Taiwan’s newest and trendiest restaurant is packed with students and families who have come out to enjoy a meal and have a good time. But there is something more than a little strange about this restaurant and it’s not the food…
it’s how it’s served…
Here’s a hint: the name of the restaurant is Modern Toilet.
Out of respect for the squeamish, I won’t go into too much detail except to say that your meal is served atop a mini-toilet bowl, your drink comes in it’s own plastic urinal and the names of many of the dishes are blatant reminders of less than pleasant bodily functions. Even the seats are made from toilets, with the lids down, of course.
When I first read about this restaurant, my first reaction was simply to say…”Gross!”
But being the marketer I am, I started looking for the marketing lessons that I knew had to be hidden under all that…er…
ok, I won’t go there.
Here’s my take on Modern Toilet:
1. Know your market: The concept of a toilet themed restaurant, as repulsive as it may be to people in the U.S. (and I’m just guessing here), is better accepted in Taiwan, as the Chinese people have much less self-consciousness and social inhibition around bodily functions such as burping or passing gas in public. In fact, in some places in China, public restrooms don’t even have doors and there is only a hole in the floor, not the gleaming ceramic pedestal that we Westerners have come to see as the norm.
2. Do your market research: Just because you think you understand your market, does not mean you should roll out your entire idea all at once. Wang Zi-wei, an ex-banker at the age of 29, came up with the idea from watching a popular Japanese robot cartoon character named Jichiwawa, who loves to play with…er…poop…on a stick. So Wang started selling…you guessed it…
chocolate ice cream swirls served on paper toilets.
His customers loved the dessert and wanted other, more imaginative toilet-themed things to eat. Wang’s Modern Toilet restaurant now boast seven locations in Taiwan, with openings planed for more cities in China, as well as Macau, Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia.
So don’t be too quick to discount an idea, however outrageous it may seem to you at first. Know your market, do your market research…then see if you can sell the product on a small scale before you ramp it up.
Pie a la commode anyone?
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photo: m. for matthijs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0