The Milkshake Test

In Slate this week, Dan and Chip Heath talk about Clayton Christensen, author of Innovator's Dilemma and Innovator's Solution, who came up with a simple way to reframe products--as "hires":

Christensen asks us to imagine a group of marketers at a fast-food restaurant who want to sell more shakes. As they comb the customer data for insight, they discover something interesting: Most milkshakes are sold to early-morning commuters who buy a single milkshake and nothing else. Why milkshakes?  

These commuters, according to Christensen, are “hiring” milkshakes to do a job for them: to supply a breakfast that is filling and nonmessy and cupholder-compatible. So to sell more milkshakes, the marketers don’t need to create a more delicious milkshake. Deliciousness isn’t really in the job description. Rather, the shakes need to be an ideal commute co-pilot. (If only having a milkshake in the car would let us use the HOV lane …)

So the restaurant’s marketers, inspired, create a self-serve milkshake lane to speed up the morning transaction. They add tiny, straw-suckable chunks of fruit to the shake, which make it last longer and add variety to the dreary commute. These tweaks made the milkshake a more useful “employee,” and sales improve.