Giant's Plans for World Domination

A Giant Branded Bike

Taiwan Today is featuring a lengthy article on Taiwan's Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which has positioned itself to become the dominant bicycle brand in East Asia.

The article provides a lengthy history of Giant, from OEM to worldwide brand. The most interesting details come at the latter half of the article, which provides some fantastic mid-management speak that sounds like it comes right out of a cheap MBA program.

My favorite comes from Giant spokesman, Jeffery Shiou:

Asked to comment on what makes Giant so unique, Sheu mentioned the company’s complete dedication, since the very beginning, to bicycles. Its goal has been to become a “total cycling solution provider,” Sheu noted.

Despite the management speak, the article provides several points for discussion regarding Giant, branding and positioning itself as a world leader.

Giant also adopted sports marketing techniques to make its quality products better known. “We started to sponsor cyclists in all kinds of international competitions,” said Sheu.

If these cyclists performed well, their cycling equipment and devices would receive widespread media coverage. “That was how foreign customers became familiar with Giant,” he said.

Giant also invited many professional cyclists to test its vehicles and offer tips for improvement. For instance, opinions from these experts helped Giant build its world-renowned carbon fiber bicycles.

So much of sports marketing has to do with selling a fantasy. People care about what the pros are using and hope they too can purchase some magic to become a better cyclist, which beats traditional training any day.

Putting a bike in the pro ranks instantly increases its value. Put one on the podium and the value skyrockets. The rush to carbon fiber bikes is not driven by the pros, but it is driven by the manufacturers who will see increased profit margins with carbon fiber and use the pros to sell bikes. Let's face it... professional racing is about selling products.

Moreover, the company was among the first bicycle brands to produce a line of models especially for females. “Women make up half of the population and their needs should not be ignored,” said Bonnie Tu, Giant’s chief financial officer.

In April 2008, the world’s first female bicycle retail store, which sells Giant bicycles made under its subsidiary brand name Liv, opened in Taipei.

But Giant is not only about selling bikes. More importantly, the leading bicycle brand is devoted to promoting cycling culture.

Giant's View Of Female Cyclists

I think I have made my view of the Liv/Giant campaign abundantly clear. Something I might like to add is that Giant's marketing strategy seems to be focusing on transforming the image of Giant domestically from the proletarian, affordable bike for the masses, to a prestige nameplate that seeks to convey the messages of status, which, in a society with a strong Confucian cultural influence, locates people on a grade-scale that defines social relationships in terms of superiority and inferiority. I think networks of guanxi clearly demonstrate the social function of status within Taiwanese society and how Taiwanese use prestige symbolism to traverse the cleavage between these relationships.

With Giant defining and articulating "cycling culture", backed by its overwhelming presence and close relations with the central government, Giant may have more influence over how cycling culture develops in Taiwan than any other social force. Giant plays a large role in determining which products will be available to the consumer through its ubiquitous Giant retail stores.

“But we are not doing all this to ask people to buy Giant products,” said Sheu. “We just want them to be aware of the benefits of cycling, experience the fun of it all and make it part of their life.”

The foundation may have had a little bit of luck on its side. Many more people in Taiwan have become aware in recent years of the importance of reducing carbon emissions, and bicycles provide a natural solution. Indeed, starting in 2007, more and more people have taken to using bicycles as a daily means of transportation.

The first sentence above should be taken with a grain of salt. They are a business, and businesses want to make money and sell their product. Giant wants to sell a product... they are out to expand the market and gain market share. In the positive side, a company with a presence like Giant provides the opportunity for other component manufacturers to build partnerships with Giant and build brand awareness.

In spite of its many accomplishments, Giant has no intention of resting on its laurels. The quest to become the best bicycle company in the world drives it ever forward.

My final thought on Giant is the fact that Giant, as both a manufacturer and retailer, has the ability to exploit its vast supply networks and political relationships to squeeze out the alternatives. I know several small and dedicated bike shops that are under increasing pressure from the lower price points available from Giant.

These small, independent stores have been the centers of local cycling culture on Taiwan for decades where cyclists could gather and build community. These little shops are poised to suffer from the "Walmartization" of Taiwan's cycling retailers. If Giant does succeed in driving out the local independent retailer, Taiwan's unique cycling culture will suffer an important loss and the choices will be greatly limited.

We need a strong system of locally based independent retailers in our communities and I would encourage everyone to support their local bike shop over the Giant retailer where our money goes back into the community.

