Discover the Root: Construction of Authenticity in Culture-Driven Products

Abstract

An ‘industrial economy’ is based on cost, whereas a ‘service economy’ focuses on quality. The coming era of an ‘experience economy’ would allow customers to demand for more than the basic features of a product. One example of such special product feature is authenticity. For the past years, the Taiwanese government has actively promoted the policy of a creative and cultural industry. This directive has led to the production of a tremendous amount of culture-driven products. The eager demand for designs of culture-driven products poses a challenge to their quality, which leads to a discussion of their authenticity. This research generalized the importance of authenticity through a literature review, and utilized grounded theory to analyze the authenticity of culture-driven products. Through customer interviews, the concept of cultural authenticity factors is deconstructed. The results indicate that feelings of authenticity originate from the cultural message implied by the culture-driven product. Furthermore, cost and quality are determined as the main considerations for the rendering of cultural authenticity. Culture-driven products remain characterized by their basic features. Hence, customers cannot receive the cultural message if they are dissatisfied with the product cost and quality. Therefore, the research outcomes were used to develop a theoretical model for the design process of culture-driven products to assist designers in observing the needs of the target market, and to reconstruct the feelings of cultural authenticity by satisfying customer needs.