Lessons from the Milkshake: How to make your product or service better

When you're in marketing, the general question you continually ask yourself is how can you make your product better, faster and more affordable.   But while reading "How will you measure your life" by Clayton Christensen, a case struck me that sometimes, the way to improve one's product or service isn't in the product's inherent attributes.

For example, the case that was cited in the book was for a fast food chain that wanted to ramp up the sales for its milkshakes.  (Ooops, before I continue, the book "How will you measure your life" isn't actually a business book.  It's about achieving a fulfilling life but it uses a lot of analogies from the corporate setting and I really enjoyed reading the business cases.)

Source

Anyway, going back to the milkshake case, the most logical thing to do was to conduct a survey.  Get a sample size from your target market (certain age range, gender, socio-eco class, etc.) and ask them "What will make you buy more of our milkshake?  Do you want it chocolatier? Cheaper? Chunkier?"  And that's what exactly the company did.  

The company tallied the results of the survey and improved the product based on the dimensions identified.  But the chocolatier, chunkier milkshake didn't translate to sales or profits.

The company got the author's colleague as a consultant to look into it.  What he proposed was a new way to look at the milkshake problem.  He asked the question - what "job" arises in people's lives that causes them to "hire" a milkshake?

With this paradigm shift, they conducted a new and different study.  They weren't focused on the demographics of their target market or the key attributes of a milkshake.  Instead, they observed what time people bought milkshakes, were they alone, what were they wearing, did they buy other food with the milkshake, did they consume the milkshake in the restaurant or took it out, etc.

The results were surprising.  Almost half of the milkshakes were sold early morning by people who were alone, who didn't buy any other food and who took out the milkshake and drove off in a car.

To further probe, they interviewed the people who came back the following mornings by asking "Can you help me understand what job you are trying to do with that milkshake?" When people struggled to answer the question, they asked "Think about the last time you were in this same situation needing to get the same job done but you didn't come here to hire that milkshake.  What did you hire?  

There were various answers - bananas, doughnuts, candy bars, bagels... but their favorite was the milkshake.

Based on the study, they found out that most buyers in the early morning had a long and boring ride to work.  So they were hiring the milkshake to keep their commute interesting.  They weren't hungry yet but they needed something to so they won't get hungry by mid-morning.

And when each of the alternatives was analyzed, they began to understand why the customers preferred the milkshake over all others.

Bananas get easily digested and thus, they get hungry again by mid-morning.
Doughnuts were messy to eat making their fingers sticky and leaving crumbs on clothes and sugar on the steering wheel.
Bagels are tasteless so they were forced to spread cream cheese and jam on bagels as they drove.

They liked milkshake the most because it took a long time (around 20 minutes) to finish the thick milkshake with its thin straw.   And they felt full the whole morning.

The fast food company also discovered that in the afternoon and evening - there was another different  group of buyers who hired the milkshake to do a different job.  The buyers in the afternoon and evening were dads who brought their kids with them.  And they said "yes" to a "milkshake" to their sons/daughters because they have said "no" to their children all week long already - no to playing, no to sleeping late, no to a new toy. It was time to say yes to something when their kids asked.  Yes to a milkshake.

Unfortunately, when they observed this group, the fast food company realized that the milkshake wasn't doing a good job because what happens is that the dad usually finishes his meal ahead of the child. And after the child finishes his/her meal, he/she still had to finish his milkshake but it usually takes forever to suck it up in the thin straw.

The milkshake, thus, wasn't doing a good job because it was hired to make the dads look nice, and not to entertain the kids. So what eventually happens is that the dads would grow impatient as they waited for the kids to finish the milkshake.  Then they would tell the kids that they don't have the whole night so they clean up the table and the milkshakes are left unfinished.

So given the findings, what would make people "hire" more milkshakes?  For the morning buyers, allow them to get their milkshakes faster so they are out of the store to drive off to work more quickly.  For the evening buyers, find a way for the kids to consume the milkshakes within a reasonable time - maybe a smaller-sized milkshake, or a less thicker milkshake, or a thicker straw.  Of course, the case didn't state anymore what were the improvements that helped the fast food company successfully achieve its goals.

Anyway, the next time you're brainstorming on how to make your product or service better, it's time to revisit the lessons from this Milkshake Case. :)