netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NYSE: ALEX) is a Honolulu-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company today operates businesses in shipping, sugar cane, real estate, and diversified agriculture. It is also the only "Big Five" company that still cultivates sugar cane. It remains one of the State of Hawaii's largest private landowners, owning about 89,000 acres (36,000 ha) throughout the state. In addition, the company owns over a dozen income properties in the continental United States.
Alexander & Baldwin has its headquarters in downtown Honolulu at the Alexander & Baldwin Building, which was built in 1929.
The milkshake was hired in lieu of a bagel or doughnut because it was relatively tidy and appetite-quenching, and because trying to suck a thick liquid through a thin straw gave customers something to do with their boring commute. Understanding the job to be done, the company could then respond by creating a morning milkshake that was even thicker (to last through a long commute) and more interesting (with chunks of fruit) than its predecessor. The chain could also respond to a separate job that customers needed milkshakes to do: serve as a special treat for young children—without making the parents wait a half hour as the children tried to work the milkshake through a straw. In that case, a different, thinner milkshake was in order.
Proven success and purpose branding
Several major companies that have succeeded with a jobs-to-be-done mechanism: FedEx, for example, fulfills the job of getting a package from here to there as fast as possible. Disney does the job of providing warm, safe, fantasy vacations for families. OnStar provides peace of mind.
Procter & Gamble's product success rate rose dramatically when the company started segmenting its markets according to a product's job, Christensen says. He adds that this marketing paradigm comes with the additional benefit of being difficult to rip off. Nobody, for example, has managed to copy IKEA, which helps its customers do the job of furnishing an apartment right now.
Christensen also cites the importance of "purpose branding"—building an entire brand around a particular job-to-be-done. Quite simply, purpose branding involves naming the product after the purpose it serves.
Kodak, for example, has seen great success with its FunSaver brand of single-use cameras, which performs the job of preserving fun memories. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. has cornered the market on reciprocating saws with its trademarked Sawzall, which does the job of helping consumers safely saw through pretty much anything. Its Hole-Hawg drills, which make big holes between studs and joists, are also quite popular. The company's other tools, which rely on the Milwaukee brand, are not nearly as celebrated.
"The word 'Milwaukee' doesn't give you any market whatsoever," Christensen says.
So, if jobs-to-be-done market segmentation is so effective, why aren't more companies designing their products accordingly? For one thing, future product planning usually involves analyzing existing data, and most existing data is organized by customer demographics or product category.
"I've got a list of mistakes that God made in creating the world, and one of them is, dang it, he only made data available about the past!" Christensen says. "All the data is organized by product category or customer category because that's easy to get. To go out and get data about a job is really hard. But there are a lot of people who hire consultants to tell them how big the market is. And because the data is organized in the wrong way, you start to believe that's how the market should be organized."
Furthermore, it's difficult for product developers to break the mold when many of their customers organize their store shelves around traditional marketing metrics. Christensen gives the example of a company that developed a novel tool designed to help carpenters with the daunting task of installing a door in a doorframe, a job that usually took several tools to do. But a major home goods store refused to sell the tool because its shelves were organized by product category—and there was no shelf in the store dedicated to the singular job of hanging a door.
Most small businesses owners who want to build sales and marketing muscle don’t have the budget to call in market research experts. Marketing expertise is helpful but business owners can learn a lot from doing the market research themselves.
For those without a marketing bone in their bodies, the task might sound daunting, but the payoff from doing the primary research yourself can save you money, and the results are instantaneous.
If, for instance, you are considering introducing new products or services, a sure way to fail is to do so without determining whether there’s an actual need or desire for your new product. That’s basic business. So an easy, cost-efficient method of research is to simply talk to your existing clients as well as potential customers to measure their interest.
This may mean telephoning people you don’t know very well, a challenge for nonsales types; but by polling these clients about whether they want or will use the proposed product or service, you’ll have instant market information from a particular user group on how its members feel about your idea. Their feedback will help you determine which direction to go with it. Talking to customers also works well for businesses owners who are trying to determine their company’s position in the market.
If you do decide to do this yourself, there are a few things to keep in mind. The person from your business who is conducting the interviews or leading the conversation must listen to what people are saying. Remember, you asked for their opinion, and whether they are critical of or excited about your new product, you need to pay attention to what they are saying. Maintain a certain cheerfulness and professional tone even in the face of criticism. Clients often have good ideas, but you must listen with an open mind.
Whenever you poll, you are bound to encounter people who do not want to answer your questions, but those who do respond can offer helpful information about the market and the perception of your product or service. With that information, you can redevelop sales material or pick a new tact for how to go after the market.
Testing the market directly with your product is another way to gauge whether your idea makes sense. For instance, a personal trainer who produced a weight-training video thought marketing his program in sports stores was a good idea, but a limited budget meant he needed to be sure before launching into a major distribution program. He found an expert, although he could have easily done it himself, to seek out a few key stores that would allow interviews with customers about whether they would buy his product. Sports stores, it turns out, weren’t a good fit, so he went another route, avoiding a costly in-store sales effort.
