Ever wondered why people are always raving about jobs-to-be-done? Or just what jobs-to-be-done actually is?

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This week, we’re diving into why taking this approach can transform your marketing strategy.
Jobs-to-be-done isn’t just for innovation and product teams, it’s a game-changer for marketers too.  Let’s dive in.

💭 What’s the essence of jobs-to-be-done?

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Jobs-to-be-done is a theory for understanding the real drivers behind people’s purchase decisions. It’s the understanding that people don’t just buy products/services for the sake of it, they’re actually hiring them to make progress in their lives.

Whether it's solving a problem, conquering a challenge, seizing an opportunity or achieving a goal - it’s the outcomes they’re looking for that matter most.

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Think about it…

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• Take a drill, people don’t want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.

• Take a new banking app, people don’t want a digital bank, they want to live better with money every day.
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• Take an advertising product, people don’t want to place an ad, they want to find new customers quickly.
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When you grasp the core jobs your customers are trying to achieve, you can revolutionise your marketing strategy. Here are five reasons why:

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1️⃣ Find the right people

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Instead of targeting broad demographics, jobs-to-be-done helps narrow down your focus to the specific audience seeking solutions for their jobs.

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💡 In the real world

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The most famous example of using jobs-to-be-done is McDonalds’ attempt to sell more milkshakes.

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Using jobs-to-be-done, they found milkshakes were being hired mainly in the morning, through the drive-thru, so they concluded the job a milkshake was being hired to do was “to provide sustenance for a long commute”.

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Tapping into this underlying driver allowed them to promote milkshakes to the right people, early-morning commuters, resulting in more sales.

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2️⃣ Nail competitive positioning

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Understanding the jobs your customers are trying to get done allows you to identify the alternatives that compete for their attention.

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This allows you to look at what you’re doing in a more timeless and feature-agnostic way. By identifying the alternatives, you can uncover the unique value you bring and position yourself as the best solution for their needs.

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💡 In the real world

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In a recent project with Jarvis, a pension app, we conducted jobs-to-be-done interviews to find out what self-employed contractors were looking to achieve from hiring a pension.

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We found they were trying to achieve long-term financial security. When asked what other ways they’d thought of to make progress with this, we found over 50% of them had considered property investment as an alternative.

This helped direct the SEO strategy, to include terms like “pension vs mortgage repayment” and “pension vs buy-to-let”.

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3️⃣ Talk in a way that resonates with what customers really want

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Armed with the knowledge of what customers are hiring your product for, you can create messaging that speaks to their aspirations. Show them exactly how your product can help them achieve the outcomes they crave.

💡 In the real world

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Curio, an on-demand journalism app, were clever with the way they approached their messaging strategy.

Rather than just speaking about the benefit of “helping people stay up to date quickly & easily”, they used customer interviews to dig deeper into why this matters.

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One phrase kept cropping up “I want to seem more interesting”.

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This stood out so they started to test ads with the line “Become the most interesting person in the room”. The results were instant, allowing them to scale spend by 300% and cut costs by 80%.

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4️⃣ Stay nimble & customer-centric

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By identifying jobs-to-be-done and making them the centre of your strategy, you’ll stay nimble in your product development and remain relevant in the market.

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💡 In the real world

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Airbnb, originally a holiday rental marketplace has become a complete DIY holiday experience company.

By focusing on the underlying reason people wanted to book a rental property “experience a new place”, they were able to expand their product without losing their brand integrity or needing to significantly alter their marketing messages.

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Our key takeaways:

👉 Jobs-to-be-done gets you to the real ‘why’ someone would buy your product.

👉 Focusing on jobs-to-be-done means when you talk about your product, audiences will think ‘that is EXACTLY what I am looking for.

👉 Keeping Jobs-to-be-done at the centre of your strategy identifies opportunities to stand-out and deliver more value to customers.

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Check out how to use JTBD here.

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JTBD