Do you REALLY know what your cultural audiences need? A deep dive and how-to guide.
If you want to create more impactful marketing campaigns and design programming that your audiences rave about—if you want to grow your audiences—it’s time to home in on what the business world calls the “customer job to be done.”
Here’s what Jobs to Be Done theory tells us: consumers are constantly looking for solutions that will help them make progress in their lives, help them become who they aspire to be, solve a problem, improve their lives, or eliminate a frustration. And whether the solution they ultimately choose is a product, a service, or your arts event depends on how well you understand and respond to their needs, their emotional context, and their social circumstance.
With this deep work, wrote Harvard’s business guru Clayton Christensen, you will be able to signal to your target audiences “We get you. We understand the progress you’re trying to make and the struggle to get there. [And we can help.]” Your marketing will come alive, and your organizational strategy will shift to from trying to sell tickets to helping customers through your art.
You may even be able to raise your prices, according to Christensen. “If [the customer] believes that [your product] “fulfills their Job to Be Done, they’ll stop shopping around—and gladly pay a premium price for the solution that best solves their job.”
Christensen’s book, Competing Against Luck, lists six ways to uncover customer needs:
1. Look for unresolved needs in your own life.
“If it matters to you,” writes Christensen, “it’s likely to matter to others.” He offers the example of Khan Academy’s Sal Khan, who created his first online math tutorials because he wanted to help his 12-year-old cousin understand math in a fun, low-stakes way. (Khan Academy’s Youtube channel now has nearly 2 billion views.) Then there’s Intuit’s Scott Cook, who came up with the idea of creating the accounting software Quicken after watching his wife do their finances by hand. (Last year, Intuit earned more than $7 billion in revenue.) Or Sheila Marcelo, who started the online database for childcare, Care.com, after struggling to find care for her own children. The company now has 32.9 million members across 20 countries.
Where do you find yourself or your family members struggling to make progress? Is there a way that your cultural organization might be able to help with that particular “job?”
One “job” that I myself have struggled with as a working mom is finding ways to feel like an individual, separate from the demands of the office, housework, and childcare. As Dr. Bruce D. Perry writes, “If you don’t give back to yourself, you simply will not be effective as a teacher, a leader, a supervisor, a parent, a coach, anything. Self-care—it’s essential.” My job to be done here, with its functional, emotional, and social components, looks something like this (and it’s a job that likely resonates with many customers who have been stuck at home juggling work and homeschooling during the ongoing pandemic.)
“Help me escape from the chaos of mom life so that I can return rejuvenated to be a better mom and wife.”
Tapping into this need, I created a mockup or storyboard video ad for an imaginary symphony. Note how the ad doesn’t extol the virtues of the orchestra, the musicians, or the repertoire, but instead tells the story of a real customer and how she might feel transformed with a night out at the symphony.
2. Look for the nonconsumers—the people who aren’t finding any product or service that can solve their particular “job.”
When Airbnb surveyed its customers, 40% said they would not have traveled (or would have stayed with friends or family) if Airbnb didn’t exist. Why? Two of the top three reasons customers chose the Airbnb option were low cost and household amenities—two things most hotels simply can’t offer. Before AirBnb came along as a solution, these customers would have been nonconsumers. Now, they’re happily spending money on accommodations.
What can your arts organization offer that consumers can’t find anywhere else? How can you tap into the power of the shared experience?
When Nina Simon joined the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History as executive director in 2011, the museum was close to folding. She began to revitalize the work of the MAH by adding participatory activities and opportunities to cultivate connections between strangers. One exhibit provided a mason jar and craft materials to visitors, who were encouraged to think of a memory that was important to them and to create a visual representation of that memory.
Photo 1
One visitor shared a poignant memory about loss (Photo 1). This visitor, says Nina, probably didn’t walk into the museum expecting that he was going to share a personal story in the form of a poem, but the memory jar activity ultimately sparked a powerful contribution to the museum and to hundreds of other visitors.
The MAH is providing an opportunity that is hard to find in our busy world: it’s helping visitors see themselves as creative agents and express deep feeling through art. As one teenager put it, “Even though I’ve seen famous exhibits from Picasso to Monet, this is the first exhibit that makes me want to do art.”
The result? In Simon’s first year at MAH, attendance more than doubled and it regained a solid financial footing.
3. Look for workarounds or compensating behaviors.
Another source of innovative inspiration, writes Christensen, is customers who are creating their own solutions. “Whenever you see a compensating behavior, pay very close attention, because it’s likely a clue that there is an innovation opportunity waiting to be seized—one on which customers would place a high value.”
Millennials are renowned for their devotion to their smart phones. According to Zapier, 69% of millennials constantly check their work email when away from the office; even while on vacation. But there are signs that millennials are tiring of their constant connectivity and are becoming more aware of its hazards. Acxiom reported in 2020 that the phrase “digital detox” was 10 times more popular in online searches in 2020 than it was in 2005. In fact, about 25% of the population have taken a digital detox in the last year.
If the digital detox is a workaround millennials use to decompress, could orchestras entice more millennials by marketing their concerts as opportunities to disconnect from the online world and to reconnect with their own inner world? Some orchestras are already leaning in to this customer need.
4. Look for what people hate doing.
What people don’t want to do (“negative jobs”) can also provide insight. For example, when your child complains of congestion and that familiar painful ear, you can be pretty certain they’ve got an ear infection that requires antibiotics. But will the pediatrician have an opening that same day? How much time will you have to take off work? How far will you have to drive to get to the pediatrician?
Urgent Care clinic to the rescue! These walk-in alternatives to primary care are ubiquitous now, but back in the early 2000s they were an industry game-changer that helped patients avoid long waits for primary care while also helping hospitals save costs by providing an alternative to emergency room care. In 2021, Urgent Care clinics were projected to earn approximately $1.7 million in annual revenue per clinic.