Research Sample
Research sampling assures the elements in the population the same chance of being chosen for inclusion in the survey. If the sample is chosen at random and is sufficiently large, it will represent all the groups in the population in approximately the correct proportions. One advantage of random sampling is no advance knowledge of the characteristics of the population is necessary. A disadvantage of the technique is that a low percentage of returns could result in an accidental sample. There has to be 100 HK consumers in total that was selected randomly in various malls and stores in wherein several of the crisp snack foods are present. The procedure calls for dividing the population into two or more strata and then drawing a random sample from each stratum that will depend on the number of samples selected to relate to the consumer preferences data as they occur in the population, random sampling is applied in the study as for the fact that achieving an equal number of samples is very difficult to reach in the actual practice. Select the sample so its averages ages from ages 25-45 years old for the known characteristics believed relevant to the research findings as it resembles the population's frequency distribution. If the sample will be used to make a percentage estimate of the population, a preliminary estimate of the approximate size of this percentage is needed.
DATA ANALYSIS
The analysis of the procedure should be included at p<0.05, adjusted R2, measures that will indicate strong relationship between the situation and snack appropriateness ratings. The HK market with several competitors are attractive since there exists ample opportunity for additional product or brand alternatives. Although markets with many competitors are generally not attractive opportunities, the methodology utilized by the study allows the marketer as well as the manufacturer to assess the quality as well as the quantity of competition. The open-end questions give respondents free latitude in making their responses. An example of such a question is "What is the principal reason for your dislike of product A?" A drawback to their use is that open-end questions may yield such a variety of responses that the task of condensing and analyzing them is both time consuming and difficult to handle statistically. Multiple choice questions allow respondents to choose from among several possible answers and that the question outcome can be tabulated easily and interpreted with greater precision than can answers to open-end questions. Multiple choice questions may take any of several forms; arguably the most popular of these are checklists and rating scales.
There is more to developing good questionnaires than just wording good questions, it is important to have scheduled a desired time. Successful questionnaire development includes identifying the specific problem, understanding the subject matter and knowing the respondents, as appropriate survey method, sample size, type of sampling and type of questions have to be given adequate consideration. Survey research is a powerful tool that can help technical communicators identify and elaborate on the theories and practices. In most cases, the respondents want to know how the researchers are going to use the data and to what ends. Since, the respondents' names are not important in most mailed questionnaires, respondents should be told not to include their names on the questionnaire. If names are requested, researchers should explain the purpose and the procedure for ensuring confidentiality. Researchers decide to use open questions and unstructured responses must then decide on the structure and scope of the questions.
Alexander & Baldwin has its headquarters in downtown Honolulu at the Alexander & Baldwin Building, which was built in 1929.
The milkshake was hired in lieu of a bagel or doughnut because it was relatively tidy and appetite-quenching, and because trying to suck a thick liquid through a thin straw gave customers something to do with their boring commute. Understanding the job to be done, the company could then respond by creating a morning milkshake that was even thicker (to last through a long commute) and more interesting (with chunks of fruit) than its predecessor. The chain could also respond to a separate job that customers needed milkshakes to do: serve as a special treat for young children—without making the parents wait a half hour as the children tried to work the milkshake through a straw. In that case, a different, thinner milkshake was in order.
Proven success and purpose branding
Several major companies that have succeeded with a jobs-to-be-done mechanism: FedEx, for example, fulfills the job of getting a package from here to there as fast as possible. Disney does the job of providing warm, safe, fantasy vacations for families. OnStar provides peace of mind.
Procter & Gamble's product success rate rose dramatically when the company started segmenting its markets according to a product's job, Christensen says. He adds that this marketing paradigm comes with the additional benefit of being difficult to rip off. Nobody, for example, has managed to copy IKEA, which helps its customers do the job of furnishing an apartment right now.
Christensen also cites the importance of "purpose branding"—building an entire brand around a particular job-to-be-done. Quite simply, purpose branding involves naming the product after the purpose it serves.
Kodak, for example, has seen great success with its FunSaver brand of single-use cameras, which performs the job of preserving fun memories. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. has cornered the market on reciprocating saws with its trademarked Sawzall, which does the job of helping consumers safely saw through pretty much anything. Its Hole-Hawg drills, which make big holes between studs and joists, are also quite popular. The company's other tools, which rely on the Milwaukee brand, are not nearly as celebrated.
"The word 'Milwaukee' doesn't give you any market whatsoever," Christensen says.
So, if jobs-to-be-done market segmentation is so effective, why aren't more companies designing their products accordingly? For one thing, future product planning usually involves analyzing existing data, and most existing data is organized by customer demographics or product category.
"I've got a list of mistakes that God made in creating the world, and one of them is, dang it, he only made data available about the past!" Christensen says. "All the data is organized by product category or customer category because that's easy to get. To go out and get data about a job is really hard. But there are a lot of people who hire consultants to tell them how big the market is. And because the data is organized in the wrong way, you start to believe that's how the market should be organized."
