Getting a handle on the jobs to be done (JTBD)
“Job” is shorthand for what an individual really seeks to accomplish in a given circumstance.
So, what an individual wants depends on the circumstances. It focuses on understanding why
customers "hire" products or services to get a specific job done in their lives. In the context of
marketing, JTBD is used to gain a deeper understanding of customer needs and preferences,
which can inform product development, messaging, and marketing strategies.
• The circumstances are more important than customer characteristics or product
attributes.
• Good innovations solve problems that formerly had only inadequate solutions—or no
solution.
• Jobs are never simply about function—they have powerful social and emotional
dimensions.
Questions to uncover jobs
1. What progress is the person trying to achieve?
- What are the functional, social, and emotional dimensions of the desired progress?
2. What are the circumstances of the struggle?
- Who, when, where, while doing what?
3. What obstacles are getting in the way of the person making that progress?
- What tasks do people want to avoid?
4. What are consumers trying to do with imperfect solutions through some kind of
compensating behavior?
- Are they buying and using a product that imperfectly performs the job?
- Are they cobbling together a work around solution involving multiple products?
- Are they doing nothing at all to solve the dilemma (e.g., where do you see the
nonconsumption)?
5. How would they define what ‘quality’ means for a better solution, and
- What trade-offs are they willing to make?
Takeaways
• Jobs-to-be-Done is a simple framework that puts emphasis on the
“why” behind what a customer is doing. It focuses on identifying
enduring consumer needs to develop products that have a lasting
impact.
• It gives a unit of focus — the job the customer is looking to do — to
build measurable ways of looking at success that do not change over time. The products need
to meet the metrics important to the customers.
, • You are not trying to just solve a consumer problem. You are first
trying to figure out what the right problem is.
• Good products do not sell themselves.
Lecture 2 – Monday 5 September
Understanding customers
A mundane product or service (everyday product) costing less than €10.
• Tomato ketchup
• Nail polish
• Phone case
DMU: Decision making unit (a person) → A friend, for his own birthday party.
DMP: Decision making process → The trigger is the neighbours needing the mangos for the
dinner. The neighbours were cooking the dishes and they needed mangos for that.
So, in summary, the DMU involves the group of individuals responsible for making purchasing
decisions, while the DMP is the specific product or service that they are considering for
purchase.
• At Albert Heijn (location) → fresh products, many choices, convenient.
• Freshness/ quality/ ripeness
• Bought 5 mangos
These mangos are a utilitarian product under ten euros.
→ Consumers make trade-offs between these things.
→ Product features matter
• Quality matters
• Convenience
• Habit matters
• DMU = 1 person
• Short DMP
• Brand matters
Utilitarian products are effective, helpful, functional, necessary, and practical.
I.e. microwaves, minivans, personal computers, t-shirt
Hedonic products are fun, exciting, delightful, thrilling, and enjoyable.
e.g. designer clothes, sports cars, luxury watches
A product or service costing over €100 that, the customer feels, reveals something about the
kind of person they are.
• (e)-Bike
• Yoga subscription
• Golden ring
• Bed frame
,Example:
DMU: Aunt (facial treatment)
DMP: She cares about her looks and the trigger was that friends commented about her looks.
• She looked for solutions (doctor, beauty centre)
• Social media accounts (before, after photos)
• She chose for the beauty centre because a friend recommended it, and they had good
before/after photos
• She repeated the facial treatments
Ego Expressive: It describes a type of product or brand choice that is motivated by a person's
desire to express their self-identity, values, beliefs, and personality.
• Social proof/ experience matters
• Brand matters
• A longer DMP
AIDA: The AIDA model, tracing the customer journey through
awareness, interest, Desire and Action, is perhaps the best-known
marketing model amongst all the classic marketing models. Many
marketers find AIDA useful since we apply this model daily,
whether consciously or subconsciously, when we're planning our
marketing communications strategy.
• Attention/Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action
OR
• Action
• Interest
• Desire
• Attention (for the brand)
This can also look different. Starting high with action, for example with a free trial. You start
with “action” then. The funnel looks like this, gets narrower because you are losing people on
the way. The wider it stays, the more successful you (marketing) strategy is.
Where does the funnel get narrower?
That is the place you want to become better.
CLV: Customer lifetime value:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the predicted total revenue a business can expect to earn
from a single customer throughout their entire relationship.
→ Hopefully they repeat purchases, so people stay in the desire/action part of the model.
, How do you market, depending on the place in the funnel?
Awareness stage:
• Ads with emotion
Cross model
Forces that move brands/products around in the
CLV cross model
• Price
• Brand image
• Trends
• Usage
• Public or not
• Scarcity
You can use marketing efforts to move people
around in the model.
Why do we segment?
Some people find tent holidays hell, other people find cruise ships hell. Therefore, no
customer is the same and we should segment and target them individually/grouped.
Heterogeneity: Heterogeneity is a word that
signifies diversity. A classroom consisting of
people from lots of different backgrounds would be
considered having the quality of heterogeneity.
Segmentation and Benefits
Segmentation aims at dividing the market into
subsets of customers.
Members are different between segments, but
similar within.
Benefits of segmentation:
To the firm:
• Identification of valuable customers (that have a higher CLV)
• More targeted promotions & marketing communications
→ Sustainable profit growth
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