Connected to the land
Moving forward, Sheu hopes to launch new products every two or three years. “Developing new products isn’t simply a matter of craft. The difficult part is defining them in ways that connect them to the land and fit within the spirit of the brand.”
To that end, Sheu has begun looking outside the company for help in taking it to the next level. He hopes that SunnyHills can learn from famous foreign pastry chefs, and that it can digest and analyze their recipes and techniques, then incorporate them into the Taiwanese repertoire to develop new products that people want. “The skills that chefs hone and refine over decades are incredibly valuable.”
Sheu spent years in the tech industry prior to co-founding SunnyHills and started the company with no concept of how to manage a brand. Even so, he had a feeling that they would succeed. “Not many people in Taiwan were thinking about how to manage a brand. I was sure that we could stand out just by running the company well.”
In recent years, Sheu has turned the company’s moneymaking operations over to a professional manager, while putting most of his own efforts into brand management. “It’s more fun,” he says, explaining that he finds it more fulfilling. “You can develop a brand over the long term, then pass it on.”
On the strong recommendation of consultant Xie Zhenshun, SunnyHills has committed itself to the idea of “differentiation.” As a result, SunnyHills has never thought “inside the box” on anything, whether the choosing of the company name itself, or in its production, packaging, and marketing.
The company distributes its products only through its own stores, runs no ads, and doesn’t partner with travel agencies to bring in tourists. Instead, it has invented a system of word-of-mouth marketing built around greeting customers with tea: it serves every visitor to one of its shops a cup of tea and a pineapple cake, regardless of whether or how much that person might be buying. Ever attentive to details, Sheu wanted the company’s white porcelain teacups to be exceptional too, and hired a Japanese artist to throw, glaze and fire each one.
“Brands have to have a style of their own,” says Sheu. He goes on to observe that even though being different isn’t easy, you have to innovate because consumers expect something surprising and new.
SunnyHills’ shops reflect the brilliance hiding beneath the brand’s unassuming style. The picture shows a SunnyHills shop on Tokyo’s Omotesando boulevard.