Furthermore, it's difficult for product developers to break the mold when many of their customers organize their store shelves around traditional marketing metrics. Christensen gives the example of a company that developed a novel tool designed to help carpenters with the daunting task of installing a door in a doorframe, a job that usually took several tools to do. But a major home goods store refused to sell the tool because its shelves were organized by product category—and there was no shelf in the store dedicated to the singular job of hanging a door.
Most small businesses owners who want to build sales and marketing muscle don’t have the budget to call in market research experts. Marketing expertise is helpful but business owners can learn a lot from doing the market research themselves.
For those without a marketing bone in their bodies, the task might sound daunting, but the payoff from doing the primary research yourself can save you money, and the results are instantaneous.
If, for instance, you are considering introducing new products or services, a sure way to fail is to do so without determining whether there’s an actual need or desire for your new product. That’s basic business. So an easy, cost-efficient method of research is to simply talk to your existing clients as well as potential customers to measure their interest.
This may mean telephoning people you don’t know very well, a challenge for nonsales types; but by polling these clients about whether they want or will use the proposed product or service, you’ll have instant market information from a particular user group on how its members feel about your idea. Their feedback will help you determine which direction to go with it. Talking to customers also works well for businesses owners who are trying to determine their company’s position in the market.
If you do decide to do this yourself, there are a few things to keep in mind. The person from your business who is conducting the interviews or leading the conversation must listen to what people are saying. Remember, you asked for their opinion, and whether they are critical of or excited about your new product, you need to pay attention to what they are saying. Maintain a certain cheerfulness and professional tone even in the face of criticism. Clients often have good ideas, but you must listen with an open mind.
Whenever you poll, you are bound to encounter people who do not want to answer your questions, but those who do respond can offer helpful information about the market and the perception of your product or service. With that information, you can redevelop sales material or pick a new tact for how to go after the market.
Testing the market directly with your product is another way to gauge whether your idea makes sense. For instance, a personal trainer who produced a weight-training video thought marketing his program in sports stores was a good idea, but a limited budget meant he needed to be sure before launching into a major distribution program. He found an expert, although he could have easily done it himself, to seek out a few key stores that would allow interviews with customers about whether they would buy his product. Sports stores, it turns out, weren’t a good fit, so he went another route, avoiding a costly in-store sales effort.
Research Sample
Research sampling assures the elements in the population the same chance of being chosen for inclusion in the survey. If the sample is chosen at random and is sufficiently large, it will represent all the groups in the population in approximately the correct proportions. One advantage of random sampling is no advance knowledge of the characteristics of the population is necessary. A disadvantage of the technique is that a low percentage of returns could result in an accidental sample. There has to be 100 HK consumers in total that was selected randomly in various malls and stores in wherein several of the crisp snack foods are present. The procedure calls for dividing the population into two or more strata and then drawing a random sample from each stratum that will depend on the number of samples selected to relate to the consumer preferences data as they occur in the population, random sampling is applied in the study as for the fact that achieving an equal number of samples is very difficult to reach in the actual practice. Select the sample so its averages ages from ages 25-45 years old for the known characteristics believed relevant to the research findings as it resembles the population's frequency distribution. If the sample will be used to make a percentage estimate of the population, a preliminary estimate of the approximate size of this percentage is needed.
DATA ANALYSIS
The analysis of the procedure should be included at p<0.05, adjusted R2, measures that will indicate strong relationship between the situation and snack appropriateness ratings. The HK market with several competitors are attractive since there exists ample opportunity for additional product or brand alternatives. Although markets with many competitors are generally not attractive opportunities, the methodology utilized by the study allows the marketer as well as the manufacturer to assess the quality as well as the quantity of competition. The open-end questions give respondents free latitude in making their responses. An example of such a question is "What is the principal reason for your dislike of product A?" A drawback to their use is that open-end questions may yield such a variety of responses that the task of condensing and analyzing them is both time consuming and difficult to handle statistically. Multiple choice questions allow respondents to choose from among several possible answers and that the question outcome can be tabulated easily and interpreted with greater precision than can answers to open-end questions. Multiple choice questions may take any of several forms; arguably the most popular of these are checklists and rating scales.
There is more to developing good questionnaires than just wording good questions, it is important to have scheduled a desired time. Successful questionnaire development includes identifying the specific problem, understanding the subject matter and knowing the respondents, as appropriate survey method, sample size, type of sampling and type of questions have to be given adequate consideration. Survey research is a powerful tool that can help technical communicators identify and elaborate on the theories and practices. In most cases, the respondents want to know how the researchers are going to use the data and to what ends. Since, the respondents' names are not important in most mailed questionnaires, respondents should be told not to include their names on the questionnaire. If names are requested, researchers should explain the purpose and the procedure for ensuring confidentiality. Researchers decide to use open questions and unstructured responses must then decide on the structure and scope of the questions.