helps to improve the brand awareness; 1 ana- lyzed Eslite's market positioning－in addition to the cultural innovation, Eslite Group also adopted the "dynamic" market positioning strategy to keep upgrading the brand effectively; 1 discussed how successful Eslite incorporates branches into local Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City 655 features within different era and urban lifestyle, with Taichung Eslite Bookstore as the analysis sample; and 1 discussed how Eslite differentiate its compound spaces and other bookstores and successfully attracts consumers. 2007－7 papers published. 3 of the 7 papers researched the experiential marketing －the spaces designed by Eslite provides consumers opportunities to freely expe- rience the products, which attracts consumers to stay in the stores for a longer period of time, thus successfully promotes the consuming willingness, improves the brand recognition and shortens the distance with consumers; 1 discussed the core compe- tence of businesses－with its core competences of learning by doing, information integration and innovation, Eslite Group succeeded to elevate the competitiveness of the bookstore; 1 discussed how the mall value and strategies bring brand awareness and how Eslite Group identified and established its market positioning through oppor- tunities; 1 compared the online information and services of Eslite Bookstore and Cave Bookstore; and 1 discussed contemporary plane media, and researched the cultural significances generated from book reviews. 2006－2 papers published. 1 analyzed the Eslite's《Eslite Reading》 and 《 Es- lite Reader》 magazines, by which Eslite successfully shaped its brand culture, taste, and lifestyle; 1 analyzed how the store ambience, consumer emotion and experiential value influence behavioral intention, and suggested that the consumers are only look- ing for tangible goods or intangible services but also a unique and intoxicating expe- riential feeling. 2005－5 papers published. 1 discussed Eslite's 《 Eslite Reader》 magazine and how Eslite Group improve the bookstore brand and visual image by the plane plane propaganda publications; 1 was about the key success factors of the chain bookstore (Eslite Group) including customer service, logistics systems, branch intensity, complete range of books and products, and the construction of information system; 1 discussed how the train bookstore IMC application influences the customer loyalty－ Eslite enhances its customer loyalty through integrated marketing; 1 discussed and analyzed the factors of retention willingness and turnover intention through em- ployees of Eslite Bookstore－this is not discussed in this study because it is not a suitable sample; the last one was an analysis about eBooks Online Bookstore but was mistakenly input as Eslite, thus it is also not discussed in the analysis sample of this study. 2004－2 papers published. 1 discussed the influences of Eslite's 《 Eslite Reader》 magazine via book reviews; another one discussed the organizational culture of Eslite Group that shaped the image and future of the bookstore, and analyzed the ideas of the founder, the leadership of the bookstore manager, locations, customer resources, con- suming habits and the spatial design. 2003－2 papers published. The two papers were mainly discussing "experiential marketing" through cross-sample analysis of Kingstone, Eslite and PageOne, and the analysis results emphasized the professional niche of the bookstores and the differ- ences of the brands in marketing capabilities.

656 M.-T. Lin, P.-H. Lin, and J.-L. Chen

2002－3 papers published。1 discussed the crowd and spatial interpretation of Es- lite bookstores in the metropolitan areas in Taiwan－the spatial design, minority and elite style, together with its marketing methods, Eslite Group has not only attracted consumers but also urged scholars into researching this brand－it also suggested that Eslite Group's title of "Cultural Landmark" is leading the society towards refinement; 1 discussed the phenomenon of industrial chain stores and their strategies, respective- ly studied Eslite Group and Kingstone as research samples; and 1 discussed the chain bookstore positioning and satisfaction, also with Eslite Group and Kingstone as re- search samples.

Fig. 4. Published issues with “Eslite” as the topic in each year (organized for the study)

Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City 657

2000－1 paper published. The paper named "Read Eslite: the Spatial Cultural Style of the Eslite Bookstore in Globalization" analyzed the brand through different atmos- pheric features of the spatial activities. 1999－2 papers published. 1 is a spatial research on the cultural consumption and 1 is related to the business strategies of Kingstone and Eslite. 1998－1 paper published. The paper investigated the spatial planning of chain bookstores by analyzing King- stone and Eslite . 1997－1 paper published. The paper analyzed and researched the formation factors and forms of Eslite Bookstore spaces. The thesis development in each period is shown in Fig. 4.

