Liu Jiacheng: Promoting supply-side reform of the cultural industry starts with fashion, numbers, characteristics and integration

Recently, high-level national officials have repeatedly mentioned supply-side reform. However, for the cultural industry, what are the problems on the supply side? What are the strategies and development directions for solving these problems? What basic guarantees should the government provide?

Original title: Liu Jiacheng: The supply-side development of the cultural industry should focus on four strategies

[Editor's note] Since the country proposed supply-side structural reform, the cultural industry community has been discussing the issue of supply-side structural reform of the cultural industry. Liu Jiacheng, president of Oriental Image Cultural Innovation Institute and associate researcher at Peking University's Cultural Industry Research Institute, sorted out some problems in the supply-side development of my country's cultural industry based on his work practice, and proposed strategic directions for problem solving. At the same time, he also made suggestions to the government. This article is published with the authorization of the author. Please indicate the source for reprinting.

Recently, high-level national officials have repeatedly mentioned supply-side reform. As a cultural industry practitioner, from the perspective of cultural industry development, I would like this concept a hundred times. However, for the cultural industry, what are the problems on the supply side? What are the strategies and development directions for solving these problems? What basic guarantees should the government provide? This is a question that many local governments have consulted with me recently, and it has also aroused some thinking and compiled it briefly for discussion.

1. The supply-side problems of my country's cultural industry

have different definitions of supply-side reform, but the overall concept can be understood as "better leading and meeting customer needs through innovative products and services." From the government level, it is through policy innovation to optimize the development environment of enterprises, reduce the cost of innovation, adjust the direction of industrial institutions and resource allocation, and activate the driving force for development through innovation in mechanisms and systems. From a corporate perspective, it means innovating products and service forms, improving quality and efficiency, and creating greater value for customers.

For the cultural industry, especially cultural and creative formats, because of its obvious spiritual consumption characteristics, it is more necessary to meet the needs of the market through creativity, innovation and creation. That is to say, the cultural industry is inherently characterized by supply-side reform and innovation.

However, the current situation of my country's cultural industry supply side is not optimistic, mainly reflected in the following six aspects.

From the perspective of industrial structure, in addition to the digital and creative formats in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and a few other cities that dominate the entire industry, the development of cultural industries in most cities and regions mainly relies on traditional industries. Industrial formats, creative and digital formats are still in the embryonic and nurturing stage.

From the perspective of regional structure, the development of my country's cultural industry is very uneven among regions. In Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other regions, cultural industries have become pillar industries of the national economy, and in many places, cultural industries account for even 2% of local GDP. Not even.

From the perspective of factor investment, many of our cities lack policies in terms of land supply, capital guidance, market promotion, platform construction, and talent utilization in cultural industries. Investment stability is not enough and is highly random.

From the perspective of the growth driving force structure, many places are still guiding future development directions and plans in accordance with traditional cultural industry development ideas and models. However, the driving force for growth through innovation, digitalization, etc. is insufficient, resulting in many duplicate and ineffective construction.

From the perspective of income distribution mechanism, there is insufficient understanding of the value of creativity and creation, the value of management, and poor utilization of capital, resulting in creativity not receiving the protection and benefits it deserves, and capital cannot give full play to its value.

From the perspective of market entities, our cultural enterprises, especially state-owned cultural enterprises, do not yet have sufficient changes and understanding of the market, resulting in many state-owned cultural enterprises having weak market adaptability and low competitiveness.

The main reasons for the above-mentioned supply-side status quo of the cultural industry are as follows:

1. Traditional ideas and concepts. The backward development of cultural industries in some places is related to the insufficient elements of cultural industry development, but it is also related to the insufficient understanding of our local government leaders of the role and significance of cultural industry development, resulting in insufficient attention to the development of cultural industries. In other places, although relevant leaders attach great importance to it, they are using the method of developing traditional industries to guide and develop cultural industries, ignoring the characteristics of cultural industry development, resulting in misplacement of industrial development.

2. Lack of deep understanding of the development trend of the cultural industry. Since 2014, I have written an article pointing out that the development of my country's cultural industry has entered the 3.0 era of cultural industry development. In this era, the characteristics of integration, digitalization, financialization, fashion, internationalization, marketization and branding have emerged. However, cultural industry practitioners in many places do not have a deep understanding of its connotation, essence, characteristics, etc., resulting in insufficient grasp of the trend and direction of the development of cultural industries in the new era. If they still operate and develop cultural industries in accordance with traditional ideas, they will inevitably encounter difficulties in the market.

3. Not enough follow-up to the rapid changes in market development. Our country has rapidly entered the era of the Internet economy and the sharing economy. In this era, our business model and communication methods have undergone profound changes, and many of our leaders have not followed up enough with changes in the market.