Taiwan Cup Cancelled!!! Dreams Of Taiwan Cycling Festival Blown Away By Typhoon

Due to Typhoon Megi, organizers of the Taiwan Cup and Taiwan Bike Festival have cancelled the remainder of the events that were to be held in the lead-up and conclusion of the nation's most substantive event for putting Taiwanese cycling on the tourist map.

Torrential rains in the Suao area have already led to severe landslides that collapsed a section of roadway with 20 Chinese tourists missing.

The cancellation was a necessary and responsible step with the dangers posed by seasonal typhoons that pass Taiwan between early July and late October.

I am a bit disappointed that visiting cyclists will be unable to experience the beauty and joys of cycling Taiwan, such as those I try to highlight on this blog, but it was an inevitable development in the face of a seasonal storm.

I hope the organizers will use a little due diligence and schedule events such as these during periods of more reliable weather. This was simply careless planning that unnecessarily led to a huge waste of both public and private resources that could have been better allocated to support Taiwan's cycling infrastructure.

Live and learn.

Tough Old Bird Tackles Taiwan For Cancer

As I reported on here, Sue Greene, an athletically accomplished mother of three, will be riding 300 miles over Taiwan's mountainous terrain in the name of cancer research. link

The 51 year-old rider plans to complete the journey in 5 days, despite having just recovered from a serious crash.

The married mother-of-three said: “I’ve got a friend who is terminally ill. I have also lost a couple of friends to cancer and this opportunity came up to raise money for Clatterbridge.

“I started cycling first in Easter with Middleton’s cycling group in Ormskirk. Shortly after I thought I’d give this a go. I’ve done marathons and I thought, I’m going to have a go at doing this.”

But it was uncertain if the challenge would go ahead after she crashed into a road barrier at the start of the month. Despite falling off her bicycle, breaking her rib and collarbone, she is determined to complete the challenge.

Sue said: “My collarbone has knitted wrongly but it has knitted in a way that works. My rib just sorted itself out. I was livid that I had to have a few weeks off. It hasn’t put me off at all. I still really enjoy cycling.”

This calendar year I have seen several friends and their families come face to face with cancer and it is an ugly disease that robs us of parents, children, spouses, friends and loved ones. Fortunately, the people I know are all survivors or winning the battle. There are still so many who aren't so fortunate.

I would like to wish Ms. Greene good luck and I hope Taiwan's riders will join her on her journey.

Road Bikes With Disc Brakes Coming To A Future Near You?

I just came across this little article from Cycling News about the recent UCI ruling on disc brakes for cyclocross racing and its effect on the future of road bike braking systems.

Quote:

The rear disc mount puts more stress on the frame, requiring an strut between the stays to bolster the area.

The UCI's recent lifting of the ban on disc brakes in cyclo-cross has been widely heralded as a positive step forward for the sport, finally allowing a critical piece of equipment to advance past what is essentially decades-old technology. The move from rim to disc brakes has already changed the landscape for mountain biking and 'cross riders – especially racers – stand to make similar gains:

• Braking performance – both in terms of power and modulation – will improve dramatically, especially in adverse conditions where even the best rim brakes can become virtually inoperable
• Mud clearance: by moving the brake hardware away from the rim, bikes are less apt to clog up with debris
• Overall weights could potentially decrease: even when factoring in a disc rotor, 'cross bikes' lower braking demands should make for smaller and lighter hardware than on mountain bikes plus even lighter rims than what is currently available
• Fewer pits during muddy races
• The ability to continue on if a rim becomes slightly out of true

Taiwan Bike Festival Is A Wash

The First International Bike Festival is a wash after a week of rain and bad weather. The outer bands of Typhoon Magi have dumped buckets of rain on the participants and may have greatly impacted the number of attendees.

You can not predict nature, but you CAN look back on previous seasonal weather patterns.

Last year at about this same time I was preparing to ride from Hualien to Taichung over the Central Cross Island Highway. A typhoon came within hours of hitting Taiwan and then reversed course and saved the trip.

In late October, Taiwan often receives one last typhoon to end the storm season before settling down into a mild winter. Planners should have understood this and planned around the typically unstable weather.

Why choose October and run the risk?

Another GIO scheme goes horribly wrong. *sigh!*

Autistic Riders Circle Taiwan: Links

A group of cyclists who have been diagnosed with autism are currently on their third day of a round-island adventure that seeks to provide a positive activity for those with autism and their families.

I recently had an autistic student in my class, and it was a lot of work. She was a delightful girl, but demanded a lot of attention, but she had plenty of energy and enthusiasm, so I can see how cycling could be a great activity for families with an autistic member. My favorite quote from the article is from one participant's father:

"She might get hurt. However, seeing that she was so looking forward to the journey, I decided to fulfill this dream with her, "

I wish more parents shared this attitude with their children. I see so many parents afraid their children will draw a little blood or get a bruise that the children are so pampered and brittle they break or cry at the slightest bump or fall. Kids actually break bones from tripping and falling down.

