nside Retail. A luxury focus group Capri Holdings launched its ‘research lab’ last January to be able to survey three different customer groups on a range of topics: people who have purchased from its brands before, people who have never purchased from its brands before and people who intend to purchase from its brands in the next 12 to 18 months. “Today, we are able to showcase the campaigns before they’re launched so that we can get a pulse on brand heat and brand affinity,” shared Neto. “It’s both a combination of leading the witness by presenting multiple questions but we also really like to give a little bit of open-ended questions where they can tell us their feelings,” he added. Capri Holdings asks questions around specific imagery, model positioning and various products. According to Neto, receiving customer feedback before a campaign launches allows Capri Holdings to either pivot the tone of the campaign or build upon it further. “Our research lab, what we call customer panels, have essentially become a predictive in how much sales to expect – or at least a very strong forecast based on how customers will respond, if they would buy or not,” Neto explained. “We’re also able to take that in and influence inventory inference, product availability, what stores and what regions should have more,” he added.  Initially, the research lab was one of many data-driven tools suggested by Neto that got rejected in the budget-planning process – but now it informs almost every part of the brand’s output. Where creativity meets data  While Neto views data as deeply creative, he understands that creative teams within Capri Holdings may require a shift in culture to bridge the gap between data and creativity. “There are elements of creativity that are still retained – we’re not going to lose that; it’s so important for every brand,” Neto stated. “When you land in an environment where it’s so fashionable, it’s so creative, it’s so luxurious and where data sometimes is completely void or it doesn’t have a space just yet, it is a little bit of a challenge,” he elaborated. Neto utilised bridging sessions with each team, taking the time to learn and familiarise himself with their operations so that when he did present data, he could present it in their language. “There are two elements of our data; It’s the qualitative aspect that meets the transactional quantitative perspective,” said Neto. “When we’re having conversations with the creative elements of the company, either the creatives themselves or the marketing teams, we refer to both,” he added.  Now, data collected by Capri Holdings’ research lab informs nearly every creative decision, from campaign shoots to brand ambassadors, influencer collaborations to product launches. “It allows us to see how the consumers are feeling and if they perceive value in this campaign or these products that’s about to be launched,” concluded Neto.  “We really listen to them and then focus our efforts to either course correct where they don’t think it’s good or argue if they think it’s going really well – and it has been transformational for us,” he continued. “The phenomenal news is that the intent to purchase has been validated time and time again by the actual transactional data when they come in.” Inside Retail interviewed Neto at the Adobe Summit as a guest of Adobe.