How to Get Your Marketing Message Across and Seize Market Opportunities

• July 6, 2010
Steven

Christensen, one of the authors of Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure,” and his coauthors point out that product developers and marketers often set themselves up for failure right from the start by defining target segments in terms of customer types (contractors, homeowners, small businesses, large corporations) instead of customer needs.

To develop and promote products that make headway in crowded markets—or even expand markets—companies should focus on the “job” that customers want accomplished. Ted Levitt, one of the authors points out the job of McDonald’s shakes. Observing and interviewing shake buyers and sales patterns, researchers found that a surprising number of shake sales were made during breakfast hours. Christensen and his coauthors give examples of what McDonald’s might do to improve its shakes’ performance of this “job” and hence increase morning shake sales: Include fruit to make people feel more positive about the shakes’ nutritional value. “Wait just a minute,” you’re thinking, “Didn’t they end up with a new customer segment—long-distance morning commuters?” And you’re right, because they focused on the customers’ needs rather on the customer types.

The product did the job, and customers talked about it. This is how brand equity is built.” Conversely, they argue, when a brand doesn’t “signal to customers when they should and should not buy the product, marketers run the risk that people might hire their product to do a job it was not designed to do.” Here are some examples of companies that have taken a “jobs” approach to product marketing: The content management system (CMS) market is a crowded one, yet recently I heard Ektron recommended as the best CMS for companies needing to translate Web pages and other content into multiple languages for foreign markets. Ektron seized on an unmet need that is independent of company size or customer type (B2B vs. B2C).

Another company, SpaceClaim, has introduced a 3D modeling product into another very crowded space, product design tools for engineers. The company recognized that different users of 3D modeling products needed different jobs done, and moved in to exploit that difference to its advantage.

Many companies in crowded markets continue to go head to head against vendors with similar (or better) products. Re-examine how you talk about your product on your website and in your marketing materials. Are you emphasizing a product category (“The Leading Direct Modeler”) or segment by vertical focus or size of customer (“Talent Management for Small Businesses”)? Or are you emphasizing the job your product does uniquely (“Rapidly Create and Revise 3D Models”)? Prioritize product enhancements to capture that “job-defined” segment.And if your product already addresses those needs better than the competition, reorient your messaging to speak to that that “job-defined” segment.

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