At first glance, the reasons someone might choose a meal kit or have dinner delivered seem obvious: convenience, time savings, maybe even variety. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that different people choose similar solutions for very different reasons.

This is where traditional market research alone may fall short. By classifying customers by age, income, or location, businesses often overlook the more meaningful drivers of choice—like how a new parent chooses a meal kit to feel in control during chaotic evenings, while a young professional orders takeout because they forgot to meal prep and feel too exhausted to cook.

Meal Kits vs. Food Delivery: It’s Not Just About the Food

Meal kits and food delivery fulfill distinct needs at different moments. While both offer convenience, they solve different 'problems' for the consumer. For example:

• Meal kits may be chosen to create a sense of accomplishment or support healthier eating habits.
• Food delivery may be selected when time is extremely limited or when someone is seeking comfort or indulgence.

In JTBD terms, these are different 'jobs' the customer is hiring the product to do. The actual food may be similar, but the motivation behind the purchase is what matters most.

Understanding Context Is Key

Real-life context plays a major role in why people pick one solution over another. It's not just a question of which product offers more value – it's about how the product fits into a specific moment in someone’s day or life. For example, consider these fictional but relatable consumer scenarios:

• A single bachelor chooses a meal kit to feel more self-reliant and develop cooking skills, not just to save time.
• A working couple orders delivery at the end of a hectic week, not because they don’t want to cook, but because they want to enjoy a stress-free evening together.

These experiences illustrate how the same product category can serve vastly different emotional and practical needs. When brands overlook the functional and emotional context, they risk missing the mark on consumer expectations.

The Role of Emotion in Convenience Food Choices

Functional benefits like speed and simplicity are important, but emotional drivers often tip the scales. People choose options that let them feel relaxed, productive, in control, or even nostalgic. This emotional layer is what makes certain convenience foods more appealing than others in a given moment.

By identifying these deeper motivations, brands in the food industry can better position their offerings, connect with specific moments of need, and drive customer loyalty in ways that go beyond pricing or features.

The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework gives businesses a powerful lens to understand why customers really make the choices they do. It moves beyond surface-level assumptions—like speed or affordability—and asks: What “job” is the customer trying to get done in their life? Rather than viewing people only as consumers, JTBD sees them as problem solvers trying to make progress in a specific context.

Defining the Job: More Than Just a Transaction

In JTBD, a “job” is a goal someone is trying to achieve or a challenge they're trying to overcome. Importantly, it’s not always rational. Jobs can be:

• Functional – like getting dinner on the table quickly.
• Emotional – like feeling accomplished for preparing a home-cooked meal.
• Social – like impressing guests with a well-made meal.

For example, a customer may “hire” a meal kit to feel like they’re improving their cooking skills—even if the same meal could be ordered within minutes. These nuances explain why similar products serve very different purposes.

Reframing Customer Behavior Through a JTBD Lens

By applying JTBD thinking, businesses in the food and beverage space can reframe customer behavior with more clarity. Instead of segmenting customers by static traits, JTBD asks what they are hiring a product or service to accomplish, given their unique context.

Let’s consider a few examples (fictional and for illustrative purposes):

• A family uses a meal delivery service each Friday—not just to feed everyone, but to create a reliable weekly tradition where no one has to decide what's for dinner.
• A college student orders from a healthy food app to maintain control over eating habits without having to cook in a shared dorm kitchen.

These scenarios show that success in the food industry isn’t just about solving the problem of hunger—it’s about helping people make progress toward a desired outcome. JTBD helps uncover those deeper outcomes.

From Insight to Innovation

This approach opens the door to targeted product innovation. When you understand the precise jobs your customers are trying to do, you can design new offerings, features, or services that directly address those needs. Whether you’re building your next meal kit experience or refining a restaurant’s online ordering options, insights from JTBD can guide meaningful and relevant improvements.

Market research plays a key role in enabling these discoveries. By blending traditional techniques with JTBD interviewing and analysis, companies can achieve a fuller picture of customer behavior. The benefit? Insights that are actionable—not just interesting. They help business leaders prioritize development, craft messaging that resonates, and respond to emerging food industry trends with speed and precision.

At a time when choices are abundant and attention is limited, applying JTBD can help brands stand out by focusing on what truly matters: the customer's lived experience and what they’re really trying to accomplish at mealtime.

When people reach for a meal kit or order food delivery, they're doing more than just satisfying hunger — they're solving for both functional and emotional needs. The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework helps us unpack not just what someone chooses, but why they choose it.

Functional Needs: What People Are Trying to Get Done

On the functional side, consumers turn to convenience food solutions to solve everyday problems. They might be short on time after work, lack the ingredients for a full recipe, or want to avoid grocery store trips altogether.

