Marketing malpractice: the cause and the cure

Area of Science:

• Marketing Strategy
• Consumer Behavior
• Brand Management

Background:

• Traditional marketing often focuses on products and demographics, overlooking the fundamental customer need.
• The "jobs to be done" framework posits that customers "hire" products or services to fulfill specific needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reframe market analysis from a product-centric to a job-centric perspective.
• To illustrate how understanding customer jobs can lead to the creation of successful purpose brands and identify new growth markets.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of market structures and brand evolution.
• Examination of historical brand success stories (e.g., FedEx, Starbucks) through the lens of 'jobs to be done'.

Main Results:

• Purpose brands emerge when a product optimally addresses a specific customer job.
• Extending a purpose brand to new jobs can dilute its power unless new purpose brands are created.
• Job-based market segmentation reveals larger market sizes and untapped potential compared to product-based segmentation.

Conclusions:

• Shifting from product to job-based market segmentation is crucial for sustainable growth.
• Companies must develop distinct purpose brands for each core job to maintain market relevance and capture new opportunities.