Marketing Malpractice

I haven't yet gotten around to writing the blog entry about why Clayton Christensen's work is important, but this citation was too good to let go by. How can we apply this? How about: "People don't want an article citation for their research topic -- they want an article on their research topic." So why do we inflict confusing, jargon-filled and content-thin interfaces on our uses? So we can drive them to a bibliographic instruction session? I think we'll drive them away.

Title: Marketing malpractice - The cause and the cure
Author(s): Christensen CM, Cook S, Hall T
Source: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW 83 (12): 74-+ DEC 2005
Abstract:
Ted Levitt used to tell his Harvard Business School students, "People don't want a quarter-inch drill - they want a quarter-inch hole." But 35 years later, marketers re still thinking in terms of products and ever-finer demographic segments.

The structure of a market, as seen from customers 'point of view, is very simple. When people need to get a job done, they hire a product or service to do it for them. The marketer's task is to understand what jobs periodically arise in customers' lives for which they might hire products company could make.