At the 2015 Vision Critical Summit, the venerable Canadian retailer Canadian Tire shared how it uses customer insight to support its strategic decision-making process and revolutionize its business. Customer insights were instrumental in building a national marketing campaign that includes numerous national TV ads, digital campaigns and in-store support. The community-driven marketing campaigns have had a measurable impact on the company, elevating consumer perceptions of Canadian Tire as being a quality retailer and more customer-centric.

1. Canadian Tire:
Vision Critical
Customer Spotlight

2. CEDRIC PAINVIN
Manager, 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.

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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?”

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Tested for Life In Canada

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. © Aurora Health Care | 23
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