TESTING, TESTING
Consumers have their say
Éric St- Jean likes to bake bread for his four kids, regularly cuts down trees on his heavily forested property to keep his wood stove hot through the long winter, and has an unabashed love of Canadian Tire.
A longtime shopper at “the Triangle,” as company executives like to call the company’s core retail stores, the 39- year- old software development leader from Vaudreuil- Dorion, Que., has long scoured Canadian Tire’s website for new products and always reads customer reviews when he is thinking about what to buy.
When St- Jean saw an online notice from Canadian Tire in late 2013 calling for participants on a consumer panel to test new product prototypes and help improve upon existing ones, he applied for a spot with enthusiasm.
“I always looked for good reviews, but many times people only put down a couple of sentences,” he explained in an interview. “They are helpful, but never in- depth. I’m very good at breaking stuff — so I figured I’d be a good candidate for this. I could get stuff to try out, and help other users.”
St- Jean is part of the iconic retailer’s latest foray into marketing products and in- house brands in an era when many consumers base their shopping decisions on social media reviews.
From a list of 75,000 who applied — Canadian Tire was bombarded with applicants and soon closed the portal, recalls chief operating officer Allan MacDonald — the retailer whittled the potential mass focus group down after conducting a segmented survey.
“We wanted to make sure ( the panel) represented different interests, different demographics, different age groups, different parts of the country and so on,” MacDonald said. “Now we have 15,000 active product testers.”
The strategy aims to show the retailer takes its customer input to heart, as well as foster consumer loyalty by genuinely improving the brands and their reputation.
“Over the last few years, we have been trying to reinvigorate that innovative spirit that was so core to Canadian Tire’s success,” MacDonald said. “When I joined Canadian Tire ( in 2009), I felt we were often viewed with a critical eye in terms of the products we brought to market, which is understandable considering how broad ( the selection) is.”
The new program levers off of a well- covered marketing tradition at Canadian Tire — planting a seed in consumers’ minds about new and seemingly useful products, and demonstrating how they work.
From 1997 to 2005, that job fell to a pair of actors who became known as the “Canadian Tire couple,” who demonstrated everything from power washers to garden tools in TV ads.
A few years after that campaign officially retired, the company’s marketing team bought a suburban Toronto home dubbed the “House of Innovation,” and began
We wanted to make sure ( the panel) represented different interests, different demographics, different age groups, different parts of the country and so on.
fixing it up using Canadian Tire tools, paint, appliances and home furnishings, and showcased the efforts in video on a website.
The newest effort using a panel of real customers is dubbed “Tested For Life in Canada,” and has been in the works for more than a year, but makes its official media debut this month. The testers are not compensated for their feedback, but get to keep any products they evaluate.
All of the tested products are marked in store and online as such, with a “Tested For Life in Canada” insignia and links to the testers’ feedback.
“Quite candidly, the drill bit was my pet peeve,” MacDonald said.
“I bought drill bits from Canadian Tire three years ago, and they didn’t do what I expected them to do. I said to my team I fear we are not meeting our customers’ expectations and because drill bits are a low dollar value purchase, we don’t see returns.”
The company has since developed a new drill bit, the Maximum 7 Edge Titanium Coated Drill Bit Set, and put it through the testing process. It passed the panel on the first round.
Not all products do: After the initial iteration of the $ 189.99 popup Coleman Instant Tent went through the process, Canadian Tire worked directly with the vendor to suggest what improvements could be made. An awning was added to help improve waterproofing and decrease internal moisture.
The testers also have a membersonly digital social hub on which they are encouraged to discuss the products they have tested and offer more feedback to the company.
Canadian Tire has been under an intense market microscope in recent years as many experts predicted the arrival of Target in 2013 would spell its demise.
In the meantime, the retailer’s management went into overdrive shoring up the strongest parts of its business — heritage categories such as sporting goods, kitchenware and tires — and against the odds, the market stood back as the Triangle beat the Bullseye.
Results have been positive. Last week, Canadian Tire reported a fourth- quarter profit bump of eight per cent and a 2.8 per cent increase in same- store sales of its core retail stores. The fleet of home testers will help Canadian Tire tap into the trust consumers seek out from online reviews with a greater legitimacy, said Ken Wong, professor of marketing at Queen’s University School of Business.
“Retailers everywhere are looking for that point of differentiation,” he said. “Often the only differentiation between retailers is their private label or exclusive items, and many people base those ( buying) decisions on price.
“But there is room for something more and that is whether the consumer trusts you — we see that with Loblaws and President’s Choice. This has more credibility than reviews of products on a website because you are talking about multiple people involved in the process.”