Where do these images come from(may be difficult for non-austrians):
 On the power of stereotypes  On the power of stereotypes
 On the power of stereotypes  On the power of stereotypes
 On the power of stereotypes  On the power of stereotypes
Guessed it? Yeah, a Chinese restaurant – good ol’ fast-food eating Tam was at a restaurant and lost an hour of his life eating slowly(=)). But that’s not the point I want to make – instead, look at the pictures given above once again.

Every chinese restaurant I visited so far has had at least half of the stuff pictured above – the picture seems to be an especially ‘hot’ seller. However, none of the chinese people I met so far(not many, please comment) had all that decor at home.

The reason why chinese restaurants abide to this ‘insane’ standard is simple; people expect it exactly like that. For them, seeing the picture makes them think about chinese restaurants…

Fighting a stereotype is difficult and expensive; the only ‘asian’ restaurant that does it successfully is the Yu-Me(extremely famous, expensive restaurant). They paid an incredible price though – the modern architecture costed xyz times more than a ’standard’ one.

Overall, for a small company, sticking to a stereotype usually works best. So, before launching a product, look at existing stereotypes in the market and adjust to them – you’ll have a much easier time selling your stuff. Beeing extraordinary can pay out big – but since the emphasis is on can, you may want to start out small…

What do you think?

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