industrial research

前幾天看見無印良品開著發財車，緩緩駛進花東鄉村，那一幕簡單卻深刻。也讓我想起這次參與慈濟二手義賣，起初有同事不太理解，認為「市集擺攤」與「品牌定位」有落差。

但對品牌創始人而言，最核心的能力是什麼？是寫金句、下廣告標嗎？不，我想應該是「看」（哈哈！我發誓，我沒有罵髒話）。

走到街上去，看品牌在真實世界裡如何存在：
哪些商品讓人願意停下腳步？
哪些空間讓人一靠近就放鬆？
哪些表達深刻的被信任？

然後你會發現：品牌真正的力量，不在它說了什麼，而在它讓人感受到什麼。

有時候「看世界」比「看自己」更重要。許多品牌的困境不是缺創意，而是看得太近。我們反覆檢視官網、社群、朋友圈與投放數據，卻忘了使用者真實生活的半徑。

你想講故事，人家只想買早餐；
你談風格，人家急著趕捷運；
這不是審美差距，而是視角距離。

因此，品牌創始人一定要走出去，
去看人如何生活、如何選擇；
如何無意識地忽略你，又如何在某一瞬間被你強烈吸引。那裡，才是品牌真正的語境。

也許，這正是無印良品走進花東村落的原因之一，而這一次我們走進市集，也是在做同一件事：

走到街上去，看品牌如何與世界對話。

A few days ago, I saw a MUJI truck—its modest fortune-bringing van—slowly rolling into a rural village in Eastern Taiwan. The scene was simple, yet it struck me deeply. It also reminded me of our participation in the Tzu Chi charity flea market, where some colleagues initially struggled to understand, feeling there was a gap between “market stalls” and “brand positioning.”

But what is the most essential skill for a brand founder? Is it crafting quotes and slogans? Writing ad copy and buying media? No—I believe it’s “seeing.”

You have to step outside and see how a brand truly exists in the real world:
• What products make people pause?
• What spaces make people relax the moment they step close?
• What expressions earn instinctive trust?

And then you realize—the true power of a brand isn’t what it says, but what people feel from it.

Sometimes, seeing the world matters more than staring at ourselves. Many brands don’t struggle because they lack creativity, but because their perspective is too close. We obsess over our website, social feeds, inner circles, and performance data—yet forget the actual radius of people’s real lives.

You want to tell stories—others just want breakfast.
You talk aesthetics—they’re rushing for the MRT.
This isn’t a difference in taste—it’s a difference in distance.

So founders must go out,
to observe how people live and choose;
to see how they unconsciously overlook you,
and how, in a fleeting moment, they suddenly fall under your spell.

That—right there—is the brand’s true context.

Maybe this is one of the reasons MUJI drives into Hualien and Taitung’s villages. And this time, by stepping into the market ourselves, we were doing exactly the same thing:

Take it to the streets.
See how your brand speaks to the world.