Speaker / Gateway

ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO, I WROTE A BOOK CALLED THE CURIOUS MARKETER, AND THESE ARE ALL STORIES OF CURIOSITIES THAT I AM GOING TO NARRATE.

What does curiosity mean? Is curiosity an eagerness to learn? Is curiosity an urge to explore something that you do not know? I read a good definition: ‘curiosity is about exploring what you do not know.’ And the difference between what you think you know, and the universe of knowledge, is what determines your curiosity. Sometimes you think you
know it all, then you are not curious. But if you think that there is much more to be learnt about the world that we live in then you become innately curious.

Why should a marketer be curious?

It provides new ideas for the launch of new products and new brands.

It keeps your mind stimulated and creates more clarity about areas you want to work on.

It helps constantly improve your life. You become curious, you learn new things and you learn to do things better.

Finally, curiosity is about engagement. Our mind does not get bored if we are curious because we are constantly engaging in new things.

Curiosity is equally important for us in life as a whole. If Isaac Newton had not been curious enough to wonder why the apple fell on the ground, it would have not let him to understand the laws of gravity. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, once delivered a commencement lecture at Stanford University which ended with some very famous words ‘Live Hungry, Live foolish’. You have to be hungry throughout life. Steve Jobs narrates an example of his own curiosity in that speech. He says he was a college drop-out. However, he came across a notice for calligraphy classes on campus. He immediately became curious because he had no clue what calligraphy was. He went for seven or eight classes and learned about fonts: Arial, Times New Roman or Gothic. They taught him that lettering could be beautiful and how calligraphy brought writing alive. Steve Jobs says, “At that point I had no clue how this is going to benefit my life but I was curious to know more. So, I filed it in my mind.” Fifteen years later, he says, when he was working out the interface of Apple’s Mac, those lessons came to mind and he asked himself why a computer could not demonstrate calligraphy that was as beautiful as the calligraphy he had learned. That is how the idea of the famous graphic interface of Apple was born, whether on the iPhone or iPad or MacBook. It’s not the calligraphy that is important, it is what Steve Jobs says is important. He says, “Be curious. Don’t worry that the curiosity that you have should be of immediate use to you. The dots will connect in your life as long as you are curious, as long as you learn new stuff that you are interested in, the dots will connect in your life sooner or later.” And that is the beautiful story that inspired me to write this book.

You can be curious about many things: the places you visit, the food you eat, the people you meet, reading new books and watching new movies. Here are a few stories from my life: (A picture of banana chips on the screen) My wife and I visited Kerala, on the beautiful backwaters of Alleppey. We were about to take a boat from the booked jetty and travel towards Kottiyam. Beautiful backwaters, wonderful swaying coconut palms and the beautiful food that Kerala serves in the banana leaf. But, as we moved towards the jetty, we found a guy frying fresh banana chips so we bought a couple of them and we kept a bunch all along. They were delicious – a hint of sweetness but not that sweet, very crisp but not really oily, very different from the potato chips that were normally eaten. When I got back from my trip, I got a little curious about banana chips. One of the things I realised was that if you looked at chips across the country, you would find nachos, potato chips, Pringles, etc on the shelves. But we never find a national brand of banana chips anywhere despite banana chips being native to our country, to Kerala. I became more curious about why banana chips are so delicious.

I found that they can meet many unmet needs. They are a good alternative to potato chips, they are healthier as they absorb less oil than potato chips. They are more durable, they don’t break, they are a great accompaniment because they also have that sweetness with them and, of course, they come from an exotic origin. What is more exotic than the backwaters of Kerala and the green scenery around them and the romance of the backwaters and the coconut palms? There are so many unmet customer needs that banana chips deliver and yet no marketer thought of introducing a national brand of banana chips.

There are a handful of local brands, that’s all. I wrote about this and Paper Boat wrote back to me in about six months saying that they had launched a national brand of banana chips. The point is that I could have eaten those banana chips and forgotten about them. But my curiosity revealed a market opportunity for marketers.

The next is a story from my interaction with Xerxis Desai who founded Titan. I worked in Titan for many years. One thing I found out about Xerxis is that he was a very curious person himself. When India was full of mechanical watches, he decided to launch Quartz because he was curious to see what they could do. He found out that Quartz could be used to make very slim watches which would be designed much better and he launched Titan with a glorious collection.

Titan continues to dominate the watch market with a variety of watches. Not only did he launch Quartz watches but he also had brilliant designs. He transformed watches from time-keeping devices to fashion accessories because he was curious about what they could do on one’s wrist. He did not launch it with Bollywood music or Hindi songs because he thought they should highlight elegance. Therefore, he launched them with Mozart’s 25th Symphony which is today famous across the country. That was based on his understanding and curiosity of Western music and how it serves to elevate you. He did the same with the jewellery brand, Tanishq. He went into depth of traditional Indian jewellery and found out how to contemporize it.

I also had an opportunity to interact with Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks because Tata group has a joint venture with Starbucks in India. I thought he was equally curious about coffee as a whole. Restlessness is the heart of curiosity which I found in all these people. So, we should be curious and learn from people.

My next story comes from Ranthambore, Rajasthan. When we came back, I got curious about the wildlife I had seen there and I tried to find out if there were any brands based on wildlife. I found RedBull, Puma, Dove, Jaguar and you see how well these brands have used that particular animal and their characteristic: bull for energy, puma for speed with your shoe, dove for gentleness upon your skin, jaguar for the speed of the car. I asked myself is there more scope to this? We have a tea brand called Gemini which has been selling in Telangana for last 20-30 years. People who are not literate call it the two elephants. Gemini is a sign of the zodiac and therefore the reference to twin elephants. It’s beautiful. The brand has 70 per cent of the market share in the districts of Telangana because the people associate with the elephants.

You can be curious about history as well. This curiosity got into me when I looked at the bike Bajaj V, V for victory. It was unveiled in an auto expo in 2016. What is unique about this bike is that every single edition of it has a little bit of metal taken from the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. When INS Vikrant was turned into scrap, Bajaj bought the scrap and inserted a little bit of metal into the fuel tank of the bike. So now, when the person rides the bike, he feels he is riding a piece of Indian history. It has many emotive pieces of history. It went on to become Bajaj’s bestseller. When I thought about this history, I researched a little more to find watches that used actual dust of the moon and moondust brought back by Apollo.

There are watches that are made by the metal of Titanic. There are so many strong emotive links of history, heritage. There are some Tata brands that have used it. The Taj group has been the most inspiring in the way they have taken the history of palaces in Rajasthan and other parts of the country and created beautiful palace destinations like in Udaipur and others. That is a beautiful way of romanticizing history but there are many more ways of doing it if you want to own your business and it can be only your curiosity that can do it.

HOW DO YOU BECOME CURIOUS? WHAT LEADS YOU TO BECOME CURIOUS?
Be aware that you do not know it all.

Ask questions. As children we were never hesitant to ask questions. As we grew older, we started wondering about whether we were going to look stupid if we asked this question?

To be curious, your listen to talk ratio should be 10:1. Listen 10 times more than you talk when you talk you are not adding more value to yourself when you are listening you add value to yourself.

Observe customers with a thin eye. How often do you take time to observe? Sit and observe and ask yourself.

Seek new experiences. We eventually end up meeting the same 40-50 people in life. Who are the new people you will meet? Meet new people, do something you have never done before.

Embrace the unexpected. In this lockdown, learn something new and use it for filling your curiosity.

Read read read. It is the best window to the world at large.