In the context of food and beverage, the Jobs to Be Done framework helps us understand why consumers choose certain products at specific moments in their lives. At its core, JTBD isn’t just about functionality – it’s about the goal or outcome a person is hoping to achieve by consuming something. Just like you might 'hire' a cup of coffee to help you wake up, or a smoothie to feel healthier, every food and drink decision has a story behind it.

This thinking shifts the focus from demographics or product traits to the consumer’s goal. Traditional market research might ask questions like “Who’s buying this?” or “What flavors do people prefer?”. In contrast, JTBD asks, “Why is this being chosen, and what purpose is it serving?”

In food and beverage insights, this approach helps companies uncover not just preferences, but underlying motivations. By tapping into these motivations, brands can better anticipate needs, design more meaningful products, and create marketing that speaks directly to consumers’ lifestyles and intentions.

Why This Matters for Innovation and Strategy

Understanding the job gives clarity on what problem your product is solving. This has a direct impact on:

• Product innovation: Designing new snacks, meals, or drinks that match specific jobs consumers need fulfilled.
• Message development: Communicating the product’s value in a way that aligns with real-life needs and desires.
• Market positioning: Differentiating a product not just by ingredients, but by the role it plays in the consumer’s life.

Simple (Fictional) Example

Imagine a working parent who buys a frozen meal at the end of a long day. The traditional view might see this as a quick, convenient food option. But the 'job' might actually be deeper – to save mental energy, minimize decision fatigue, and deliver a feel-good, no-fuss dinner to the family. That meal wasn’t just dinner... it was emotional relief, time saved, and success in providing for loved ones. That’s the power of understanding JTBD in food.

From beverages that provide social connection to snacks that offer a sense of control in a busy schedule, JTBD helps illuminate possibilities for meeting consumer needs more meaningfully. It’s this understanding that fuels sharper consumer insights, more targeted innovation, and ultimately, stronger brand relevance in an increasingly crowded food and beverage space.

In the Jobs to Be Done framework, not all 'jobs' are alike. When exploring food and beverage consumer insights through JTBD, it’s helpful to group these jobs into three categories: functional, emotional, and social. Together, they paint a fuller picture of why a consumer selects one item over another – and they drive much of the behavior that market research in food seeks to understand.

1. Functional Jobs: Solving a Practical Problem

These are the tasks or outcomes that fulfill a specific, utilitarian need. In food and beverage, functional jobs might include:

• Boosting energy before a workout
• Suppressing hunger between meals
• Hydrating after outdoor activity
• Providing nutrition for a child’s lunchbox

Functional jobs are often easier to identify. For example, someone might 'hire' a protein bar to stay full during back-to-back meetings. Market research for food companies often starts here – focusing on performance, speed, calories, or convenience – but JTBD encourages going deeper.

2. Emotional Jobs: Supporting Feelings and Emotions

These are about how a consumer wants to feel when they eat or drink something. In food marketing, tapping into emotional needs can lead to stronger, more lasting brand affinity. Emotional jobs might include:

• Feeling comforted after a long day
• Rewarding oneself for completing a task
• Relieving stress or anxiety
• Feeling virtuous or mindful by choosing something healthy

For example, someone may choose herbal tea not just for flavor, but to create a moment of calm in the evening. Understanding emotional needs in food helps companies connect to people holistically, not just nutritionally.

3. Social Jobs: Connecting with Others

Social jobs relate to how we use food and drinks to interact with the world around us. People often 'hire' products to reinforce identity, participate in group settings, or fit into social expectations. These JTBD examples might include:

• Bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party
• Choosing the “cool” new beverage trending on social media
• Serving a dish that feels culturally appropriate for the occasion

Social motivations often show up in shared moments – celebrations, rituals, or simply how people present themselves to peers. Brands that grasp these contexts can design products and campaigns that feel aspirational without being pushy.

Why All Three Matter

It’s rarely just one job at play. The power of JTBD in food and beverage lies in understanding that a single snack might meet practical needs, support emotional wellbeing, and play into social dynamics – all at once. For instance, a sparkling drink with low sugar can refresh (functional), feel indulgent without guilt (emotional), and signal wellness-conscious habits to others (social).

For companies using market research to guide food product innovation, analyzing these layers leads to bolder opportunities and stronger connections with consumers. Whether launching a new item or repositioning an existing one, applying this framework helps ensure you’re not just filling shelves – you’re fulfilling real customer needs.

To bring the concept of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) to life, let’s explore how consumers “hire” various food and beverage products for specific roles in their lives. These examples are fictional but designed to mirror real-world behaviors and help clarify how JTBD applies in the context of meals, snacks, and drinks.

