Can you get any lower than the lowly public toilet? Few things dismay people more than the thought of using a public restroom. Leave it to Japan to take this problem head-on and show how even the public toilet can be repositioned as a must-visit stop for tourists, a lovely respite for taxi drivers or simply an option for women and children who otherwise would avoid public toilets.

So, here's why I spent the last day of my recent trip to Tokyo dragging my children to 17 public toilets and recommend you do too for a master class in marketing.

The Tokyo Toilet Project was spearheaded by Koji Yanai, grandson of Hitoshi Yanai, the founder of Fast Retailing (Uniqlo). He created this project to exhibit to foreign tourists the omotenashi of Japan during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Omotenashi is simply translated as hospitality, but it has a much deeper meaning around anticipating your guests' needs and working behind the scenes to create the most comfortable experience possible. For Yanai, Tokyo is one of the world's most livable, hospitable cities; the one aspect that did not live up to that reputation was the public toilets.

Yanai hired 16 famous designers, architects and creative professionals to reimagine 17 public toilets across the city. The brief was simple: Public toilets are terrible–make them not so. In his words, Tokyo’s public toilets were “dark, dirty, scary, smelly, women avoid them, not friendly for disabled people, not child-friendly and hard to locate.” The 16 creatives came back with literal works of art that also happened to be toilets, and Tokyo now had the world's best public restrooms.

When the Olympics had no tourists due to the pandemic, Yanai hired famed director Wim Wenders to make a movie about the toilets that could be seen globally. He made “Perfect Days,” a Cannes-winning and Oscar-nominated film about one of The Tokyo Toilet's cleaning staff, in which the 17 toilets are the supporting cast.

After watching the film, I had to see the toilets in person. So, when I was in Tokyo earlier this year on vacation, I brought my two daughters along for a tour. (Google map here). 

I captured four major marketing takeaways:

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution

Yanai took time to understand why public toilets are terrible and how they made people in Tokyo feel. Using one was an option of last resort. This clashed with the rest of the city’s public experience, where everything else was clean and welcoming. Yanai felt that public toilets were the chink in the armor that could bring the whole experience down for visitors. He didn't know the solution, but he knew what problem he wanted to solve.

Embrace culture (and the internet)

Yanai knew that Japanese hospitality is something that visitors love to experience and that locals are proud of displaying. He wasn't trying to change culture; he was trying to ride it. He partnered with the right creators for the toilets, knowing that internet culture would do the rest regarding promotion. The project created culturally relevant fodder, then handed it over to the internet for the rest.

Give people a story

While plenty of beautiful toilets worldwide exist, no one talks about them. However, with the Tokyo Toilet Project, there are numerous reasons to be excited about visiting a toilet. Contributing to a compelling story are the project leader's backstory, the public benefit, the famous designers, the experience of using them, the award-winning film, the locations, the beauty in the ordinary and how these toilets epitomize Japanese culture. All of these elements gave people a story to tell.

Deliver on the experience

The Tokyo Toilet project knew that creating innovative, attractive toilets wasn't enough. If they weren’t well-maintained, users would have a negative experience. The toilet cleaners spotlighted in “Perfect Days” aren't just wearing designer jumpsuits; they're ensuring the toilets are clean, operating and smelling as good as possible three times a day. This attention to detail allows visitors to experience all that is great about the toilets without getting stuck on the basics. 

The Tokyo Toilet project exemplifies how even the most mundane and often-disliked aspects of daily life can be transformed through thoughtful design, cultural understanding and a commitment to excellence. It shows that anything can become a point of interest, discussion and even admiration with the right approach.

By focusing on solving a real problem, embracing local culture, telling a compelling story and consistently delivering a great experience, the project turned public toilets into must-see attractions and a symbol of Japanese hospitality.

These marketing principles aren't groundbreaking—you'd learn them in any Intro to Brand Management class. But seeing them in action on such a challenging canvas proves that great marketing is super simple: Find the key insight, get the brief right, trust your creative and operational partners and connect emotionally. Do all that, and you’ll get people creating content about your work, telling their friends and falling in love with what you do.