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 Today’s competitive environment calls for unique approaches to win customers.

 Following the identification of a consumer category, organizations need to determine which customers to target and how.  It is necessary to agree on the full scope of the customer job, including their underserved and overserved needs. Now is the moment for Leadership to consider and choose the most suitable strategy required for market success.  It is time to determine whether it is necessary to add a new feature to an existing product, develop a cheaper version of an existing product, or pursue an entirely different path.

The JTBD Growth Strategy Matrix outlines market strategies to target the appropriate consumers and meet their needs.  The matrix facilitates the selection of the most effective strategy for a given scenario.  The product must complete a customer's task faster, more effectively, and more affordably than its competitors.

On the four quadrants of a matrix, the JTBD Growth Strategy Framework depicts the potential for product or service offerings to complete customers' duties better, worse, more cheaply, or more expensively.  It allows businesses to target different consumer segments with a value proposition by situating them in the appropriate quadrants. 

• The Y axis of the matrix indicates whether the organization can complete tasks more or less proficiently than its competitors.
• The X axis, on the other hand, indicates the company's ability to offer more expensive or cheaper products than its competitors.
• The upper left quadrant is designed to accommodate consumers with unmet needs.
• Customers with limited options occupy the lower left quadrant. To attract these consumers, organizations should offer superior performance products and charge a premium price. Even if they offer no competitive advantage, companies can charge this group a premium for their goods.
• The right upper quadrant serves consumers whose needs are either underserved or overserved. These consumers will be attracted to a product with superior performance and a low price.
• The right lower quadrant is comprised of non-customers and consumers whose needs are met in excess. To attract this consumer segment, businesses should price their products more affordably.

 Depending on the circumstances, organizations can employ one of the following five strategies to meet the specific needs of consumers in the four quadrants of the JTBD Growth Strategy Matrix.

1. Differentiated Strategy
2. Dominant Strategy
3. Disruptive Strategy
4. Discrete Strategy
5. Sustaining Strategy

Let’s talk about the first 3 strategies in detail.

Differentiated Strategy

Many of the world's most profitable and rapidly expanding businesses employ a Differentiated Strategy because, when executed effectively, it generates astronomically high profits.  This strategy is employed to provide underserved customer segments with a new, pricier product or service that performs a customer's job more efficiently.

The strategy permits a company to enter a market at the upper end, acquire a significant portion of profits, and then penetrate the market to increase market share. Through operational innovation and production cost reduction, an organization is able to simultaneously reduce the price of its existing products and introduce new, superior products.

Dominant Strategy

Businesses that target every consumer in a market with a new product or service that performs the same function noticeably more effectively and at a lower price employ the Dominant Strategy.  This strategy necessitates investments in a new product platform, competencies, resources, and talent, rendering defense impossible for the overwhelming majority of incumbents.

According to research, organizations employing a Dominant Strategy can be successful if their value propositions are at least 20% superior and less expensive than those of their competitors.

Disruptive Strategy

Organizations use Disruptive Strategy to target overserved customers or non-consumers with a new offering that allows them to complete a job more inexpensively but less effectively than competing offerings.

Interested in learning more about the other Product Strategies? You can download an editable PowerPoint presentation on JTBD Growth Strategy Matrix here on the Flevy documents marketplace.

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