Article by: Mike York, COO
(Spoiler: It’s not more data. It’s not another brainstorm. It’s curiosity, the marketing version of caffeine.)
If great brands are built on insight, curiosity is the thing that finds it. Without it, strategy becomes a game of “copy whatever your competitor did, but make it blue and mention an AI feature.”
Curiosity is what turns “We should probably do a survey” into “Wait, why do people love this weird product so much?” It’s what separates the brands that make noise from the ones that make moves.
So, let’s have a chat about why curiosity isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the only thing keeping your brand from turning into that boring uncle who still talks about how he used to be friends with Katy Perry on Myspace.
Curiosity Asks “Why?” (Over and Over Until Everyone’s Uncomfortable)
Most brands stop at what. What do people buy? What’s trending? What color performs best on a shelf?
Curious brands go deeper. They ask why. Why do people buy it? Why do they post about it? Why do they secretly hide it in the pantry like a shame snack?
The magic happens somewhere between the third “why” and the moment your team starts to say, “Okay, but do we really need to keep asking that?” Yes. You do. That’s literally the job.
Curiosity Doesn’t Need Permission
Curious marketers are the ones who start sentences with, “This might be a dumb question, but…” and then proceed to blow up your entire business model in all the best possible ways.
They’re the game changers who ask things like:
- “What if we’re not the hero of our story; what if our customer is?”
- “Do people even want this, or are we just emotionally attached to the tagline?”
- “What if the problem isn’t our audience, it’s our ego?”
Curiosity doesn’t care about MaxDiff results or slide decks. It wants the truth, and occasionally a snack, just like the rest of us.
Curiosity Gets You Out of the Conference Room
There’s only so much insight you can get from staring at dashboards and arguing over NPS scores.
Curious brands go outside the everyday. They talk to customers. They spend an hour watching how someone actually opens their packaging (usually incorrectly).
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s perspective.
Because every time you step into a real person’s world, you realize your brand isn’t the center of the universe.
Curiosity Doesn’t Fear Being Wrong, It Fears Being Boring
Curiosity loves chaos. It’s allergic to “we’ve always done it this way.”
You can spot a curious brand a mile away because they’re the ones testing weird ideas that shouldn’t work — and sometimes don’t — but when they do, everyone pretends they drew it up that way all along.
They’re not chasing best practices. They’re chasing better questions.
Because the opposite of curiosity isn’t certainty, it’s stagnation.
Curiosity Is Contagious (and It Smells Like Innovation)
When curiosity shows up in a company, it spreads. Suddenly, your finance team’s asking about customer journeys. Your ops teams are suggesting segmentation tweaks. The intern is building an insight dashboard “for fun.”
Curiosity creates cultures that don’t just react to change; they chase it.
It’s how every brand you secretly wish you were built their DNA: not around data alone, but around the question, “What else could this be?” If you haven’t Audibled “Shoe Dog” and heard Phil Knight’s relentless pursuit of a vision, you’re missing out.
Curiosity Makes Research Feel Like Discovery, Not Homework
Reality check: most research decks feel like nutritional labels. Technically useful, but not exactly inspiring.
Curiosity turns data into story. It’s what transforms “42% of consumers value convenience” into “Turns out people want one less decision to make before 9 a.m.”
The first line makes you yawn. The second makes you think.
And thinking, real, uncomfortable, alive thinking, is where better brand decisions begin.
Curiosity Is the Best Brand Strategy You’re Not Budgeting For
You can’t buy curiosity. You can’t outsource it. But you can hire for it. Reward it. Protect it.
Because here’s the real kicker: curiosity doesn’t cost a dime, but ignoring it? That’s expensive as hell.
Brands that stop asking “why” start paying for mistakes they could’ve avoided with one good question.
The Last Word
Curiosity is messy. It’s inconvenient. It doesn’t fit neatly into a quarterly KPI report. But it’s the single most valuable habit a brand can have. It’s also one of the core values of SMARI for that reason.
Because the best insights don’t come from data alone, they come from humans brave enough to say, “Wait… what if we’re wrong?”
So go ahead: Be the annoying one who asks too many questions. Be the brand that pokes, prods, and plays. Be curious enough to learn what your customers actually want.
Because curiosity doesn’t just make you smarter, it keeps you human. And honestly, that’s the kind of intelligence the world needs more of.
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SMARI is an award-winning Indiana-based market research consultancy that was founded in 1983 with the idea of guiding change and inspiring confidence. We are proud to work with SMEs as well as a variety of Fortune 500 brands. We are powered by our core values: integrity, community, perseverance, trust, passion, curiosity, and innovation. SMARI’s expertise includes full project scopes, including instrument design, sampling & fielding services, reporting & analysis in Healthcare, CPG, Retail, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, Financial Services industries, and beyond. Much has changed in our 40+ years, but our tagline and overarching mission remain the same—to guide change and inspire confidence. Start a conversation with us at www.SMARI.com.
