Canadian Tire:Vision Critical

Customer Spotlight

CEDRIC PAINVINManager, Consumer Research

Canadian Tire

This deck was presented by Cedric Painvin, manager of customer insights and research at

Canadian Tire, at the 2015 Vision Critical Summit.

In his seven years at Canadian Tire, Cedric has helped redefine the utility of the Consumer

Research function within the organization. He’s led major segmentation studies, supported multiple

brand repositionings, helped create executive dashboards of key tracking metrics and

spearheaded the development of two insight communities. 

Agenda:

1. Intro to Canadian Tire

2.The Business Case for Insight Communities

3.Meeting Shifting Management Expectations

4.Meeting Shifting Stakeholder Expectations

5.Moving Beyond Top 2 Box

6.Real Examples, Real Results

Canadian Tire is Canada’s largest retailer. It was started by two brothers over 93 years ago. It essentially evolved from a small general store into the retail chain it is today.

Of Canada’s 36 million residents, 90 percent live within a 15-minute drive from a Canadian Tire and 65 percent have shopped at Canadian Tire in the past three months.

When I started seeking internal approval to spec out the implementation of an insight community, I prepared myself for the most common questions:

• “What’s the cost?”• “What’s the ROI?”• “What’s the benefit?”• “What’s the alternative?”• “What’s the process?”• “What’s the point?”• “What’s the potential?

The business case for insight communities

Shifting management expectations

As our team evolved, so did management’s expectations of what the insights and research team at Canadian Tire should be be delivering to the organization. Management may not have realized it, but their shifting expectations were naturally aligned to the benefits of an insight community.

Everyone, including market research teams, has to do more with less. If you arm yourself with the right tools, doing more with less doesn’t have to hurt so much. Insight communities are the great equalizer in the never ending battle between maximizing productivity and depleting resources.

Do more with less

Gone are the days of getting insight within four to six weeks. Businesses cannot be effectively steered when answers take that long. Insight communities give stakeholders something we all wish we had more of: time to make a better decision or the ability to make a better decision by a certain time.

Faster insight

While manufacturing continues to be outsourced it seems that the opposite is true for a lot of other departments. Whether it’s design, advertising, accounting or market research, companies want to insource essential services for all the right reasons.

Insight communities align with the trend of insourcing. That’s because they reduce your market research team’s reliance on a third-party vendor, helping contain the costs and giving the credit, recognition and praise to your insight department.

Insource where possible

Businesses can’t rely on gut and instinct alone anymore. Successful brand and organizational stewardship requires a blended cocktail of data, experience, leadership and guidance from the insights extracted from the market and consumer.

Insight communities can be the ultimate tie-breaker when all other data sources or opinions are at an impasse. Give your customer a seat at the table and let them help improve your chance at success.

Voice of customer

Big data won’t replace market research because it can’t replace it. The two complement each other. The two back each other up if one alone can’t solve the issue.

Insight communities can help quickly explain disturbing trends in sales/behavioural data. Companies with insight communities are sitting on the holy grail of what “customer-centricity” is all about.

Getting behind the “what?”

Shifting stakeholder expectations

To complicate things, our internal stakeholders are also shifting their expectations. Their needs and requirements are evolving—and so they should. This is putting pressure on insights teams to deliver. It’s also going to increase the demand for the work we do—and hopefully ramp up our level of contribution in driving business success.

Should we go with logo A or logo B? Should the package be navy blue or black? The answers to these questions are valuable—but our business partners sometimes need more from us. Their issues are more challenging than this. The quick poll is not always enough to meet the demands of more complex work.

Insight communities don’t just allow you to insource the basic stuff. With the right person at the wheel, these communities can support work that used to always be outsourced.

“A” vs “B” is not enough anymore

When talking to internal stakeholders about their insight requests, I’ll say something like: “I can certainly help – but I need you to make a choice. “Do you want the Cadillac version which gets you 100 percent of the answer but will need to be outsourced at a cost or do you want me to go to our Insight Community, get you 90 percent of the answer in three to five business days?”

Insight communities can’t completely replace the need to work with preferred vendors for certain types of jobs. But 90 percent of the answer is often a much better option than 0 percent or paying a lot of money for 100 percent.

90% is sometimes good enough

Business partners often want the results and insights delivered by a trusted internal source. Someone who understands the business. Someone familiar with the intricacies of the objectives. Someone who gets the nuances of business constraints and realities.

Insight communities help shift the balance of “knowledge power” back to the internal research group. And a trusting, internal source delivering that knowledge is often more reassuring to the audience.

More trusting of the source

Moving beyond Top 2 Box

Our insight communities have evolved, the work we do through them has evolved and Vision Critical’s Sparq platform has been the backbone.

Moving beyond the data points. Moving beyond quantitative data. Harnessing the power of our insight communities.

Insight Community

Product Testing

Community

Digital HUB & Social

Community

In-depth Qualitative &

Public Relations

Monetizing the Insight

Community

Insight Community evolution

We launched our first insight community over three years ago. It now holds approximately 20,000 engaged community members. Last year, we created a 2nd Community of “product testers.”

We’ve morphed the Product Tester Community which now has its own online microsite / digital HUB. Almost like a Facebook site for our most trusted Product Testers.

We’re executing more than just quant surveys. We’re conducting in-depth workshops, focus groups and we’re even hosting events for PR purposes. And we’re now monetizing the results and output from our insight communities.

Tested for Life In Canada

‘Tested for Life in Canada’ is an online product testing community that currently has around 15,000 active Testers across Canada.

Products from all kinds of categories are tested and reviewed, and if they meet our strict internal criteria of being a ‘Tested’ product, they earn a badge. The‘Tested’ badge can be found on customer approved products in-store, online and in the flyer.

This program allows us to increase consumer confidence about the products we sell and to create brand ambassadors.

Tested for Life In Canada

Digital HUB—24/7 Insights

Our digital hub has more than 3,700 registered users, generating thousands of posts and images. We’re engaging with them through original video content, page posts, surveys, polls, photo challenges and participation in broader Canadian Tire campaigns like #WannaPlay.

Our long-term vision: Foster a thriving social community where Testers engage with the Canadian Tire brand and each other on a personal level, while also providing us with actionable insight on our products and services.

Public relations win—“Ugly Christmas Tree Party”

Recently, we asked some community members to test our exclusive new Christmas trees. However, minimal samples were available, and we needed the results in June—well outside typical Christmas tree season.

Our solution: host an Ugly Christmas Tree Party!

We asked a sample of our members to provide a picture of their tree and explain why they thought the trees were so ugly. We got a lot of responses and also received some positive PR buzz.

From cost center to revenue generator

A great majority of the activities in our insight communities are product-related research. But it occurred to me that our manufacturers would also greatly benefit from having access to this information. So 2 years ago, we tried to prove out the concept.

By selling data, reports and presentations to the manufacturers we buy products from, we have turned our insight communities as a source of revenue for the business.

© Aurora Health Care | 23

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