Reference no: EM132185462

1. Explain what you learned from reading the section (that adds new understanding to marketing);

2. Explain the role of the jobs-to-be-done framework and how it can be used for segmentation and targeting (in the "science of    marketing");

3. Include examples from real companies (that you can get anywhere, except the article itself -- get from our textbook, the internet, practical experience, etc.) that illustrates the points in number 1.

It is one of the holy grails of marketing: predictability in new product innovation. Yet again and again, smart companies spend tens of millions of dollars doing the best research they can do only to have products flop in the marketplace.

Our perspective is that the way that companies assess and analyze markets shoulders at least a portion of the blame for this unpredictability. Segmenting markets into demographic segments, or assuming that product categories divide the world, can consistently lead to offerings that don’t connect with consumers and miss opportunities for innovation. Companies continue to push for improvements along dimensions that overshoot consumer needs and then complain that commoditization has set in when looking at the market the right way can highlight attractive avenues for differentiation.

There must be a better way, one that allows companies to identify real opportunities that promise extraordinary returns. We believe that focusing on the “job” a customer is trying to get done can help companies break out of the marketing morass. This article describes how this jobs- to-be-done framework can help companies master the “innovation lifecycle,” improving their ability to spot high-growth opportunities, optimize existing products, and inject life into even the most stagnant categories. Jobs and the innovation life cycle

The concept of jobs to be done is described in Chapter 3 of Clayton Christensen’s 2003 book The Innovator’s Solution. The concept is simple. It holds that customers don’t really buy products, they hire them to get jobs done. To identify opportunities to create new growth, then, look first for important “jobs” that can’t be done satisfactorily with available solutions. You can think about a job as a problem a customer needs to solve. Remember the phrase attributed to Harvard Business School marketing guru Ted Levitt: “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill — they want a quarter-inch hole.”

For example, Intuit’s QuickBooks software makes it easy for small business owners to accomplish an important job: Make sure my business doesn’t run out of cash. Before Intuit’s innovation, existing alternatives, such as pen and paper and Excel spreadsheets, weren’t good enough to get this job done. Professional accounting software packages were actually too good — confusing and filled with unnecessary features. QuickBooks did the job better than any alternative and took over the category.

The jobs-to-be-done model is simple but powerful. It shifts focus from solutions that customers utilize to the problems they can’t adequately solve. Instead of categorizing customers into demographic groups that can be poor predictors of behavior, attitudes that might influence purchasing behavior, or activities that people currently perform (often because they have no better alternative), it zeros in on circumstances and constraints that surround the jobs people are trying to get done. These characteristics are more deeply connected to the “best” possible solution than any other segmentation scheme. In short, the jobs-to-be-done model provides a blueprint for innovation: Find that frustrated customer and zero in on the roots of their frustration.

Generally speaking, any successful innovation follows a life cycle. Before there is an innovation, there is market demand. Then an innovator finds a way to tap into that demand. In the early days, the innovator’s key challenge is optimizing the innovation for maximum success, then finding creative ways to capture value. Markets abhor vacuums, so any successful innovator must ward off encroaching competitors. Finally, when the innovation reaches a seeming stage of maturity, the innovator must find new ways to revitalize growth. Jobs-based thinking can help the marketer in each stage of the innovation lifecycle.

Stage 1: Identifying demand?

Jobs’ thinking illuminates opportunities to innovate in the marketplace. These opportunities may stem from identifying jobs for which existing solutions are ineffective or nonexistent, or by pinpointing “employers” who will eagerly hire a new offering. Understanding important, unsatisfied jobs almost always highlights substantial opportunities for growth.

While companies often seek to develop market understanding before innovating, sometimes the process works in the other direction. In other words, a company often starts with a technology and has to figure out what market has the highest potential for growth. In these circumstances, start by assessing the problems the technology could solve, the contexts in which the technology could be used, and its performance benefits and liabilities compared to existing solutions. Then, consider all of the “employers” who might be interested in hiring the technology.

Ask questions such as:

Who needs to solve the problems the technology could solve?

Who would be delighted by this solution despite its limitations?

In which contexts could this solution be used where existing technologies could not?

For example, in the early 2000s, California-based Linksys had to decide how to commercialize wireless networking technologies. Existing versions of the technology allowed users to send data wirelessly over short distances. Signals degraded rapidly beyond about 300 feet and provided low levels of security and encryption. Linksys wisely decided to target users looking to network a home or a small office. The technology helped these users address important jobs, and security and distance-related limitations were irrelevant in that context.

Jobs-To-Be-Done Concept

Exchange must be motivated by fulfillment of a buyer need

Simple trade era: segment on basic needs, but…

Marketing era: jobs-to-be-done fulfillment

“The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling her.”                - Peter Drucker

What is job-to-be-done?

An understanding of customer’s job-to-be-done is more powerful than knowing a need.

In the jobs-driven approach, a deep understanding of priority “jobs” drives decisions about what and how to segment and innovate. Using job-to-be-done in this way makes marketing and innovation more predictably successful.

What’s Unique About

Jobs-to-Be-Done?

Puts customer in center of innovation equation

Determines how customer views quality

Incredibly actionable:

Identifies innovation opportunities

Pinpoints the right way to communicate with customers

Knowing the JTBD Reveals:

The market is much larger (education vs. college)

Real competitors may not be in their product category (e.g. insurers do not compete against other insurers for the uninsured healthcare segment)

Growth potential is greater, because non-consumption (i.e. customers can’t afford the solution as it is currently offered) is usually a major opportunity

Marketers better understand the constraints that keep customers from “hiring” their product to fulfill the “job” (e.g. premium coffee at Starbucks)

Job-to-be-Done Applied to 4Ps

Build a solution that delivers the job in the circumstance in which the job arises

Ensure appropriate pricing so customer will hire the product to do the job they cannot do alone

Sell the job solution in all appropriate distribution channels

Communicate the solution that achieves the job