Meals

A healthy frozen dinner might be ‘hired’ by a busy professional who needs a quick, nutritious meal after a long day. The functional job is convenience and health. The emotional job? Feeling like they're taking care of their body despite a hectic schedule.

Now contrast that with a weekend brunch kit sold at the grocery store. A family may “hire” it for the social job of bringing everyone together. It’s about more than eggs and pancakes – it’s about creating a shared experience at home.

Snacks

Imagine a protein bar being picked up mid-afternoon by an office worker. The primary functional job is to curb hunger and boost energy. Yet, it might also fulfill an emotional job like feeling in control of their diet and making a ‘healthy’ choice.

On the flip side, a bag of nostalgic candy “hired” late at night might serve an emotional job of comfort or stress relief. It’s not about nutrition – it’s about mood management, a critical emotional need in food behavior.

Beverages

A can of cold brew coffee isn’t just caffeine – it might be hired to kickstart mental focus before an important meeting. Functional job: alertness. Social job: signaling a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle.

Meanwhile, a sparkling water infused with botanical flavors could be hired by someone wanting a “grown-up” non-alcoholic drink at a social gathering. Functionally, it's hydration; emotionally and socially, it allows inclusion without alcohol.

These JTBD examples in snacks and drinks demonstrate how multi-dimensional consumer needs really are. Every consumer choice – from energy drinks to comfort food – is a response to underlying motivations and contexts.

The Jobs to Be Done framework offers a powerful lens to spark product innovation in the food and beverage space. Understanding why customers choose certain food and drink products – what jobs they’re hiring them to do – helps food brands go beyond surface-level trends to meet deeper, unmet consumer needs.

Order Beneath the Chaos

At first glance, consumer behavior in food and beverage can seem unpredictable. Why does a shopper choose one snack over another? Why do some drinks become rituals while others fade? JTBD brings clarity by organizing these choices around job categories – functional, emotional, and social – and helps identify patterns in what people truly value.

Solving Unmet Needs

When you use JTBD to evaluate your customer base, you might discover gaps in how existing products are serving those jobs. For instance, perhaps consumers feel no products effectively support a midday productivity slump without excessive caffeine. That insight could unlock a new beverage category designed for sustained focus, not jitters – a rich arena for food product innovation.

Creating Differentiation

Understanding customer motivations lets your brand lead rather than follow. When you align your product around a job that’s important and underserved, you carve out a clear reason to exist in the market – one that can’t easily be copied. It's a strategic advantage rooted in behavioral insight.

From Insight to Opportunity

Here’s how JTBD drives new opportunities in innovation:

• Find hidden needs: Look beyond surface preferences to identify jobs that current offerings don’t solve well.
• Design for intent: Tailor food and beverage products to the true “why” behind consumption, not just demographics.
• Position with relevance: Market around the job your brand solves, creating stronger emotional and social resonance with your audience.

JTBD doesn’t just help you revise products – it can inspire entirely new categories and platforms. When paired with robust food and beverage insights, the framework becomes a practical roadmap for customer-led innovation.

To uncover what jobs consumers are hiring food and beverages to do, brands need structured and thoughtful research. While the Jobs to Be Done framework shapes how you look at the market, consumer insights provide the data that fills in the picture. This is where market research becomes essential.

Tapping Into Real Consumer Behavior

Effective market research in the food industry involves much more than asking people what they want. It means understanding what motivates choices – the why behind the what. By using qualitative and quantitative methods, research can surface both explicit needs (like convenience) and hidden drivers (like emotional stress eating or the desire for connection).

Pairing Methods with JTBD Thinking

When using Jobs to Be Done for food brands, here are a few research strategies that deliver meaningful consumer insights:

• In-depth interviews and ethnography: Reveal the context and emotions around food decisions by observing habits in real life, not just asking questions in a vacuum.
• Surveys and segmentation studies: Quantify how widespread certain jobs are within your target market and identify emerging need states across groups.
• Co-creation and ideation sessions: Bring consumers into the innovation process and see directly how they frame what they’re trying to accomplish with your product.

Insights That Drive Strategy

With the right market research, food and beverage brands can move confidently from assumptions to evidence. You’ll understand how to apply JTBD to improve product-market fit, enhance messaging, or enter new usage occasions your competitors haven’t spotted yet.

For example, imagine your research reveals that young professionals are skipping breakfast not due to time constraints, but because nothing feels emotionally grounding before a busy day. That’s an emotional need – and a job your brand could potentially serve with the right solution.

At SIVO Insights, we specialize in connecting these dots.

With our custom research solutions, we help food brands uncover exactly which jobs their products are performing (or could be). Grounded in real consumer behavior and aligned with the JTBD framework, these insights drive relevance, innovation, and growth.