Leroy Merl’undies: A Revealing Sign of Customer Culture

Sometimes, an apparently trivial initiative can say a lot about a company’s culture. This is exactly the case with Leroy Merl’undies, an unexpected offering launched by the brand that is nonetheless extremely revealing.

Leroy Merlin has indeed decided to sell a “special plumber” high-waisted boxer brief, designed to put a definitive end to a classic worksite staple: the infamous “plumber’s crack”. For now, the initiative is limited to Portugal (you couldn’t make it up!).

Amusing? Yes. Anecdotal? Not at all.

Why does this reflect a strong customer culture?

It is never very comfortable for the tradesperson, nor pleasant for the customer, to experience this situation. And yet, this phenomenon has existed for decades. No customer or tradesperson has ever explicitly asked for underwear adapted to their professional practice. And yet, a team finally had this idea and, incidentally, the ability to dive into the intimacy of the customer experience in order to identify an irritant that could potentially be improved.

This approach, which consists of being in “customer intimacy”, i.e. experiencing what customers experience in order to better understand their needs and expectations as an observer, is an approach that reflects a strong customer culture.

Indeed, teams need to have the means to do so, their roadmap must allow for it, they must have the time and above all, their ideas must be implemented. This reflects an organization that is specific to the company and refers back to what is “important” to its leaders and managers. It is at Décathlon that I have seen this phenomenon most strongly developed, but I am certain it exists elsewhere too. Leroy Merlin offers us an amusing proof of this 🙂