手感商品網路市集之經營模式與文化模式研究─以Pinkoi為例

在風格社會與電子商務的大趨勢下，文化創意產業加乘科技，全球都出現了爆炸性成長的平台─手感商品網路市集（Hand-touch Products Online Marketplace），發揮更強的觸媒功能、促動更多的設計創業 (Independent Brand) 、刺激更大的產值。在我國筆者注意到Pinkoi短短五年就創造了卓越的成績：至今已累積62萬項手感商品、全球2.5萬以上的設計師、超過一百萬會員數、營業額超過2.1億，它的成功並不只是過去文獻─網站使用者經驗與網路行銷術所能解釋，因此本研究在方法論上選擇以：個案研究法、深度訪談法，輔以參與觀察法，以求得完整造市者(Market Maker)的輪廓。在立論觀點上，則援引Du Gay(1997)的「文化迴路(Circuit of Culture)」理論，從更大的視角─「發展脈絡」和「文化模式」探討，嘗試解讀Pinkoi通過再現、生產、消費、規制、認同等五個環節與接合作用，產生的文化意義。研究發現，Pinkoi在平台機制上，創辦團隊有「矽谷創業文化」的經驗底蘊、有深厚的工程、設計與使用者經驗(UX)背景，加上對亞洲設計圈的使命感與困境洞悉，因而建立了解決產業問題，高效能、高互動、低門檻而富美感的平台。在平台經營層面，Pinkoi有層次地先發展「設計師社群」，更以「創業夥伴」的角色，提供全方位的行銷資源與曝光機會，並在各種溝通上都建立支持設計的鼓勵氛圍，成功贏得消費端的肯定，創造獨特的文化現象─設計師與粉絲間「友善包容的交易互動」。而從發展脈絡來看，Pinkoi的成長與社會動能高度相關，從台灣起家時就獲得大型「財經媒體」連續報導，不斷有正向的再現與曝光，使品牌內涵多了青年返鄉創業典範、推廣台灣設計(Made in Taiwan)等形象，奠定了深厚的認同能量。後來又有「網路創業獎」和「國際創投」兩股動力推著它加速前往國際市場，卻也同時形成了國際化的規制─設計品牌必須面對海外設計師的競爭，也必須培養能力面對海外消費者。總的來看 Pinkoi經營市集的過程，其實更像在「創造設計社群」。關鍵經營因素包括：生產環節─清晰的顧客價值主張建立市場定位、規劃社群互動；銷售環節─原創內容、累積正向品牌資產吸引社群參與和認同；消費環節─搜集市場資訊、回應市場需求，不斷擴大社群規模；再生產環節─調整與執行市集規則，維護社群秩序與正向互動。

關鍵字

手感商品；網路市集；經營模式；文化迴路

並列摘要

Amidst the major trend of Lifestyle Society and Cultural and Creative Industry, the Hand-touch Products that is crafted and full of cultural identity is becoming consumer’s target in the Post-industrial Era due to its Qualia of warmth, humanity, sense of belonging and uniqueness. It is an opportunity for designers to start up their “Independent Brand”, which can be been seen in the prevalence of “Creative Market”: the rise of an “Alternative Sales Venue” full of experience and touch as well as the occurrence of emerging, highly interactive relationship of “Platform-Designer-Consumer”. While the populations of lifestyle consumers and of Micro entrepreneurs are thriving, “E-Commerce” has become the emerging momentum in industries. With precision marketing mechanisms of Internet’s space-time transcendence, interactive multimedia, and the big-data technology, there comes the booming platform for the industry of Hand-touch Products worldwide – Online Marketplace. The emergence of such platform stimulates more diverse products, reaches to larger market, serves better catalyst, and ultimately increases more consumption! In Taiwan, we have noticed the extraordinary performance of Pinkoi website within 5 years: 620,000+ items of Hand-touch commodity, some 7000 brands, over 250,000 designers, 1 million members, and a revenue of NT$210 million in 2015. Its success cannot be simply explained via the research approach of information management in the past –the user experience on the website and online marketing. Instead, a broader scope is needed – the probe into “the Context of Development” and “the Pattern of Culture”. As such, in terms of methodology, this research adopts “Case Study” to collect the traces of the platform since its foundation in 2008 as well as “In-depth Interview” to collect the feedback from the founders and the both parties of the transaction on the online marketplace, along with “Participant Observation” to engage in the activities of browsing the platform, partaking the members’ events and shopping, so as to capture the outlook of the Market Maker. As for the references, we draw from the theory “Circuit of Culture” in Doing Cultural Studies：The Story of the Sony Walkman (du Gay et al, 1997). Through the interaction the five aspects: Representation, Production, Consumption, Regulation, and Identity, we shall investigate the cultural meaning of Pinkoi. The research reveals that Pinkoi is different from ordinary shopping website in its production culture. On the platform mechanism, the founding team, based on the “Entrepreneurial Culture of Silicon Valley”, has solid backgrounds in Engineering, Design and User Experience (UX), along with the insight into the dilemma and a sense of duty for the design society in Asia. They, therefore, has successfully established a highly cost-effective, interactive platform of aesthetic with low threshold, a solution to the issues of the industry. On the operational level of the platform, Pinkoi, with its seasoned community management experience, develop “designer community” first, consumer later. As a “Partner of Entrepreneur”, they have come up with an easy-to-use back-end service, all-rounded marketing resources and exposures. In addition, they take on the responsibilities of education and training to facilitate the operation of designer’s shop and creating an encouraging environment to support design. Hence, they have won over the positive feedback from the consumer’s end, including the loyalty from the cooperating brands, the in-depth marketplace involvement of consumers, and the unique cultural phenomenon – the “friendly transaction dynamics” between designers and their fans. On the regard of its context of development, the growth of Pinkoi is highly correlated with social momentum. That is, it has been continually covered by major “Finance Media” with positive representation and exposure, so that the brand has become the entrepreneur model for homecoming youth, which grants it the power to break through the traditional export platform of “Made in Taiwan” and cultivates identifying energy in abundance. Further, thanks to the two forces – the recognition of “e-business awards” and “international venture capitals”, it has no choice but to accelerate to the international market and forms the norm – Pinkoi has to deploy overseas and the local designer brands have to face the challenges of the foreign designers and develop the capability to cope with consumers overseas. In the theory of “Circuit of Culture”, the driving force of production aspect can be understood as an “articulation of production aspect, consumption aspect, sales aspect and reproduction aspect”. In a nutshell, the process of Pinkoi in managing the marketplace is more of “creating a design community”. The key managerial elements include: production aspect – clear market positioning and customer value for community interaction; sales aspect – the original content and accumulating positive brand asset to attract the participation and identification of the community; consumption aspect – collection of market information and response to market needs to growing community population; reproduction aspect – the adjustment as well as the execution of marketplace regulation to maintain the order and the positive interaction within the community.