3.2 Summary

"Build a corner suitable for reading" is the primitive mind set forth by Ruixian Chen, Eslite's designer, for creating Eslite bookstores in every corner around the country. Under such a premise, Chen holds on to two principles - "simplicity" and "blanking", and infuses the traditional Chinese gardening spirit - "landscape reflection", by con- sciously inducing the outside landscape into the limited indoor space, so as to magni- fy the visual depth and width, and shape up Eslite's distinguished humane, cultural sense of quality [12]. Chen uses interior design to build the bookstore into a reading and living museum, so that bookstore shopping is no longer merely an act of pur- chase; instead, it has become a cultural, elegant living attitude. The results of past researches reveal that the stylish images and spacical atmospheres shaped up by Eslite are the key elements soliciting consumers[5], [6]. Eslite's annual revenue of NT$9.8 billion tells the colossal number of visitors every year. This consumer trend will cer- tainly raise the citizens' aesthetic quality in daily life. Through the remarkable de- signs, Eslite has successfully created a humane and aesthetic ambience that manifests the value of design. After an inductive analysis of the above research papers published in various times, it is interesting to note that not until 8 years after Eslite was established in 1989 was there a researcher who initiated the study of Eslite in 1997. Obviously, Eslite had showed its branding muscle by then. There were 52 papers about Eslite published between 1997 and 2012, which can be divided into three stages. The first stage is from 1997 to 2003, defined as the "chain bookstore brand competition period", and two of the most competitive bookstores - Kingstone and Eslite - are taken for cross analysis, with focuses on the bookstore space design and business strategy. The second stage is from 2004 to 2008, defined as the "publication platform development period", and the "Reading" magazine and "Love Reading" magazine are taken as the study objects to analyze the digital service platform provided by Eslite. By way of publication of magazines, Eslite has created its brand image and boosted its visibility. The major research topics in this period are about analyses of the magazines, Eslite marketing strategy of space experiencing, as well as the influence of multiple plat- forms provision on consumer behaviors. The third stage is from 2009 to 2012, defined as the "ambient atmosphere development period", with focuses on the creation of bookstore atmosphere that influences the emotions in the bookstore, and the major 658 M.-T. Lin, P.-H. Lin, and J.-L. Chen research topics cover the store atmospheres, sensational experiencing, innovative services, etc. From the above three stages of Eslite studies, we can take an insight into Eslite's business operations and strategies in various periods of time in the past 24 years. In the very beginning, Eslite broke away from the traditional way of running a bookstore by presenting consumers open bookshelves with well organized and categorized book display. It adapts its strategies to the market demands by offering various services. Mr. Qingyou Wu, the founder of Eslite, has taken the ideas of humanity, culture, innova- tion and living as the core business principles, and set forth distinguished marketing products in various periods of time. For the image, Eslite publishes "Reading" and "Love Reading" magazines that combines literature and aesthetics to meet the con- sumers and provide information about literature related events; for the service, it pro- vides random queries of books, shopping mechanism, and digital online shopping platform, not only offering books but also music products, living goods as well as cultural innovation products; for the space, it presents a clean and neat display, a space design infused into the local environment, a cozy and comfortable reading am- bience, and even an extension to the outdoor space linkage, as well as the under- ground shopping street of the its own brand. "Eslite" has become a symbol of cultural innovation branding, and distinguished itself as the far largest bookstore in Taiwan. In 2012, there are 10 research papers about Eslite, the largest quantity ever. As a result, for academic researches, "Eslite" is always easily taken as a study object. The influ- ence Eslite has made on the public in the past 24 years can hardly be ignored.

4 Conclusions

Various studies have revealed that Eslite not only provides book queries and purchas- es, but also constantly stretches into the consumer fields of food, clothing, living, transport, education and entertainment, quietly implanting its services and images into the consumers' minds. Eslite bookstore is a commercial space and a carrier of culture and knowledge as well. It is significantly different from traditional bookstores in the space design, events, displays and services. Eslite's philosophy is to promote reading, stimulate innovation, root culture, and raise spirit. It constantly takes in local features and exerts international visions for cultural development, and builds its exquisite and diversified quality into an influential brand that symbolizes culture and innovation. It builds Eslite bookstores, Eslite galleries, Eslite Internet business, Eslite logistics, and Eslite living that includes catering and traveling and related supplies, clothing, and living goods. Eslite manifests diversified services that integrate culture and reading, innovative display and sales, music and movies, as well as greenery and culture enriched hotels. In November 2013, the City of Taipei was qualified as a "Year 2016 Design City of the World". As an Expedient City, Taipei means a city of economic, social, cultural and environmental development in a harmonious coordination, offering a good living environment that satisfies the material and spiritual demands of everyday living, and is appropriate for human work, living and inhabitance. "Eslite" is an important Designing “Innovation” into Eslite Group for Taipei City 659 branding of Taipei in the past 24 years, which has provided the city and the citizens with various innovations for growth, including the free book reading, music search, gift shopping, and even a venue for holiday hangouts and lovers dating, all of which have unwittingly infused humanity, art and innovation into the city and the life of its people. This research has used the literature analysis method with the doctoral disser- tations and master's theses published in the past to explore Eslite's development histo- ry and observe how it has influenced the quality of the city and its citizens. The result has concluded that Eslite has different business strategies in the aforementioned three stages, with each one having appropriate services or publications specifically suitable for that period of time, leading the citizens to the growth of knowledge. Its design of bookstore environment is local culture oriented to offer a comfortable knowledge acquisition environment for the locals, and indirectly bringing more elegant life styles to the people, helping the city to develop, and appreciating the value of city design.

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