Brace yourselves, brands are going to places where they’ve never gone before.
This is a response to Alvin Koo’s Blog Entry: “Holy Crap vs. Mom’s Healthy Secret.”
In his post, Alvin pinpointed the branding advantage Holy Crap had over Mom’s Healthy Secrets even though the two products share simliar functions. This advantage is a result of Holy Crap‘s unconventional brand name and atypical cereal packaging. This is an important, yet sometimes overlooked, point raised by Alvin – to be memorable, you really need to stand out.
To put in marketing terms, when your product is unique and unconventionally associated with, it effectively fills up an unoccupied position in consumer minds.
No one would have guessed that ‘crap’ and ‘cereal’ could be paired together to successfully form a brand that’s not only acceptable, but beloved.
While discussing this use of unconventional association with ‘crap,’ Poo Poo Paper comes to mind.
Who would have thought that recycled paper made from elephant feces would receive massive popularity and favourable reception by consumers considering you are essentially purchasing poop? I certainly wouldn’t have. And yet, the brand is able to remain vividly in consumer minds thanks to the exact reason Alvin pointed out – filling up unoccupied postions in consumer minds through association with unconventional terms.
However, perhaps there is no other brand that takes this to the extreme more so than Modern Toilet, a toilet-themed restaurant based in Taiwan that gained massive popularity since opening. 
Modern Toilet‘s marketing has done the impossible task of associating food successfully with toilets in consumer minds. Other than being immediately memorable, this fosters a massive word of mouth tendency, which attracts curious visitors who would share their unique dining experience through online photos and social media. This in effect, allows Modern Toilet to reap profitable rewards and gain positive recognition.
These examples show a vital indication that the product’s intrinsic properties only takes a secondary importance to brand presentation when it comes to being able to be remembered, accepted, and beloved.
Brace yourselves, brands are going to places where they’ve never gone before. Perhaps this gives hope to some entrepreneur out there currently working on a new line of Poo Poo Perfume.
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