Marketing, Milkshakes and Innovation

As many of you know, I’m a fan of innovation; whether its product innovation, service innovation or innovative marketing. I’ve embraced the tenants of low-end market disruption as espoused by Clayton Christensen, but I’ve also embraced the systematic innovation framework written about by Tony Ulwick and Lance Bettencourt, called Outcome-Driven Innovation TM (ODI). Both parties articulate their theories and frameworks around something most others ignore: the job that the customer is trying to get done.

Christensen has framed the job-to-be-done concept around a compelling story about milkshakes. The reason it is so compelling is not only because he’s such a great story teller; it’s because we can all relate to the object he is talking about. I think it’s safe to assume we’ve all had a milkshake at one time or another (the lactose intolerant excluded). The premise of the story is about a fast food franchise that was trying to understand how it could sell more milkshakes (as investigated b…