What drives customers to buy?

Yesterday we saw about JTBD (Jobs to be done) and I promised that we would talk about why people who buyhttps://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-do-your-customers-hire-you-ramya-mahendran/ a certain product to solve their problem when they have so many other options to do so. This is what is called Job Drivers — it is the ‘WHY’ behind the jobs to be done — in a way a trigger for your customer’s choice. To follow on yesterday’s instance, my job to be done at the airport — was to keep myself entertained or occupied while I wait for the flight. So I chose a book to do that job. What do you think is the kind of book I would have chosen- you guessed right, it was definitely not an encyclopedia or a medical journal — it was ‘How to make ideas stick’ by Chip and Dan Heath — a wonderful read by the way.

A quick recap on the understanding of JTBD — Jobs to be done is that — We ‘hire’ a product or service to do a job for us.

Jobs Frequency:

One-off Job: If it is for one-time use we might hire/borrow a product

Occasional Job: If it is for something I will use again and again but quite rarely then you buy a low priced product (won’t mind a lower quality)

Frequent Job: If it is for something that will be used heavily and regularly then you go on to buy a high-quality product (won’t mind paying a premium)

People behave differently in different contexts, and context is a combination of the user and the environment they are in. The environment can be the place or the people they are with. Read more about this in the previous blog.

What motivates customers choice — Job Drivers:

Like when driving the car you are taught to remember ABC — Accelerator, Brake and Clutch, to remember your customer’s job driver you have to remember this ABC — Attitudes, Background and Circumstances.

Attitude: This has to do with the behavior and personality of your customer and how that influences their decision making. For instance, I want others to see me as a person who is always up to date on things. I am a bit of a geek, and an introvert, so the book was the perfect prop to get the job done and keep my image intact. In fact, it gets me into intellectual conversations rather than mind-numbing small talk — not that there is anything small about small talk.

Background: This has to do with the long-term behavior and context which in turn affects your customer’s behavior and decision making. For instance, I grew up in a home of bibliophiles. When everyone was collecting stamps and coins, my dad and I would collect books. While people got lottery tickets, we guys played the Readers Digest Sweepstakes. There are more books than clothes in my cupboard. I transitioned from Ladybird books to Enid Bryton, to Harry Potter, to Dan Brown and the journey went on.

Circumstances: This has to do with immediate or short-term factors that affect the customer’s behavior and decision making. For instance, my friends and family have been encouraging me to write my own book on Design Thinking for entrepreneurs. For six months now I have been on a spree to explore topics relevant and adjacent to innovation, creativity and design thinking. Everything from my YouTube search history, to Facebook event search, to Amazon buying behavior, would indicate the same — no wonder I get targeted Facebook and Instagram ads on how to become an author.

The above is a very great insight into what drives the choice of your customer to hire your particular product.

So many times we ask why customers are not buying our products, but a successful company should also be able to articulate why customers buy our products.

How not to stereotype product by jobs:

When we create a product without understanding the jobs to be done, we miss some context of use and other customer segments who might like to use our products. A classic example is the Lego blocks. Originally they were made for children. Now they are used in Serious Play — by professionals to prototype and re imagine the future.

One of the highlights of segmenting of using jobs to be done is that we don’t use the traditional demographic segmentation, we rather use job-based segmentation.

How not to stereotype people by jobs:

When we segment customers without understanding their jobs to be done, we miss on some products and services that can be marketed to them but is currently not. A good example is that pet parent, behave very similar to real parents, so there is a lot of scope for selling pet insurance, pet food, pet clothing, accessories, and so on. I was buying Ceralac for my puppy dog — Lavendar, because the doctor recommended it, but my demographic profile would have said — she under 30, single, no kids — and naturally you would only see it abnormal when my shopping cart has Ceralac.

How do we create product and services to address the needs that don’t have a perfect solution in existence? If you already have a product, how do you position your product to them as the solution to fulfil their needs? That is something we will explore in the upcoming blogs.

The answer to the puzzle from yesterday:

EL James started writing the fan fiction named “Master of The universe” inspired by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga. She started writing it online, but when Meyers said that her genre was for young adults and Edward Cullen and Bella Swan (hero and heroine) had nothing in common with what was being portrayed in the erotic romance version of EL James — she started writing her own book. When James was asked about her book covers she said it was chosen so that people can read such a genre even on a train without having anyone raise a brow. It had subtle showcase or cues to the content, but nothing explicit or erotic. In a way, it was getting several jobs done, and a sticky example to remember.

PS: After the fame of the books the original version and reasons are buried under millions of Google searches. But given my photogenic memory, that is quite possible what was said way back when the books were released. Then again I might be wrong. I did read Twilight saga but not the Fifty Shades trilogy, so I am no authority on the info shared.

References:

#1 Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation by Stephen Wunker, Jessica Wattman, David Farber

#2 Jobs To Be Done Workshop by Andy Fallshaw