Marketing textbook, chapter 6

In his research, innovation expert Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School investigates what makes innovations successful, how to avoid flops and how to overcome barriers to innovation. With the help of his findings and research approaches, Procter & Gamble was able to increase its product innovation success rate from 15% to 50%.

One of the most important challenges for marketing is the development of successful product innovations and the avoidance of flops (see section 6.5). One basis for this is the systematic analysis of relevant search fields for solving customer problems (Chapter 6.5.2.2). When searching for product ideas, many companies focus on new product features. According to Christensen, this question falls short, especially if the customer goals or the intended use of the products - what do I want to use the product for, in what situation - are disregarded. The core question in his approach is: What job should the product fulfil for the consumer (job-to-be-done marketing). The answers to the question about the requirements for a new milkshake are certainly very different to those obtained by linking the question to the relevant customer objective (the job that the product should fulfil): What does a milkshake have to be like to make it a good way to pass the time on a car journey? For many consumers, the benefit they expect from a product is derived from the situation in which it is used (on a car journey, after sport, when visitors arrive, etc.). Christensen uses numerous examples to explain the importance of the goals that customers pursue when using products and the situations in which the products are consumed.

In England, cream cheese is considered healthy. So it makes sense to give children cream cheese in their lunchbox. However, as with yoghurt, the conventional packaging breaks easily and makes a mess. You also need a spoon to eat it. So although the attitude towards a product is good, the situational context is a barrier. The Frubes brand used this realisation for a successful product innovation: it developed a cream cheese packaging that is robust and small enough for a lunch box and from which the cream cheese can be consumed directly - without a spoon. Frubes has become the most successful product in this segment with 18 million units sold per year.

Which products come into question if our aim is to eat healthily? Of course, the apple and the orange. Which ones come into question when we need to eat something quickly? The apple and the bagel. We are very flexible when it comes to categorising products differently depending on the goal or job. We learn which products are suitable for achieving a certain goal and have learnt which product properties are important for this.

Sources:

• https://www.yumpu.com/nl/document/read/48265364/german-pdf-science-update-decode-marketingberatung (as at 27 June 2022).
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfGtw2C95Ms (as at 27 June 2022).