⛳️ Your Customers Don't Buy Products. They "Hire" Them. (Here's Why It Matters)

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Beyond Demographics: Understanding Your Customer's "Jobs to Be Done"

Here’s the game-changing framework we're breaking down today:

• Why customers don't "buy" products, they "hire" them for a specific "job."

• The Four Forces that control every single purchase decision (and how to use them).

• How to find your product's true "Job to Be Done" and why it's your most powerful marketing angle.

This is a level-up moment. Let's get into it.

🔍 The Big Idea: Your Customers "Hire" Your Product to Make Progress in Their Lives.

People don't wake up wanting to buy a project management tool. They wake up with a knot in their stomach because a client project is going off the rails, and they're trying to make the progress from "chaos and anxiety" to "control and confidence." They "hire" the tool to do that "job."

This is the core of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD). It states that customers are trying to achieve a specific outcome or make progress in a particular situation. Your product is just one tool they might hire. Understanding the job is infinitely more powerful than understanding the person. The job is what causes them to act. The job is what your marketing needs to speak to.

The classic example: You don't buy a quarter-inch drill bit because you want a drill bit. You buy it because you want a quarter-inch hole. JTBD goes even deeper: you want the hole to hang a shelf, because you want the shelf to display family photos, because you want your house to finally feel like a home. You hire the drill bit for the "make my house a home" job. The marketing for that is radically different.

🧱 The Framework: The Four Forces That Control Every Purchase

Every time a customer considers "hiring" your product, they are being influenced by four invisible forces. Your ad's job is to manipulate these forces in your favor.

Forces That Drive Change:

1. The Push of the Situation: This is the pain of the present. The frustration, the struggle, the thing that's so annoying it forces them to look for something new. (e.g., "Ugh, my current spreadsheet is a mess and I missed another deadline!")

2. The Pull of the New Solution: This is the magnetism of your product. The promise of a better life, the appealing features, the vision of their problem being solved. (e.g., "Wow, that new app looks so simple and could fix all my problems!")

Forces That Resist Change: 

3. The Anxiety of the New: These are the fears and uncertainties about your solution. (e.g., "Is it hard to set up? Is it too expensive? What if it doesn't work for me? What if my team hates it?")

4. The Habit of the Present: This is the powerful inertia of their current solution, even if it sucks. It's the "devil you know." (e.g., "Switching everything over just seems like a huge hassle right now.")

Your ads must do two things:

• Amplify the PUSH and PULL. Make the current pain feel unbearable and your solution look like a dream come true.

• Minimize the ANXIETY and overcome HABIT. Address their fears directly and make switching seem easy and painless.

🧠 Real-Life Application: Find Your Product's REAL Job

Stop and ask yourself right now: What "job" are my customers really hiring my product to do?

Are they hiring your skincare cream to "moisturize skin," or are they hiring it to "feel confident and attractive at their high school reunion"?

Are they hiring your accounting software to "track expenses," or are they hiring it to "eliminate the fear and anxiety of tax season"?

Marketing to the job is how you connect on an emotional, visceral level. Once you identify the job, think about the Four Forces at play. What is the biggest "Anxiety" you need to address in your ads? What "Push" is most powerful? This becomes the blueprint for your creative strategy.

The "Four Forces" Messaging Matrix

Understanding the Four Forces (Push, Pull, Anxiety, Habit) is a start. Top 1% marketers weaponize them by creating a Messaging Matrix to ensure their ad campaigns attack the customer's decision from every angle.

Instead of just one ad, they brainstorm specific messages for each force.

ACTION: For your next campaign, create this simple 4-part messaging plan:

1. Amplify the PUSH: Write one ad headline that focuses entirely on the pain of the current situation. Twist the knife on why their current solution sucks.

2. Amplify the PULL: Write one ad headline that paints a vivid picture of the desired outcome your product creates. Sell the dream.

3. Minimize ANXIETY: Write one ad headline that directly addresses a major fear or uncertainty. Focus on your guarantee, ease of use, or social proof.

