Learning from reading

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at Mumbai’s annual literary festival. Branded Tata Literature Live!, the event showcased more than 100 authors from India and abroad. I found it very interesting and liberating to speak as an author, and of course this was quite different from my constant engagements as a marketer and manager. I came out of the festival swimming in a sea of exciting literature, and in awe of the famous authors and creative minds featured at the festival – including names as diverse as Girish Karnad, Amish Tripathi, Prasoon Joshi, Naseerudin Shah and Shobhaa De.

Reflecting on this experience, I realise that many of these Indian authors are as well known, if not better known, than many brands of products or services marketed in this country. Indeed, each of them is a brand in his or her own right. If Shakespeare or P.G. Wodehouse or Ernest Hemmingway or J.K. Rowling had been at this Tata Lit Live festival, they would have been mega brands in their own right. All this sparked a new line of enquiry in my mind: Can marketers and brands learn something from famous authors?

The answer, I discovered, is a resounding yes. There are so many lessons that brands can learn from authors and their books. Here are just a few.

Appeal to head and heart

Famous authors rarely appeal only rationally or only emotionally. The best writers and the most memorable books almost always speak both to the head and the heart, at the same time. Think of Shakespeare’s plays, the novels of Charles Dickens or Munshi Premchand or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Their stories impact us intellectually and emotionally, hence they are so powerful and impossible to forget. While this is certainly true of great works of fiction, some of the finest works of history and non-fiction also reach out with these twin prongs. In similar fashion, brands of products and services need to simultaneously appeal to consumers’ heads and hearts, to win them over. The product being marketed certainly needs to offer the consumer clear rational reasons for purchase, but it also needs to have strong emotional appeal to ensure that it occupies a favourite and lasting place in the consumer’s mind. Reflect for a moment on wonderful brands such as Pepsi, Coke, BMW and Dove – and you will soon conclude that this exactly what they do.

Narrate great and timeless stories

The best writers always craft their stories around timeless archetypes and stories which live deep in the collective unconscious of people. The books they write may be new, but the archetypes their stories are founded on are timeless. As the psychologist Carl Jung points out, there are only 12 primary archetypes – Hero, Caregiver, Explorer, Rebel, Lover, Creator, Jester, Sage, Innocent, Orphan, Magician, Ruler. Look at the best works of literature, and they are always sharply focused on one or two of these archetypes, because authors know that these have a deep and lasting impact on their readers.

Similarly, marketers would do well to ensure that their brands are based on ideas firmly rooted in one of these timeless archetypes. This will make their brand appeal not just strong, but also deep and timeless in the minds of their consumers, who already know and internalise these archetypes very well. Of course, brands needs to evolve new narrations of these age-old stories, to make themselves particularly interesting, contemporary and relevant. Pause for a moment and do this small exercise: Which archetypes would you associate with famous brands such as Apple, Diesel, Harley Davidson, Titan and Amul?

Consistency for lasting fame

Most famous authors are very consistent, sticking to a particular genre or theme, and developing great expertise in writing about it. We associate Shakespeare primarily with plays that are rich with strong human stories and memorable characters. On the other hand, P.G. Wodehouse is all about British humour. Agatha Christie is best known for her murder mysteries, Isaac Asimov for science fiction, John Grisham for legal fiction and J. K. Rowling for her Harry Potter series based on a magical world. Some authors excel in magical fantasy, others in stories of Indian immigrants in the Americas, and yet others in tales of romance and love.

In similar fashion, great brands are most often built around a single theme, which they are wedded to for a long, long time. The brand need not be confined to a single product category, but the theme or core thought of the brand needs to be single-minded and consistent. To illustrate, Coca-Cola has always been about happiness, Tata has always stood for leadership with trust, and Rolex has always been in the space of luxury and craftsmanship. These brands surely evolve with the times, but, at their core, they never seem to change.

Develop a distinctive tone and style

Superb authors develop their own distinctive tone and style, which their readers fall in love with. Think of Nobel Prize winners such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pearl S. Buck and Orhan Pamuk. Think also of iconic writers of Indian origin such as Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri and R. K. Narayan. Each of them has his or her own style of writing, including the specific choice of words, turns of phrase and wonderful methods of narration. That is what makes us return to read their books again and again, and that is also what makes their books distinctive yet greatly anticipated.

Brands should, in identical manner, also develop and hone their own tone of voice, their own signature product design, their own style of communication. Great brands have learnt and perfected this art. For instance, you will always recognise a Land Rover car or Breitling wrist watch by its product design, and you will always immediately identify an Amul advertisement by its tone of communication. Unfortunately, many brands seek to change their tone and style very often, which leaves consumers quite confused. Imagine, if Salman Rushdie were to suddenly write like Chetan Bhagat, that would be very confusing to all of us, wouldn’t it?

Creative energy, always

Finally, I must state the obvious. Great authors are very creative. They create new stories, new characters, fresh twists and turns, deliciously wonderful language, all of which hold us in thrall. That is why they sell millions of copies, and that is why readers await their next book so eagerly. Similarly, brands which aspire to greatness also need to be constantly creative and innovative in everything they do – development of new products, packaging, advertising, promotional techniques, methods of reaching out to consumers. This is the big truth, though it may be an equally big challenge.

So, the next time your marketing team or you are thinking about your brands, turn for inspiration also to authors and their books. You may find in this exciting space of literature both time-tested and new ideas that inspire you to take the next big leap for the brands your work with. This is why marketers must read extensively, and also head out, every now and then, to attend literary festivals.

Harish Bhat is Managing Director and CEO of Tata Global Beverages Ltd, and author of Tata Log: Eight modern stories from a timeless Institution. These are his personal views. bhatharish@hotmail.com

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