Marketers need to think less about market segments and more about the work that clients would like to do.
Marketers have lost the forest for the trees, too focused on creating products for narrow demographic segments, rather than to meet the needs. Customers want to "hire" a product that he performed some work, or, as the legendary marketing professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt: "People do not want to buy a drill for three quarters of an inch. They need a hole for three quarters of an inch! "
A recent article in Harvard Business Review "Marketing mistakes: causes and solutions," asserts that the marketer - to understand what kind of job would run the client and create products and brands that meet this need. In the above passage, the authors examine the creation of products that do the work, not just fill the grocery segment.
Creating products that perform work
With few exceptions, every job that people want or need to do, is a social, functional or emotional dimension. If marketers understand each of these measurements, they can create a product that is narrowly focused on the execution of the work. In other words, it is the work, not the client, is the primary unit of analysis for marketers seeking to develop a product that people will buy.
To understand why, look at the efforts of a fast food restaurant to increase sales of a milkshake. Its marketers first defined market segments through product - a milkshake - and then further segmented by demographic and personal characteristics of those customers who often buy cocktails. Then they invited the people that fit into the profile to those evaluated, whether they like it, if you do drink the thick, cheaper or add chocolate. The participants expressed their opinions, but the following product improvements had no effect on sales.
Then a new researcher spent a day at the restaurant, trying to figure out what kind of work customers would like to perform a "hiring" a milkshake. They pointed out, when it was bought by a cocktail, what other products were bought with him, came to clients for one or a group, whether they were drinking a cocktail on the spot or taken away with them, etc. He was surprised to find that 40 percent of the cocktails were purchased early in the morning. Most often, buyers are on their own, they did not buy more and drink a cocktail in their cars.
The researcher then went back to talk with the morning customers as they left the restaurant with a cocktail in hand, to understand the purpose for which they were hired cocktail. Most bought for one purpose: they faced a long and tedious road, and they wanted to make it more interesting. They were not yet hungry, but knew that by 10 am hungry and wanted something that would help them survive until noon. And they faced constraints: They were in a hurry, they were dressed for the office, and they had only one free hand.
The researcher began to ask further: "Tell me whether there are exactly the same situation as when you buy a drink? What did you buy instead? "Sometimes they buy a bagel. But just bagels too dry. Bagels with cream or jam leads to sticky fingers and dirty wheel. Sometimes they buy a banana, but he ends too quickly to solve the problem of boredom. Donuts could help overcome hunger attack in 10 hours. A milkshake, as it turns out, does a better job than any of its competitors. Sucking it through a thin straw took up to 20 minutes, which solved the problem of boredom. It can be consumed using one hand and not being afraid to get dirty. At 10-00, they felt less hungry. It did not matter that, in general, it's not very healthy food since health was not part of the work, which was hired to perform a cocktail.
The researcher noted that at other times the parents often buy cocktails in addition to a full dinner for their children. What kind of job they are trying to accomplish? They are just tired of constantly talking to their children "no." They hired a cocktail to calm the children and feel like loving parents. However, the researcher noted that the cocktails are not very good at this job. Parents quickly finished our dinner, watched eagerly as children tried to suck a thick shake through a thin straw.
Clients hire cocktails for two very different works. But when marketers were asked at the beginning of clients who hire a cocktail for one or both of the work, which of its characteristics is improved, and when those answers diluted answers to other clients in the target demographic segment, this led to a product of "one size fits all."
But when they realized what kind of work customers would like to do, it became clear what improvements are needed in a cocktail, to better cope with the challenges. How could handle the job of fighting against boredom? Make a cocktail even thicker, so he drunk longer. And there lay a piece of fruit, adding unpredictability ezheutrennee routine. Just as important, the restaurant could more efficiently the product by moving the machine closer to the entrance of cocktails and selling prepaid cards to customers so that they can run in, "fill tank" and leave without getting stuck in the queue. To perform the work day and night, however, required another product.
Realizing that kind of work, and improving the social, functional and emotional dimensions of the product, to better cope with this work, cocktails of the share taken from real competitors - not just at cocktail of other firms, while bananas, bagels and boredom. This has led to the growth of the category, which allows us to draw an important conclusion: the markets are determined by the type of work tend to be larger than the markets defined by product category. Marketers who persist in the delusion that matches the size of the market of the product categories, do not understand with whom they are competing with the client's perspective.
Note that the knowledge of how to improve the product, it's not from an understanding of "typical" customer. It came from an understanding of the work. Need more proof?
Why do so many marketers are trying to understand consumers, not a job? One of the reasons may be purely historical: in some markets, where the tools of modern market research and have been created and tested, such as feminine hygiene products or products for the care of children, the work was so closely associated with demografikoy customer that if you understand the customer's You also understand the job. However, such a coincidence is rare. Too often, marketers fixation on customers makes them meet the needs of the non-existent.
References
For preparation of this work were used materials from the site http://www.marketing.spb.ru/
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