Be Different or be dead

July 23, 2012

2 audacious examples of businesses that go against the flow

Source: Unsplash

2 audacious examples of businesses that go against the flow.

An effective business plan attempts to find a way to make the organization standout from their competition.

An unusual and rarely used strategy that achieves this distinctiveness objective is based on the notion of contrarianism, doing something that is so outrageously different from everyone else that people are curious to check the organization out.

Here are two examples of organizations who are not only outlandish according to most standards but are also memorable to the people they are speaking to.

And they attract curiosity and conversations.

▪️ The Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam .

From their website:

“Welcome to the Hans Brinker: quite honestly not the best, but definitely the most memorable hostel in Amsterdam. At the Hans Brinker Hostel you get what you pay for. And because you don’t pay much you won’t get any of the following things: a swimming pool, room service, honeymoon-suites, a gym, tiny bottles of shampoo, a spa-bath or bellboys in silly hats.

You will simply get a basic room in the centre of Amsterdam that is worth every penny.
We offer single, twin and dorm rooms, which fit up to 8 persons. We serve breakfast (for free), lunch and dinner (for money). In Amsterdam, after having drinks in our hostel bar, the shortest route to oblivion leads right to our basement.”

“We can go up, we can go down, but we’ll never be average”

A brutally honest claim of who they are and what people can expect. Brilliant. Different. Contrarian.

▪️ The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.
Founded in 2005, the Heart Attack Grill positions itself as a Hospital Theme Restaurant.

The most popular item on the menu is a “Quadruple Bypass Burger” worth 8,000 calories. People over 350 lbs. (and you have to be weighed to confirm your weight) eat for free.

Waitresses (“nurses”) take orders (“prescriptions”) from the customers (“patients”).

“Jon Basso gets 5 stars for having a gimmick, nerve, and marketing skills. He doesn’t pretend to have a great restaurant. In fact, he doesn’t care if you like it or not, as long as people are curious enough to come and pay to eat.” — about.com Review

Again, in-your-face. Contrarian. Over the top. Check this for a more in-depth review of the place.

Two good examples of businesses wanting to step out and take a chance to be unique by going against the flow of well established business and societal principles.

I applaud the spirit of leaders who are willing to take this type of risk in the face of the obvious criticism and cynicism that crashes down on them from such moves.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.23.12 at 10:15 am by Roy Osing
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