Response Strategies of the Creative Market Industry in the Post-Epidemic Era in Taiwan-Taking ISHANDS International Creative Market as an Example

The creative market is mainly composed of small and medium-sized and micro-sized enterprises. It focuses on personal creation, as well as face-to-face sales with customers in the market. Affected by COVID-19, customers no longer go out, and markets are canceled due to crowds, which affect the business of market curators, as well as cultural and creative brands. While the epidemic is still raging, how to respond and transform has become the key to survival. This research mainly focuses on comparing and analyzing the situation in 2019 and 2020 of “ISHANDS International Creative Market”, which is a creative market regularly held, as well as seven cultural and creative brands participating in this creative market in Taiwan. Through on-site observation and in-depth interviews, it interviews with curators of the creative market and operators of market brands, analyzes the creation and development process and planning of the “ISHANDS International Creative Market”, as well as key factors for cultural and creative brands to participate in creative markets, brand entrepreneurship and development, and difficulties they face at present. It sorts out the business interactions between the creative market and cultural and creative brands through case studies, summarizes them, and analyzes various interactions with business models, so as to understand the current situation of the creative market facing COVID-19 and possible future development in response. This research finds that- (1) the success of the creative market lies in brand differentiation and persistence; (2) the brand image building of the creative market and cultural and creative brands are key factors for each other; (3) the problems faced by the creative market under the influence of COVID-19; (4) it should accelerate the marketing and application of technologies in response to COVID-19; (5) it needs to master key resources in response to the post-epidemic era; (6) it explores the future development trend of Taiwan’s creative market industry.