Jobs to be done.

Marketing groups usually set about segmenting markets by one of two basic ways:

1. By demographics, age, sex, education, income, with/without children, and so on, or,
2. By product category, for example meat is usually segmented by breed, cut, pack size, price.

However, there is a third way, one that disregards the traditional segmentations, one that recognises the difference between cause and effect.

You do not buy fillet steak because you are a 35 year old graduate earning 150k +, with no children, you buy filet steak because you like it, or your partners  school friend is coming around for a BBQ, you buy it because it is the right product for the job to be done. Nobody buys a Ferrari to get from point A to point B, they buy a Ferrari to make a statement, as a car costing 10% of the Ferrari will offer reliable, relatively comfortable transport.

The marketing of every product can benefit from these simple questions, asked from the point of view of the prospective customer:

1. What job do I want done?
2. How will this product deliver on the job to be done?
3. Which of the acceptable product options offers the best value, however the I define value in the circumstances?

Related posts:

The challenge of the first 6 questions for a new product “reality check” The Jobs legacy Show the value