4. Overcome HABIT: Write one ad headline that makes switching feel effortless and low-risk. Focus on "one-click import," "5-minute setup," or a "free trial."

By doing this, you're not just hoping one message works. You're systematically building a portfolio of ads that addresses every psychological component of the purchase decision. This allows you to test and discover which force is the most powerful lever for your specific audience.

The AI Prompt to Automate Your "Four Forces Messaging Matrix"

Copy and paste the following into your AI tool, then fill in the bracketed sections with your own product's details.

Act as a master copywriter and an expert in the "Jobs to Be Done" and "Four Forces of Progress" frameworks.

My goal is to automate the creation of a "Four Forces Messaging Matrix" for an ad campaign. I need you to generate distinct, hard-hitting ad headlines for each of the four forces to address the entire customer decision-making process.

**Here is the strategic input:**

* **[My Product]:** [e.g., "ScribeFlow," an AI tool that automatically transcribes and summarizes meeting notes.]
* **[My Target Audience]:** [e.g., "Project managers and team leads who are constantly in back-to-back meetings."]
* **[The PUSH of the Situation (The main pain they want to escape)]:** [e.g., "Wasting hours after meetings trying to remember, type up, and share key decisions and action items. Important details get lost."]
* **[The PULL of my solution (The main desire/dream it helps them achieve)]:** [e.g., "To have instant, perfectly accurate meeting summaries and action lists the moment a meeting ends, so they can focus on the actual work."]
* **[The ANXIETY of switching (Their biggest fear or worry about the product)]:** [e.g., "Is the AI transcription accurate enough? Is it secure? Will it be complicated to set up with my calendar?"]
* **[The HABIT of their current solution (Their 'good enough' but flawed current method)]:** [e.g., "Frantically typing notes during the meeting, or just relying on memory and hoping for the best."]

**YOUR TASK:**
Based ONLY on the strategic input provided above, generate a "Four Forces Messaging Matrix." For EACH of the four forces, write **TWO** distinct and powerful ad headlines.

Present your final output using this exact format:

**--- The Four Forces Messaging Matrix ---**

**1. Messages to Amplify the PUSH (Focus on the PAIN):**
* Headline A:
* Headline B:

**2. Messages to Amplify the PULL (Focus on the DREAM):**
* Headline A:
* Headline B:

**3. Messages to Minimize ANXIETY (Focus on Overcoming FEAR):**
* Headline A:
* Headline B:

**4. Messages to Overcome HABIT (Focus on Making the SWITCH EASY):**
* Headline A:
* Headline B:

Why This Prompt Is So Effective:

• Forces Strategic Clarity: It makes YOU provide the core strategic inputs (the Four Forces for your product), which is half the battle. This ensures the AI's output is grounded in your actual strategy.

• Structured Output: The prompt commands the AI to deliver the information in a clean, organized matrix. This makes the output immediately useful as a brainstorming and testing document.

• Complete Coverage: It ensures you have ad messages that address every psychological stage of the customer's decision, creating a more robust and effective campaign from the start.

💣 VALUE BOMB (This Is Your REAL Competition!)

Your biggest competitor is often NOT another brand. For most potential customers, your real competition is INERTIA. It's the "doing nothing" option. It's the messy spreadsheet they already use. It's the bad habit they know is wrong but is easy. Your marketing MUST first be powerful enough to overcome the immense force of habit before it can even begin to compete with another brand.

🛠 TACTICAL TIP (The Most Important Interview Question)

Find ONE recent customer. Get them on the phone. Do NOT ask, "Why did you buy our product?" That gets you a logical, post-purchase justification. Instead, ask this magic question: "Take me back to the day you first started thinking, 'Ugh, I need to find a new way to do this.' What was going on in your life at that moment?" The story they tell you in response to that question contains the "Push of the Situation." It is your most authentic, powerful, and profitable ad angle. Period.

To the next one, Tomasz.

Free resource by Vibe9.co

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