ADEO

Business Challenge

With so many brands, products, and geographies under the ADEO umbrella, the research team was stretched thin and didn’t want to be a bottleneck. Typically, it took over three months to complete a study from the time the team received a brief, including recruiting customers, writing the questionnaire, translating it into the local language, conducting the survey, analyzing the data, and sharing research results with stakeholders.

They needed a way to allow local stakeholders to launch research projects so they could understand user perspectives and experiences much faster.

The market research team at ADEO sought a scalable solution to support numerous stakeholders across the business with varied research needs. They needed flexibility to use a variety of research methodologies at different phases of the product development process, from developing use cases and validating concepts, to testing functional prototypes and packaging prior to launch.

Solution

ADEO has established thriving insight communities in six local markets, including France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, with plans to launch a new community in Brazil. There are 30,000 community members worldwide.

The central market research team established a common technology solution for the communities and developed a governance framework so that people who aren’t trained market researchers can follow best practices and feel confident in the results of their studies.

On the local level, each BU decides how to grow its community and recruit members. In addition to emailing customers in ADEO’s database, local teams have experimented with other recruitment methods. In Spain and Romania, for example, after customers make a purchase and complete a satisfaction survey, they’re invited to join the community. In France, in-store flyers with a QR code invite customers to participate.

“The BUs are excited to use the communities for their own local research projects, such as price surveys, store experience surveys and loyalty programs,” explains Caroline Barbier, research manager.

The local community managers appreciate the sense of ownership and freedom of decision-making. They can decide, for example, whether to provide incentives to community members who participate in research. They also choose which content to share to drive member engagement. The Romanian team is setting the pace for engagement by sharing content on topics like upcoming DIY workshops in local stores. As a result, the community in Romania has grown from less than 1,000 members to over 6,000 in one year.

Now that the insight communities are established, the central and local teams continue to collaborate. Shared planning allows all teams to see the roster of upcoming surveys and prioritize projects. When needed, the central team can advise on sample sizes and offer recruiting support. In addition, workshops provide an opportunity for teams across the company to share best practices. Caroline says, “It’s great to see the BUs inspire each other at the workshops and have them see the value of the survey projects.” 

Results

With deeply profiled community members, ADEO can now quickly segment participants and execute research on specific brands, products, and geographics. What used to take three months now takes six weeks. When stakeholders have direct access to the data, they can get results in just one month.

In the past year, the communities completed 65 research projects. Recently, local teams conducted extensive design testing to help BUs develop designs for decorations, wallpapers, curtains and cushions. They also refined in-store messages to make sure they’re communicating in ways customers understand.

Caroline believes, “It’s a virtuous circle: the local teams understand the value of the communities so they are motivated to proactively manage the communities, recruit members and launch research projects. It’s a win-win model for all internal stakeholders.”

ADEO’s senior leadership has recognized the communities’ important role in product development and co-creation: the international research communities recently won an internal prize for business innovation at ADEO.