Group 7 is working on a concept as well as a specific product to help the traditional products of Sanxia, New Taipeh, become better known and more popular and to transform the business of the Indigo Dyeing workshop into financially sustainable business.
Sanxia’s products include the traditional indigo dyeing technique, a variety of tea and tasty golden croissant-shaped snacks. However, even though Sanxia is located very close to Taipeh, it is hardly known among tourists and mostly not considered an attractive destination among locals.
We came up with a three-step concept that is designed to
- Create short-term interest in Sanxia products
- Deepen visitor engagement by visiting
- Improve long term tourism and product value
Step one is arguably the hardest, because it involves getting people curious and interested who consider Sanxia mostly boring and unattractive and are unaware of its products and traditions. To this end, we created the Sanxia Indigo Dyeing DIY box, which delivers an almost complete traditional Sanxia experience to the convenience of people’s homes. This will be accompanied by social media efforts to creat instructions and exchange of patterns and ideas over the internet, encouraging people to share their creative ideas.
This box could be purchased in stores or online. It would contain all necessary material as well as instructions. There could be different boxes for different product ideas, such as our prototype for a hand fan with a self-made pattern, a T-shirt, etc. Other ideas for boxes may include a tea tasting box, a bread box, and other local products.
The marketing of those boxes will focus on 1) people and groups in education (schoolchildren in all parts of Taiwan, students of history, etc.) and 2) people with a cultural interest, mainly weekend travellers from Taiwan or people on holiday from overseas.
Step two is creating offerings for those whose interest in Sanxia has been piqued. These people may have purchased some of our boxes, created an indigo dyed product at home or heard about Sanxia through other channels. But the indigo dyeing workshop and museum offer a deeper experience. It’s the job of Sanxia marketing to create one-day or two-day programs that make sense for travellers, such as a pre-arranged day with an advanced indigo dyeing class, a guided tour of the city and some food tasting.
Other unique local experiences could include a visit to tea fields, a workshop on how to make the typical Sanxia bread, and more.
Step three is enhancing the long-term awareness of Sanxia as a destination and origin of traditional products.
To make local products more recognizable, we propose the introduction of a label “Authentic Sanxia Product” or similar with its own logo, similar to the European “Protected Geographical Indication”. This will also help to encourage local businesses strive for a higher product quality and innovative ideas. It will be less likely to mistake products such as Sanxia tea for tea from other regions of Taiwan.
In the long term, the attractiveness of the Sanxia old street could be improved by ensuring that a higher number of stores sell genuine local products instead of the same tourist products that are also offered everywhere else in Taiwan. This could be achieved by founding a local public-private-partnership program that manages which businesses are allowed to rent old street houses for their shops. This partnership could be funded on the long term by a small percentage of profits from local businesses; who will in turn benefit from increased visitor numbers.
A part of the funding could be used for house renovation, further improving the attractiveness of this recognizable place in the centre of town. Some improvements to the rest of the city centre may improve the attractiveness to visitors. This might include more comfortable parking for cars and buses, more areas for relaxation (restrooms, sitting opportunities, trees for shadow, etc.) and other things.
A website (also usable on mobile devices) will focus all the information an enable convenient booking of tours, parking, accomodation, events, etc. The website can be found here: https://sanxia-explorer.vercel.app/