My Blue Apron Experience and the Four Motivational Forces
My decision to try Blue Apron's meal service plan wasn't a spontaneous decision. There was some pent-up demand for a service like this that had grown over time. Like in many families where both spouses work, we are continually shuffling the duties of getting dinner on the table for ourselves and our three kids.
Most decisions by consumers to try a new product or service are not spontaneous. They typically take shape over time often with competing forces at work: a combination of what will call demand generation forces and demand reduction forces.
Within the JTBD (jobs-to-be-done) framework these four competing forces (demand generation and demand reduction) are defined as follows:
Two Demand Generation Forces (promoting a new behavior):
Force #1 - Push of the Situation
Force #2 - Pull of the New Idea
Two Demand Reduction Forces (blocking change in behavior):
Force #3 - Allegiance to Current Behavior (existing habit)
Force #4 - Anxiety of a New Situation (new habit)
Understanding how these two groups of forces work together is extremely important to building an understanding of customer motivation and the decision by an individual consumer to actually "hire" your product or service.
To further explain how these forces come together I will use my own recent decision to "hire" Blue Apron's meal delivery service. I will walk through how each force was at play in making this decision for myself and my family.
Force #1: Push of the Situation
People won't change behavior if they are perfectly happy with the way things are - their current habits. There has to be something about their current situation that is motivating them to switch (choose a new behavior).
Well, in my case, there were several aspects of my current situation "pushing" me to switch to Blue Apron's meal services:
The expense of eating out;
The effort and time required to plan healthy meals vs. throwing together a not-so-great meal at the last minute; and
Throwing out spoiled food that we never incorporated into a meal.
Each of the above realities of our family’s current meal planning and consumption activities were "pushing" me to consider a change in behavior - "hiring" Blue Apron.
Force #2 - Pull of the New Idea
In addition, to change from continuing to do something one way to doing it another way, there has to be something "appealing" about the new idea (new way of doing things). Pulling you towards trying a new behavior (habit).
So what was it that was appealing to me about Blue Apron's meal service plan? It was the following:
Not having to go shopping at the grocery store as often (especially to get that one missing ingredient from the recipe selected);
The appeal of having a "ready to go" recipe and collection of ingredient to make for dinner; and
The opportunity to have our two teenage daughters each responsible for making dinner once per week (simply follow the recipe).
Each of the above things were underlying motivations "pulling" me towards a new behavior (new habit).
It is important to note that unless you have both a "push" and a "pull" working together there is no JTBD. Think about it using your own examples (e.g., buying an expensive purse, leasing a car, buying a new dish washer, hiring a gardener, etc.). There typically is a combination of a "push" and a "pull" driving you to consider a new behavior (e.g., buying something, hiring someone, renting something, etc.).
Force #3 - Allegiance to Current Behavior
However, even when that new idea looks nice and appealing that person in the back of your head always seems to be chatting about why there is simply not a reason to change.
Most people simply don't like change. They are able to provide several reasons for why doing it the current way is working just fine. Why what they do today or how they get it done today is "good enough".
What were my allegiances to my current behavior? Well in my case, not switching to Blue Apron meal services meant:
Planning out our meals can't be that hard, can't we simply find the time, sit down and plan our meals once a week?;
Can't we just take one trip to the Costco each week after church and get everything we need for the week?; or
Maybe we could simply use one of those Apps where you list the ingredients you have and it tells you what you can make with them.
In the end, it was difficult convincing myself that I shouldn't give Blue Apron's meal delivery services at least a try.
Force #4 - Anxiety of the New Situation
Finally, there are is "anxiety" around trying something new or different. What if it isn't as good as you think or won't work out well in the end?
Once again, in my case, there were several unanswered questions or anxieties regarding switching to the Blue Apron meal service:
What if I am not home when it is delivered? Will the food go bad sitting out on my front porch?;
What will the quality of ingredients be like? Will the lettuce be wilted or the meat too fatty?;
What if my kids don't like the taste of the delivered meals or the meals don't fit my wife's dietary restrictions?; or
Will the meals be too difficult or take too much time to prepare?
In my case, the final triggering event was that my wife was going out of town for 10 days. I desperately needed a solution and was willing to "hire" Blue Apron to help make dinner while my wife was away.
In Summary: My Blue Apron Experience
Well, we've been using the service now for a little over a month. It arrives each Friday with the ingredients for two separate meals packaged in a cardboard "ice" box. Often times one of us is home when it arrives, but, when we are not it is packaged so well that transferring everything to our fridge later is never a problem.
We started having our two daughters each take on dinner preparation one night per week. We really don't have to get involved - all the ingredients are there and each recipe comes with well laid out steps for making each meal. I have to say it has been nice in-sourcing this job to our two girls.
For the most part, everyone likes the meals we have received to date. I have to say that I am impressed with the quality of the ingredients and the four-person meal actually feeds my entire family of five well. It’s also gotten us to try some new things (especially side dishes).
It took a while for the forces to increase/decrease causing us to take that initial step towards a new behavior, but, I am pleased with the service and can say "it gets the job done."
In closing, understanding customer motivation is critical to any CX initiative. Reach out if you want to learn more about this and other CX methods and techniques to use when building out your CX strategy.