Source: CNN
Funnyman Jerry Seinfeld developed the concept for his new show Comedians in Cars by asking himself “What am I really sick of?” That’s where innovation begins, he told Harvard Business Review. Jerry was sick of the standard talk show formula, the banal conversation, the thinly veiled selling of a show, movie, or product. Comedians in Cars, where Seinfeld picks up a guest comedian in a vintage car and drives them to a café or restaurant while shooting the breeze, launched in July 2012. By May 2015, the series had been streamed nearly 100 million times.
5. Look for unusual ways that consumers are using your products (or, in our case, your art.)
Another source of inspiration can come from “observing how your customers use your products, especially when they use them in a way that is different from what your company has envisioned.”
Intercom, a software company founded in 2011, included on the backend a basic map feature showing businesses where their customers were located around the world. Much to their befuddlement, this feature rapidly became very popular, as evidenced by website analytics. Many businesses had begun using this customer map to impress their investors, their Twitter followers, and their trade show guests—a usage Intercom had not predicted. Intercom realized that if they had tried to improve this feature before knowing how their customers were using it, they would have focused on the wrong features. Because “the customer wasn’t buying what we thought we were selling,” wrote Des Traynor, Intercom co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer “It’s not a map. It’s a show piece.” So Intercom added features that allowed the map to be used more easily and more effectively as a show piece. The customer response? Delight.
Recent studies by MIDiA and PrimePhonic reported that approximately 30% of the population enjoy listening to classical music—a fascinating piece of data, given that less than 10% are actually buying concert tickets. So how are consumers using classical music when they’re not sitting in your concert hall? Does this spark any ideas for innovative strategies?
6. One-on-one customer interviews.
While all of these methods are useful, nothing beats sitting down with a real customer and unpacking their unique story. Bob Moesta, a longtime colleague of Christensen’s, has perfected the Jobs to Be Done interview, and outlines the process in his book, Demand Side Sales 101.
Moesta makes it look easy (check out his famous mattress interview) but an effective Jobs to Be Done interview is much harder than it appears. Determining what caused a customer to make a purchase, says Moesta, “is part art…and part science.” Part of the difficulty is that customers have a hard time distinguishing between the actual cause and a wish or desire—separating the cause from the problem and the symptoms. Consumers also are notorious for saying one thing but doing another.
First, Moesta writes, you must accept the fact that nothing is random. Every customer decision has a root cause and it’s your job to uncover it. You must also realize that every customer purchase is the result of a “tradeoff” where the customer chooses one thing over another (feature, cost, return policy, delivery time.) These tradeoffs can inform strategy—don’t ignore them. And finally, you must accept your role as the dogged (but friendly) investigative journalist. Most consumers don’t think deeply about what progression of triggers prompted them to make a purchase, but every tiny detail you uncover can help inform future marketing and strategy decisions.
Your subject must feel comfortable enough to answer honestly. Set a casual and conversational tone. Encourage them not to worry about giving a right answer. Ask open-ended questions to help them remember. Don’t ridicule any answer.
When the answers seem irrational, get more context. Dig for tiny details (What was the weather like? What were you wearing? Who was with you?) in order to jog their memory on the more important information.
Use contrast to better understand why the customer made their choice (Why did you purchase tickets over the phone? Why not purchase them on the website?)
Pursue clarity. Ask your customer to further explain words they use that are vague or subjective. (It was easier why? It was easier how?)
Avoid any clamming up by preparing your customer for difficult questions in advance (Ok this might be too personal, but…)
When a customer can’t find the words to describe their decision-making process, help them find better language by asking them to compare two things that are not similar at all. (How is buying a concert ticket online like buying a dress online?)
Once you’re done, read their story back to them to confirm its accuracy.
In a Jobs to Be Done interview, you must build a story, or model, that explains the situation they are in, the outcome they seek, and the tradeoffs they’re willing to make. An important element of this story-building is determining the three underlying motivations that fuel the buying process.
The customer’s functional motivation involves the time, effort, and speed it takes to get the job done. Uncovering any functional barriers can help you alleviate the forces pushing a future customer away from the same purchase.
The customer’s emotional motivation involves any positive or negative thoughts behind their decisions. Tapping into the customer’s emotional motivation can help you create a deeply empathetic marketing campaign.
The customer’s social motivation centers around how other people “perceive, respect, trust, or acknowledge”the customer. This can also be a powerful insight for marketing and strategy.
Another part of the story-building process is uncovering the forces that pull a customer toward a solution—as well as the forces that push them away. Gavin Lum provides a great example of how understanding these forces can help an organization provide a better solution for the customer:
Source: Gavin Lum
Source: Gavin Lum
Finally, no Jobs to Be Done customer story would be complete without a map of the customer timeline, complete with the six phases that move the customer toward the purchase (first thought, passive looking, active looking, deciding, onboarding, ongoing use) as well as the events that triggered those phases:
Source: Bob Moesta, Demand Side Sales 101
Moesta makes it look easy, but facilitating a Jobs to Be Done interview can be a complicated juggling act. Like any important skill, this kind of investigative work takes practice. Here are a few resources to get you started.
Moesta’s JTBD interview online course
Moesta’s JTBD podcast
The famous mattress interview
Jonathan Briggs’ JTBD Cards
Moesta’s Demand Side Sales book
Christensen’s Competing Against Luck book
This deep work is hard but incredibly worthwhile. You will be amazed at the inspiration for innovation in both your marketing and strategy that arise from these conversations with real customers. You’ll truly be able to signal that you understand and empathize with your target audiences and, in a sector that all too often ignores the customer, that’s more valuable than gold.
