At a keynote session during NUS-ISS Learning Festival 2022, Scott Burleson, Senior Vice President, The AIM Institute, shares the story of Milkshake Marketing.
When global fast food chain McDonald's wanted to improve their milkshake sales, they spent months doing market research. Customers were bombarded with extremely detailed questions about how they like their milkshake – Thicker? More chocolatey? More syrup?
However, this traditional method of market research gave no new insights, and failed to move the needle much in terms of sales. That’s when Professor Clayton Christensen – a renowned business consultant who developed the theory of “disruptive innovation” – was brought in.
Some intriguing insights emerged. Professor Christenson found that a significant majority of the milkshake buyers at McDonald's were early morning commuters with a long, boring drive, who needed some way to stay engaged with life. Through in-depth interviews, he discovered that these customers were actually drawn to the fact that having a milkshake in the car was relatively tidy and could stave off hunger until lunch. Another key takeaway was that the direct competitors of McDonald’s milkshakes were not other milkshakes, but other easily consumable breakfast foods such as bananas and Snickers bars.
“From this perspective, thicker textures or new flavours are no longer relevant to whether customers wanted the milkshake,” says Burleson. Instead, McDonald’s focused on attributes that could help the milkshake become the preferred choice of breakfast for early morning commuters. These include adding bits of fruits for chewy textures to keep customers entertained and full for a longer period of time – while making it a bit healthier.
Burleson shares that the famous “Milkshake Marketing” story highlights that the heart of outcome-driven innovation is to help a customer to accomplish a job perfectly. “This is because that’s what will make a customer want to purchase a product.” The concept leverages on the “Jobs to be Done” approach developed by Tony Ulwick, founder of the innovation consulting firm Strategyn. This innovation framework focuses on a clear understanding of the underserved pain points of the customer.
The road to perfection
“At the end of the day, innovation begins with knowing what the customer wants to accomplish, and then helping them to get rid of everything that stands in their way,” Burleson says. He elaborates with a story of how Italian sculptor Michelangelo created his most famous work, the Statue of David. When asked how he created something so “perfect”, Michelangelo said, “I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.”
“In the case of McDonald’s milkshake, for example, it’s getting rid of the crumbs, it's getting rid of hunger through the morning, and it's getting rid of the boredom during the morning commute. The solution that eliminates those challenges the best, will be the one that the customers will pick,” Burleson says.
It begins with the customer
The question then is, how do we know the jobs that customers need to accomplish? The secret lies in listening. Jim Kalbach, Chief Evangelist of collaborative intelligence company MURAL, says, “Find the job performers, and just talk to them, clarify what you don’t understand. This not only brings clarity and alignment to the team, but also helps you identify where your innovation opportunities are.”
Kalbach adds, “By gathering unique insights from the perspective of customers, you might end up with information that helps you direct your product strategy, your marketing efforts, or even customer success and sales.”
But as illustrated by the Milkshake Marketing anecdote, there can be a tonne of data out there, but the innovator has to listen to it from the right angle.
The power of “Jobs to be Done” really comes from how an innovator interprets what they are hearing, Kalbach says. “You have to be able to do qualitative listening – process the little bits of information and understand what they are relevant to. Is that an outcome that people want to have? Or is there a social or emotional aspect that we can address?”
As the framework is applicable across various functions in an organisation, “Jobs to be Done” provides a common language that people can align to. “In essence, it provides focus on what is the key customer need that the organisation is going to focus on. This North Star will provide you with a direction on how to serve the unmet needs of your customers,” Kalbach concludes.