Scotts Miracle-Gro

Business Challenge 

Scotts Miracle-Gro has always been consumer-centric. A foundation rooted in consumer insights is one of their core values. But with today’s market evolving more rapidly than ever before, businesses don’t have the luxury of taking a long time to make business decisions. Not to mention learning more about the 21 million new gardeners who entered the category in 2020!  Scotts Miracle-Gro needed an agile, scalable solution for gathering real-time insights from their consumers. They needed more flexibility and speed, while keeping the voice of the consumer at the heart of every decision. 

Solution

In September 2020, Scotts Miracle-Gro chose Alida as their partner to build a robust online insights community: The Scotts Miracle-Gro Greenhouse.  The Greenhouse attracted nearly 2,000 consumers across the US. Their diverse members represent a wide range of ages with various levels of lawn and garden experience. The insights community gives the SMG team unlimited access to consumers for real-time insights. With the community, Scotts is able to reach consumers 24/7 and get responses back in a matter of hours—instead of days or even weeks. 

Scotts Miracle-Gro uses Alida as the latest tool in their toolbox to obtain consumer insights that allows the company to take action that directly impacts marketing strategies and product development across the organization. 

Results

Having an always-on consumer community means that Scotts is constantly evolving. The SMG Greenhouse Community provides quantitative insights, as well as directional learnings to identify red flags and potential risks in very early stages so Scotts can course correct. The community is set up to be an iterative “co-creation” tool that provides the ability to go back to the same consumers and delve into their responses for deeper insights. The Scotts Miracle-Gro community is busy! Since September 2020, there have been nearly 100 activities launched to the community! The company has implemented a wide variety of research tools including multi-day discussion boards, 1:1 interviews, in-home product usage tests, and brief online surveys. Community members have created vision boards and uploaded photos and videos. Not to mention the breadth of categories that community members have explored—including but not limited to...

• Lawn Care
• Live Plants
• Rodent Control
• Weed Control
• Bagged Soil
• And many more!

From mosquitoes to dandelions, from new product concept evaluation to claims testing, Scotts Miracle-Gro has increased their speed to market by gaining quick and real time insights. They rely on relationships with their consumers to continually drive growth and improve consumer experiences. This solidifies Scotts’ approach to consumer insights– building meaningful relationships with consumers to drive loyalty. Listening to their consumers and tangibly showing how they are part of the company's solutions builds loyalty, keeps consumers happy, and empowers Scotts Miracle-Gro to continue developing game-changing marketing.