BackBook extract | The Curious Marketer: Expeditions In Branding And Consumer Behaviour
Harish Bhat says curiosity can lead to new ideas, provide clarity in many situations that can quickly lead to new and purposeful marketing actions
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What’s the essential ingredient in the secret sauce that goes into creating the great marketing recipe? Curiosity, alongside empathy and business acumen, says Harish Bhat, chairman of Tata Global Beverages and brand custodian of Tata Sons Ltd, in his new book The Curious Marketer: Expeditions In Branding And Consumer Behaviour.
Bhat says curiosity can lead to new ideas, provide clarity in many situations that can quickly lead to new and purposeful marketing actions. This can help marketers implement continuous improvements in their products and services, writes Bhat, who is a Mint columnist.
His book draws upon his personal as well as nearly 30 years of experience with the Tata Group.
In the “Why Marketers Should Visit Museums" chapter, Bhat explains that marketers should think beyond business schools, mid-career executive programmes, workshops and business books when it comes to learning news skills. Edited excerpts:
Over some time, I have come to realize that museums can teach the marketing fraternity many exciting and relevant lessons. Some time back, my wife and I visited Mumbai’s oldest museum, the Dr Bhauji Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, located at Byculla. The museum showcases the life and history of 19th century Mumbai, and the decorative arts of the city.
We were taken on a brief tour of it by a young girl, an archaeologist. She narrated to us interesting stories of each major exhibit. Within an hour, and through viewing less than 15 objects, we had virtually been told the entire story of British Mumbai of the 19th century. This was such an enjoyable experience, and I wished to visit more museums. Such an opportunity presented itself soon after, when I had a few hours to myself during a visit to London.
Here, I decided to visit the British Museum. Specifically, I chose to visit a special exhibition the museum has put together, titled Germany: Memories Of A Nation. This exhibition is a 600-year history of Germany, told through simple but powerful objects. Once again, within an hour, I got to see a range of artefacts belonging to various periods of European history. Unlike in Mumbai, I had no human guide to walk me through this exhibition, but the exhibits told their own stories. Small, easy-to-read story cards in large fonts vividly brought to life the stories of exhibits as diverse as the Berlin Wall, the Gutenberg printing press, the Bible of Martin Luther, and maps showing how the borders of the German nation have constantly shifted.
So what can marketers learn from visiting excellent museums such as these?
The art of storytelling
Great brands have traditionally told wonderful stories. Unfortunately, many modern marketers, schooled in the science of marketing, and data-driven approaches to consumer research or media planning, have forgotten the art of great storytelling. Museums remind us, and also teach us, how to tell powerful stories in a vivid, simple manner.
The girl who guided my wife and me through the Mumbai city museum, and the person who wrote out the superbly crafted story cards which I saw at the British Museum, are both master storytellers. Such captivating yet simple storytelling is what every marketer should attempt to do—through every advertisement, packaging design, website or tweet.
So many marketers tend to pack their brands with so much information that customers retain very little. For instance, look at most packs on supermarket shelves today, and you will see that they are crowded with incredible amounts of information. This is because we want our consumers to know everything, and we fear leaving out anything at all.
But all this also confuses people, who eventually remember little or nothing. On the other hand, museums teach us that a few carefully chosen objects are quite adequate to tell a fascinating story.
Curation of content
The new buzzword in marketing is “curation" of content. This means putting together content for your brand through articles and blogs, advertisements, websites, videos on YouTube and a host of other emerging social media platforms.
This collection of content then defines the brand to consumers. Every marketer aspires to achieve excellent curation which can wonderfully engage his consumers with consistent yet exciting messages.
Now, the original and the best curators are not from the world of marketing, but are from museums. These museum curators present content to accurately educate and inform their visitors. Through expert curation, they reveal objects never seen before, or a fresh exciting connection between objects which has never been noticed before. The curation they do also navigates us in a manner that tells the story in one beautiful sweep.
Marketers should study the techniques used by curators of museums if they wish to build expertise in content curation themselves. All marketers wish to become customer centric, to deliver higher levels of customer delight.
Cost-effective marketing
Finally, museums teach us a lot about cost-effective, pull-based marketing. With very minimal advertising budgets, they still pull in millions of new and repeat visitors each year.
Both the museums I visited were full of people, unlike many retail stores I know.
Studying how museums market themselves can hold rich rewards for all of us.
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