I am also very proud of my wife for calling her bruise from a fall on some loose sand last weekend "a trophy".

Also:

• China Post on Taiwan Cycling Festival. Less critical than I am.
• Todd at the Daily Bubble Tea eases back into cycling.
• 2011 Tour de France route unveiled. Should we care?
• Armstrong Testes Positive. Welcomes fifth child. He may be going for a record seven in a row.
• The Dangers of Cycling.
• If You Build Them, They Will Come! London cycling superhighways attract riders. Taiwan has a lesson to learn here somewhere.

Taiwan Cycling Festival and the Trouble With Taiwan's Ethnic Tourism

Mudan village of Shimen in Heng Chun

The reports on Taiwan's First International Bike Festival are streaming in from bloggers, riders and from the Government Information Office (GIO). Despite the wet weather, riders have followed their prescribed routes to enjoy the beauty of Taiwan's cycling. One recent report from Taiwan Today quotes the Minister of Transportation and Communications as saying:

“Not only are the participants in for a wonderful riding experience along Taiwan’s beautiful coastline, they will also get a chance to enjoy aboriginal culture, hot springs and local delicacies,”

Regular readers may have already noticed my scrutiny of the government and many of its policies; especially on matters involving culture, tourism, transportation and cultural production.

Taiwan often uses its indigenous cultures and their cultural production to attract tourism and satisfy the tourist's own fetishized desire for the "exotic".

The government of Taiwan, known as the Republic of China (ROC), was founded as a modernist project that leveraged its own definition of "modern" against peripheral peoples in an attempt to civilize/colonize them and draw them closer to the center. This civilizing project was deployed against all Taiwanese following WWII, and especially against indigenous peoples who would or could not acculturate.

The ROC government determined Taiwanese indigenes to be lacking modernity and sought to transform them under the ROC project, but in order to be recognized as indigenous, indigenes must provide displays of state defined traditional culture i.e. language, dance, art, material culture... etc. Therefore, to be indigenous in Taiwan, the indigene can not be viewed by the government as equal as they are always lacking modernity, which has been conflated into state high culture, a recent invention often referred to as "Chinese" or "Han"culture. This situation has resulted in a problematic post coloniality for Taiwanese as the civilizing project continues to bear against local and indigenous cultures through the various contact points between the citizen and the state; points which include schools, military training facilities, licensing programs, civil service, entitlement programs, and public welfare and utility providers. The GIO's tourism campaigns continue to bring this problematic postcoloniality to light.

During the 1990’s, eco-tourism took off in Taiwan in many of the areas “reserved” for the Indigenes, designed to allow city dwellers to escape and explore their own sense of “otherness”. Tourists will usually be treated to demonstrations of indigenous dancing, singing and traditional handicrafts to learn about the “other”.

The general assessment from the Tourism Bureau of the value of Indigenes in Taiwanese society echo a sentiment of the urbanite intent on encapsulating pure authentic primitiveness in which some conceptual balance can be achieved. The urban imagination collects the images of the Indigene and blends them together with scant knowledge of the colonial history of Taiwan.

In Taiwan, the indigenous people who once were at war with one another, were thrown together under a similar situation by a the greater power of “civilizing centers” that mandated Taiwan’s indigenous policy, thus becoming “exotic” in their own land. As Homi Bhabha points out in The Location of Culture, “ …the fullness of the stereotype –its image as identity-is always threatened by lack.” Indigenous people must now "perform" or lose their separate identity.

It takes less energy from those in power to avoid the dialogue of a lengthy colonial history on Taiwan, especially while social tension between Hoklos and “Mainlanders” takes center stage in the political arena. But the perpetuation of the status quo maintains an oppressive situation. In Taiwan there are only a few areas of social life where the dialogue between colonized and colonizer can actually be encouraged: areas of dance, tourism, and performance.

I think Hsieh Shih-chung has a very insightful observation on Taiwan's indigenous tourism, culture and coloniality:

The formulation of cultural tradition is based on the manipulation and interpretation by particular people themselves…especially when the tradition is utilized as a powerful element to maintain ethnic boundaries… Tradition is imagined, shaped and defined by holders or sharers of the tradition in a meaningfully current situation… Even when an ethnic group’s original cultural traits have disappeared, it can still mold an exotic expressive culture to attract tourists.” (Hsieh 1994:201)