Therefore, supply-side reform of the cultural industry, which is obviously characterized by spiritual consumption and demand orientation, should first start with emancipating the mind and changing the understanding and cognition of the market.

2. Four Strategies for Supply-side Development of my country's cultural industry

In view of the main problems mentioned above in the supply-side development of my country's cultural industry, future development should at least start from the four strategies of fashion, digitalization, specialization and integration.

1. Fashion. The so-called fashion means that cultural products should adapt to the lifestyle of modern people, especially those who are the main consumers in the cultural industry, that is, young and middle-aged people in large cities with an international perspective, to satisfy their consumption habits. During the research on cultural industries in various places, I found that cultural industry practitioners in some places love the culture of their hometowns very much and have developed some products based on these cultures. However, these products are all based on their own perspective and aesthetic tastes, and are expressed in very traditional methods and technologies, and lack of understanding of the consumption and use scenarios of the main groups, resulting in a poor market.

So how can we be fashionable? The best and easiest way is to design according to the idea of the scenario, let the target customers participate in the entire process of product research and development, production, circulation, sales, promotion, service, extension development, etc., interact with them in a timely and proactive manner, and listen to them. opinions.

2. Digitalization. While digital technology affects our lifestyle, it is also changing the way our cultural industry develops. Among these digital technologies, the ones that are most relevant and influential to the cultural industry are: big data, cloud, mobile internet and virtual reality. For our cultural products, more consideration should be given to how to use these technologies for research and development, production, display and promotion, so that our cultural products can better adapt to market consumption patterns.

3. Characteristics. Specialization means strengthening the sorting out of local cultural resources, re-understanding the value of these cultural resources, focusing on the development of valuable cultural resources, differentiated development, and forming a brand. Among them, the evaluation of local cultural resources (such as creative talents, celebrities, characteristic operas, characteristic folk customs, etc.) is difficult, and the extremes of too high or too low should be avoided. Excessive evaluation of the development value of cultural resources will lead to poor market response of products developed with large investment. Excessive evaluation of the value of cultural resources will lead to waste and full play of the value of cultural resources. Over the course of many years of practice, we have developed an expert scoring system to evaluate cultural resources from both the perspectives of humanistic value and economic value, which has better solved the problem of reasonable evaluation of cultural resources.

4. Integration. In the 3.0 stage of cultural industry development, integration is the focus of the cultural industry supply side. The first is to integrate cultural undertakings and cultural industries in the process of building the public cultural service system, give full play to libraries, cultural centers, art galleries, museums and other resources under the responsibility of cultural authorities, fully tap customer value, and carry out industrialization development exploration. The second is to integrate and develop the cultural industry with other local advantages and characteristic industrial resources, and actively integrate it with agriculture, industry, commerce, urbanization, etc. to form new business formats and promote industrial transformation and upgrading.

3. Four basic guarantees for supply-side reform of my country's cultural industry

Focusing on all the four development strategies and directions above, the government should provide the following four basic guarantees.

1. Strengthen external links and promote ideological emancipation. Adding links generates innovation. During the national cultural industry survey, we found that backward understanding of the development of cultural industries is the main obstacle hindering local cultural industries. Local governments need to strengthen links with the outside world, organize more competent leaders and leading enterprises to study and inspect advanced regions, invite more experts with practical capabilities to train our practitioners, and participate in more high-level online and offline platforms and activities to innovate the development model of the cultural industry.

2. Build basic projects and incubate emerging industries. Standing on the shoulders of giants is the best way to innovate. In order to innovate and develop cultural industry, we must lay a solid foundation for industrial development, such as fine creation and cultivation project, cultural resources digitalization project, cultural resources sharing project, cultural literacy improvement project, cultural industry development environment optimization project, intellectual property protection project, cultural finance promotion project, etc. These projects not only grasp the characteristics of cultural industry with property rights as the core, but also optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship environment, incubate emerging industries and conform to the future development trend.

3. Improve the innovation environment and promote the wave of entrepreneurship. In the era of Cultural Innovation 3.0, the development of cultural industries relies more on the cultivation of local cultural enterprises and the incubation and growth of small and medium-sized cultural enterprises. Therefore, how to optimize the environment and atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship, optimize the elements of cultural industry development, improve the service system for small and medium-sized enterprises, establish market-led cultivation policies, and fully tap local potential have become the key to the success of supply-side reform of the cultural industry.

4. Innovate mechanisms and systems to stimulate market vitality. Through government purchase of services, PPP, mixed ownership and other forms, we will give full play to the government's resource advantages and market efficiency advantages, innovate the mechanism for the development of cultural industries, and stimulate market vitality. Give full play to the role of state-owned cultural enterprises, lay a solid industrial foundation, provide a leading demonstration effect, and guide social capital to invest in cultural industries.

Editor: Tsai