Growing Brand — And Everything In Between

Building a brand requires a clear message, rigours execution, and determination. There is one man in Taiwan is literally growing a brand and I was lucky enough to be part of it even only it was for a brief afternoon.

“Over the years, many follows but none can capture the honesty and originality of Yuan Soap. ”

Yuan Soap was established in 2005 and it defined the tone and manner of what “Taiwanese beauty product brand” is. Over the years, many follows but none can capture the honesty and originality of Yuan Soap.

Through work, I got to know Mr. Jiang, the founder of Yuan Soap. Everybody called him “big brother”. Twice a year, he invites friends and new employees to go to their farm located inside a national park near the northern part of Taiwan to not only see how they grew their herbs but also prepare the all natural fertilizer and get rid of unwanted weeds to allow the herbs to grow freely.

My team and I arrived early afternoon. When we walked into the farm, we can already see our friends at Yuan Soap hard at work preparing the fertilizer. I am having a hard time articulating the smell through words. Let’s just say the smell was unpleasant. We didn’t even recognize Mr. Jiang right away as he had his head down, sleeves up shoving decomposed food.

We are given a tour around the farm and what amazes me the most is that the entire farm requires no electricity. The watering system uses gravity to create an natural flow from streams on top of the mountain.

A pair of glove were handed to us. Its time to get to work! We were told to remove the unwanted plants, roots included, growing among the wild mugwort. Some of these weeds grow deep. The root must have been at least 20cm. We must have covered around 15m X 5m area and it was exhausting.

Mr. Jiang, gathered everyone around and personally thanked us and other who were also invited for helping. The farmers waved goodbye to us with a smile I won’t soon be forgetting.

You may have seen the Yuan Soap, you may have hear people talking about it but today I got to experience it.