Who Really Controls Your Brand Value?
The Surprising Story of Copenhagen’s Toilet Castle
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The Surprising Story of Copenhagen’s Toilet Castle
You can spend years building a business, developing a product, designing a building, or creating a brand. You can carefully consider every detail, from how it looks and works to what you want people to think about it. You can even spend a fortune explaining why it’s special and what makes it valuable.
But you can’t control one thing: what people remember and value.
But first, a story…
When we got to Denmark, Gloria and I checked into the Villa Copenhagen. It’s a beautiful five-star hotel in Denmark’s capital directly across the street from the Central Station. The hotel occupies a magnificent building originally constructed in 1912 as the headquarters for Denmark’s postal and telegraph service.
The architect, Heinrich Wenck, also designed Copenhagen’s Central Station. His government building was an impressive architectural achievement, designed to convey the institution’s importance and permanence.
Why Copenhagen Called It the Toilet Castle
When the building opened, Copenhageners were particularly impressed by its modern conveniences, including electricity, central heating, and modern plumbing.
So how did Copenhageners honor that accomplishment?
They nicknamed it Toiletslottet (The Toilet Castle), because of its extraordinary number of indoor toilets.
Imagine that.
You spend years designing a monumental building, considering its proportions, materials, architectural details, and commanding presence in the center of a European capital.
And all anybody can talk about are the bathrooms.
And now, more than a century later, the building has been transformed into a luxury hotel. Its original purpose has disappeared, its occupants have changed, and its rooms have been reimagined for an entirely different audience.
But the story about the toilets survives.
Who Decides What a Brand Means?
We all tend to believe that the things we create belong to us. And in a legal or practical sense, they often do. We own our businesses, products, designs, inventions, and intellectual property.
But the meaning and value of those creations belong to the people who experience them.
An architect can design a building to communicate grandeur, but the public might celebrate its plumbing. A company can introduce a product for one purpose, only to discover that customers love it for something entirely different. An artist can create a painting with a particular message in mind, knowing that everyone who looks at it brings their own experiences, memories, and interpretations to the encounter.
Your Customers Control Your Brand Value
Your brand works the same way.
You can decide what you want your brand to represent, carefully develop the messaging, choose the images, write the copy, and repeat your promises until you’re blue in the face.
But in the end, your customers decide what your brand means to them and where its real value lies.
Sometimes they notice something you overlooked. Sometimes they find value you never considered. And sometimes they completely ignore the feature you thought was your greatest achievement.
What Should You Pay Attention To?
If you’re building a business, managing a brand, creating something new, or simply trying to grow your brand value, pay attention to what people respond to.
What do they remember? What do they tell their friends? What do they value that you never intended? Somewhere in those answers might be the most valuable thing you’ve created.
Even if you never intended to create it.
FAQs
Who controls a brand’s value?
A company can shape its product, message, and experience, but customers ultimately determine brand value through what they notice, remember, believe, pay for, repeat, and recommend.
Why was Copenhagen’s former Central Post Office called the Toilet Castle?
When the building opened in 1912, Copenhageners were struck by its modern conveniences—including electricity, central heating, and an apparently disproportionate number of indoor toilets. The public nicknamed it Toiletslottet, or the Toilet Castle.
Who designed Copenhagen’s Toilet Castle?
Danish architect Heinrich Wenck designed the Central Post building. He also designed Copenhagen Central Station, which stands nearby.
What is the Toilet Castle today?
The former Central Post and Telegraph Head Office has been transformed into Villa Copenhagen, a luxury hotel that opened in the historic building in 2020.
What does the Toilet Castle teach us about branding?
It shows that creators cannot fully control meaning. The building was designed to communicate institutional importance, but the public remembered its toilets. Brand meaning is formed in the audience’s experience and memory.
How can a business learn what customers value?
Ask customers what they remember, repeat, recommend, pay extra for, and describe to friends. Compare those answers with the features and messages the company intended to emphasize.
Is brand value the same as a company’s intended positioning?
No. Positioning expresses what a company wants to stand for. Brand value reflects what customers actually believe the company means and how useful, distinctive, trustworthy, or desirable that meaning feels to them.
What should a company do when customers value an unexpected feature?
Investigate why the feature matters, how often the response occurs, and whether it can support a clearer promise, better experience, new offer, or stronger story. Unexpected value is evidence, not necessarily a distraction.