• Saving time cooking and cleaning
• Getting a fresh, balanced meal quickly
• Feeding a family with minimal prep

These practical drivers are important, but they don’t always explain why someone chooses this solution over that one. That’s where emotional needs come in.

Emotional Needs: How People Want to Feel

Emotional motivations are often the deciding factor in how consumers choose between meal kits, takeout, or frozen meals. Meal kits, for example, fulfill the functional need to eat dinner — but they also meet emotional needs like feeling accomplished, creative, or even health-conscious. Food delivery may deliver comfort, relief, or a sense of indulgence at the end of a long day.

Examples of emotional 'jobs' food convenience can fulfill include:

• Reducing guilt about unhealthy eating or overspending
• Helping a parent feel like they’re providing for their kids
• Making someone feel in control during a busy or stressful week

Understanding both the emotional and the functional sides of a customer’s decision is key. It reveals not just what the product must do, but also how it must make people feel — which ultimately drives loyalty and preference.

Why This Matters for Food Brands

Knowing the deeper emotional drivers behind food choices unlocks new opportunity areas in product innovation, marketing, and positioning. For example, if research shows that customers choose food delivery to feel relief during chaotic evenings, then messaging that focuses on peace of mind and simplicity may outperform messages about speed alone.

JTBD helps answer questions like: Why do people buy convenience food when they could cook? Or What makes meal kits appealing to customers beyond ingredients and packaging?

Food businesses looking to stand out in a crowded market can gain a competitive edge by applying the Jobs to Be Done framework to uncover real-world customer needs. Rather than assuming people buy based on demographics or surface-level preferences, JTBD reveals the underlying reasons that drive their choices.

Key Takeaways for Food and Beverage Companies

JTBD breaks down not just what consumers do, but why they do it. Let’s say two people choose food delivery — their actions are the same, but their motivations may be entirely different. One might want to save time while juggling work, and the other may want to avoid decision fatigue after a long day.

By understanding these differences, businesses can tailor offerings, marketing communications, and customer experiences that resonate on a deeper level.

Ways JTBD Enhances Strategy

• Product innovation: Discover unmet needs that fuel ideas for new recipes, packaging, or service models.
• Customer segmentation: Group people by job types rather than just demographics for more targeted messaging.
• Brand positioning: Speak directly to emotional drivers, such as ease, connection, or self-care.

For example, a fictional meal kit company learning that one segment orders kits to feel more confident cooking can design products that require fewer steps and offer visual success cues. Meanwhile, another group ordering for family bonding might favor kits designed for shared preparation experiences with kids.

JTBD in Action Across the Food Industry

From restaurant chains to CPG brands, JTBD reveals why people adopt or abandon products. It's particularly useful when exploring how consumers choose between meal kits and takeout or evaluating what makes one form of convenience food more compelling than another.

Using JTBD in market research opens new lenses into emerging food industry trends and gives businesses clearer direction on where to invest. Whether launching a new product or optimizing an existing offering, starting with the “job” provides clarity and focus.

Understanding consumer motivations is at the heart of what SIVO does – and the Jobs to Be Done framework helps us bring clarity to even the most complex food behaviors. Our team works closely with food companies, restaurants, and CPG brands to uncover the real-world customer insights that inform smarter decisions and more relevant offerings.

Custom Research Designed Around Jobs, Not Assumptions

When clients come to us asking “Why do people prefer this type of meal kit?” or “How are consumers deciding between takeout, ready-to-eat or meal kits?” – we know the deeper answers lie beyond surface-level data. We design custom market research studies with JTBD in mind, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to capture both functional and emotional motivators.

We explore key JTBD elements such as:

• The situations that trigger the need for food convenience
• The emotional aspirations or frustrations behind product choices
• What success looks like, according to the customer

Through thoughtful interviews, immersive observation, and behavior mapping, we bring the actual decision-making process to life – giving our clients a holistic view of how consumers choose between meal kits and takeout and what makes specific solutions stick.

Actionable Insights that Support Innovation and Growth

Our insights go far beyond the “what” – we aim to answer the “why” and “so what” that help brands move forward with confidence. For many, JTBD has sparked:

• New product lines grounded in unmet needs
• More resonant marketing focused on emotional drivers
• Clearer customer segmentation based on situations and jobs

Whether you're a startup rethinking your food delivery model or a large brand exploring the benefits of using JTBD for food product development, SIVO’s team helps translate deep human understanding into strategies that drive relevance and results.

Flexible Support Tailored to Your Business

Because every brand and challenge is different, we offer flexible approaches ranging from full-scale customer insight projects to fractional on-demand talent support. Our end goal is the same: delivering insights that empower food businesses to stay connected to real human needs – and evolve with them.