--- title: "How I Help Things Grow: BestFriend, Tainan" description: "How a shop hidden in a Tainan alley, earning under NT$3,000 a week, grew into a recognisable local brand through hand-drawn maps, illustration, and characters." url: https://dasto.app/portfolio/en/growth/ language: en alternate_zh: https://dasto.app/portfolio/growth/ author: "Daco Hsieh 謝明達" published: 2026-07-05 updated: 2026-08-06 --- # How I Help Things Grow: BestFriend, Tainan > How a shop hidden in a Tainan alley, earning under NT$3,000 a week, grew into a recognisable local brand through hand-drawn maps, illustration, and characters. ![Phoenix fern specimen hero image](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/case1-phoenix-fern-hero-BK0jBaw6.webp) - **Specimen**: BestFriend 台南孔廟店 - **Category**: Brand Strategy / Local Growth / Place Activation - **Location**: Tainan, Taiwan - **Collection Date**: 2012 / 10 - **Collector**: Daco - **Role**: Founder / Brand Strategy / Visual Design / Community Activation Project at a glance This project began with local observation and content gathering, then expanded into maps, illustration, characters, publications, and physical experiences. By continually collecting material, building a visual language, and connecting touchpoints, I shaped scattered local stories into a recognisable and shareable whole. It is not a one-off design, but a view of how content and a brand gradually take root through accumulation. - **Project type**: Place-based brand / Content planning - **My role**: Field research, visual design, content extension - **Core strengths**: Long-term development, cross-media integration, brand growth In October 2012, I opened a BestFriend branch in the Confucius Temple district of Tainan. The shop was not on a main street, but hidden inside a narrow alley where cars could not enter. In the beginning, weekly revenue was under NT$3,000. I did not see this as a lack-of-market problem. The district already had strong weekend foot traffic. The real problem was simpler: people were nearby, but they were not entering the alley; the shop existed, but it was not being seen. ![Alley near BestFriend](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/alley-rbjt5QWw.webp) *Figure 1 — The shop was located inside a small alley, outside the natural visitor route.* This made the case less about promotion alone, and more about how a place enters human movement, mental maps, and social sharing. In today’s language, it was both a customer journey problem and a wayfinding problem. My strategy unfolded in stages: first help people arrive, then give them a reason to turn in, then give them something worth photographing and sharing, and finally extend single-shop growth into district atmosphere. The first move was a hand-drawn map card of the district. It worked as both a practical guide and a brand insertion device, placing BestFriend into the story of the neighborhood. ![Hand-drawn district map](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/map_origin-DpmeOVCL.webp) *Figure 2 — A hand-drawn map card placed BestFriend into the visitor route and the district narrative.* While making the map, I visited nearby shop owners one by one and asked whether I could include them. This was not just research. It also built trust and positioned BestFriend as a participant in the district rather than an outsider. ![Map card design](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/BeatFriend_map-2-DuaCoTgT.webp) *Figure 3 — The map became part guide, part portable brand world.* The second move was a papier-mache brand character placed at the alley entrance, together with a clear sign pointing toward the shop. This solved the final 25 meters: not just where the shop was, but why someone would feel curious and comfortable enough to turn into the alley. ![BestFriend mascot](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/doll-iWLY0Djl.webp) *Figure 4 — The brand character turned the alley entrance into a landmark.* ![Mascot and sign at alley entrance](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/gate-D776eYKC.webp) *Figure 5 — It functioned at once as landmark, emotional cue, and shareable photo object.* That wave produced visible business growth. I was not only creating foot traffic. I was creating the feeling that discovering this hidden shop was itself something cool to know and tell others about. Later, once the business was more stable, I expanded the work from shop growth to district atmosphere. I created an “Alien Bulletin,” filled with mysterious text and fictional alien sightings around the neighborhood. This was closer to content marketing, placemaking, and earned media than direct advertising. People followed the printed clues, compared scenes, and paid new attention to the district. ![Alien sighting image](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/carousel_1_1-BgBlqT1h.webp) *Figure 7 — The campaign invited people to compare printed fiction with real places.* ![Alien bulletin scene 2](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/carousel_1_2-DFm6sSZD.webp) ![Alien bulletin scene 3](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/carousel_1_3-6A4YsWmH.webp) ![Alien bulletin scene 4](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/carousel_1_4-Dke4IcEn.webp) ![Alien bulletin scene 5](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/carousel_1_5-4xA-xNKY.webp) *Alien Bulletin carousel — A horizontal sequence of sightings and district scenes, designed to feel like following clues across the neighborhood.* The final stage was a printed publication called “Weak News,” which blended short writing, poetry, and district offers. It helped turn one-off events into a sustained atmosphere. ![Printed publication 1](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/p1-Cp-8QK1o.webp) ![Printed publication 2](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/p2-D28wjN54.webp) ![Printed publication 3](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/p3-DvH-QcF4.webp) ![Printed publication 4](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/p4-Dj1r0bqN.webp) *Figure 8 — The publication helped transform promotion into a longer cultural surface.* This case taught me that many things that look like marketing problems are actually problems of human movement and behavior. Whether in physical space or digital space, the same principle holds: first understand the friction that stops people from acting, then design the path that makes action feel natural. ![BestFriend ending carousel 1](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/end_carousel_1_square-CiNnI052.webp) ![BestFriend ending carousel 2](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/end_carousel_2_square-Pvvseawg.webp) ![BestFriend ending carousel 3](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/end_carousel_3_square-BOSHKDBn.webp) ![BestFriend ending carousel 4](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/end_carousel_4_square-TtWsYgLU.webp) > Continue reading: How iHealth SEO increased click-through growth by 1025% --- Author: Daco Hsieh 謝明達 · Contact: enodaco@gmail.com · Portfolio home: https://dasto.app/portfolio/en/ · 中文版: https://dasto.app/portfolio/growth/