Grabbing market attention with the unexpected

How many famous accidental product discoveries are you aware of? There’s plenty to fill history books.

Let’s take Post-it Notes: the result of 3M scientist Spencer Silver’s failed attempt to create a stronger adhesive for the aerospace industry. Instead, he ended up creating a weak adhesive that could easily be removed without residue. And voila! A ‘mistake’ that we all use daily.

What about the miracle ingredient in the SK-II skincare line? It was discovered as a result of a chance encounter in the 1970s inside a Japanese sake brewery.  Despite their old age, employees maintained remarkably soft and youthful hands after constant handling of fermented sake “mash”. Scientists used this observation and a naturally derived liquid that revolutionized skincare.

Another famous chance encounter took place in 1983, when British actress Jane Birkin sat next to Jean Louis Dumas, the director of Hermès, on a flight to Paris. Hermès had started as a saddlery business in 1837 but later evolved into a luxury fashion brand due to changes in transportation, producing high-end watches, scarves loved by the Queen of England, perfumes, jewellery, and ready-to-wear items. On the plane, Jane complained to Dumas about her frustration finding the perfect bag to match her needs and explained her ideal design. Hermès brought her vision into the physical world, and ultimately into the homes of celebrities such as Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, and many more.

“Mistakes” and “fate encounters” like these birthed many iconic products of our modern times. I would liken serendipitous product stories to underdog stories: they are occurrences where something of value is found by chance. Where the idea of something positive emerges out of a situation previously seen as stagnant or hopeless when the unexpected happens.

Brands’ origin stories, filled with luck, accidents, or surprises, leading to new designs and innovative products, don’t just entertain. Their authenticity is what consumers identify with. They can change how people feel about what you’re selling.

The proven link between serendipity and consumers’ positive emotions (Bao and Yang 2022; Bao and Zhu 2023; Kim et al. 2021) results in more attention on the product, and even more profound engagement with the brand. People feel more naturally drawn to stories that have a plot twist. This stirs their curiosity and gives rise to higher levels of emotional resonance (Chiu, Hsieh, and Kuo 2012). Eiswein, the famous German ice wine, is the perfect example of an unfortunate situation turned successful product on a global scale. In the late 1700s, German winemakers in Franconia chose not to discard their grape harvest attacked by an early frost. Instead, by pressing the icy grapes, they discovered a new type of dessert wine, intensely sweet and flavorful.

Serendipity and the human brain

Humans love surprises and happy endings. And there’s something magical about serendipity. When a product story is sprinkled with a bit of luck or chance (like a chef stumbling onto a new recipe by accident), it fires up our emotions. And most of our buying decisions are driven by emotion.

In a new experiment, researchers at Jinan University in China (Kuai and Wei, 2024) found that serendipitous stories can significantly boost positive feelings like joy, curiosity and excitement among consumers. Even when nothing else about the product has changed, this spike in emotions makes people more attracted to the product itself.

There is an essential boundary to this effect you must be aware of: it only performs effectively when the story is read on a mobile device. Why? Most likely because phones, held in our hands and touched with our fingers, create a more intimate, immersive experience. It seems that when we click a mouse connected to a desktop device, our brains don’t process it as a form of direct touch. So we rely more on cognition than emotions to make decisions in these scenarios. (Zhu and Meyer 2017). While reading a serendipitous origin story on a mobile device, we can touch the screen directly which gives us more positive mental stimulation, as we mostly rely on emotional clues (Jha et al. 2020).

Successfully using serendipity in marketing

Like everything else in marketing, it all comes down to your objective. If you aim to build a genuine and sustainable connection between your product (or brand) and your customers, this latest study emphasizes a strategic approach to storytelling. Tell your origin (and original! not made-up) story with a twist of fate.

Put the spotlight on the unexpected. Was your product the result of a mistake? Or an accident?  Was it inspired by a strange comment or a difficult circumstance? Did you solve a problem that you weren’t trying to solve in the first place? Then share the emotion that came with the unexpected. How did it make you feel? Confused, excited, delighted?

You don’t need to invent a tale. Be authentic and personal. Your audience will relate to human stories, even the small ones, such as unique, quirky moments during product development that nobody expected to go viral overnight.

Many great products came on the market from a reversal of the plot. Think of Penicillin which was discovered when mould accidentally grew in a petri dish. Velcro was created by a Swiss engineer who noticed burrs sticking to his dog’s fur during a hike. Corn flakes? A breakfast mishap in a sanitarium kitchen, where a batch of cooked wheat was left out and became stale.

These stories are the perfect topic for your family quiz night. But in marketing, they are conversion tools. Sharing your serendipitous origin stories can increase engagement, brand likeability, and product appeal.

Take Home Notes

Serendipity works best when you have a real, unexpected moment to share. Focus on emotions and share your story on mobile or social platforms (they allow for immersive reading). Consumers can easily sense the lack of authenticity. So skip this tool If your story is forced and you do not have a relatable founder’s story.

Sometimes, all it takes to transform your brand image or improve product adoption is a lucky, well-told narrative. Move your focus to those unexpected pieces of information that are real, just hidden. As the serendipity effect diminishes on desktop devices, you may want to customize your messaging for every device. The length of the story, as well as the customer familiarity with the brand, may also impact the strength of the effect.

This study hasn’t taken into account the relationship with different types of products (utilitarian or hedonistic products), which may affect the purchase decision. More research would be beneficial going forward.