Clorox: Boxing Above Their Weight

Oakland, Calif. -- Executives at The Clorox Co. consider the company a small fish in the massive CPG pond, even though its Kingsford, Hidden Valley, Brita, Fresh Step, Pine-Sol and namesake Clorox brands indisputably are household names."I know we might seem big -- we're a $5 billion company -- but when you're competing against General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and some of these huge companies, you're small in the CPG industry," says Kristin Wonzen, retail consumer marketing (RCM) team lead. "We've always known we're not going to win by spending the most money or by being able to take the biggest billion-dollar brands to the customer; we're going to win through our thought leadership and our capability building."In March 2009, Clorox created a "shopper engagement" group -- Clorox's term for shopper marketing. Chris Tucker, director of shopper engagement, leads the 100-person department. "We had a lot of heroes doing great work on an island," she says. "We realized that if we had a more integrated and strategic approach, we could provide better tools to drive better value for both our businesses and the customers' categories."The group combines category advisory services, shopper insights and the 30-person RCM team. The majority of RCM team members are brand marketers doing an 18-month cross-training assignment. But the group is also closely connected to sales, and acts as a bridge between Clorox's sales and marketing functions."We used to be pretty brand-centric and really didn't think about growing the category," says chief marketing officer Tom Britanik. "We have come light years to the point where we truly have a balance of wanting to grow our customers' categories with our brands. If we're not focused on continuing to build the relationship with the consumer while growing the category, we're not going to grow in the long term."Home Field AdvantageTo enhance its relationship with key customers, about 70% of the shopper engagement group is located in the field on customer teams. Charles Mordy, director of shopper engagement for Walmart, has 18 people on his Bentonville, Ark.-based team, making it Clorox's largest field team. Mordy says their job is to intimately understand Walmart (and Sam's Club) and its shoppers, and how Clorox's brands can enhance Walmart's strategies and their shoppers' lives. "When we have a key insight and sit down with Walmart to talk about the entire plan, having that mutual dialog is where we get breakthrough plans," he says. "In the categories where we do that, both our brands and Walmart's categories where we play have done better. We've grown our investment quite a bit in both marketing and merchandising through that partnership."In Minneapolis, RCM team leader Zack Kramer and seven others work close to Target's corporate store, which enables them to see new in-store programs as they're piloted. "You get firsthand insight into what the account is thinking and why," Kramer says. "As they begin to develop programs or think about changing strategies, you really see that immediately just in the conversations you have with the buyers and the marketing people. The level of connection is very high."The same is true for RCM manager Amy Hsaio, who works out of Clorox's Oakland headquarters. "It's a very collaborative effort, so the proximity is really a must because you're always there working together to build programs," she says. "It facilitates a much richer conversation and engagement for all the parties involved."Grocery RCM team leader Sara Gilbert Leonard oversees field employees who work directly with more than 20 accounts, from regional supermarket chains to national hardware retailers. While this field-focused model has existed for a while, it was strengthened with the formation of the shopper engagement group."We've always had a very good relationship with our retail partners, particularly in shopper marketing and category advisory services," says Tucker. "What this has done is it's helped us maintain our edge as other manufacturers are starting to take this space a lot more seriously."Insights Come FirstAlthough the team is very focused on shoppers, its members know that they need to understand the consumer no matter what mode they're in. "Whether they're sitting on the couch watching TV and see a commercial that creates a desire; whether they're in shopping mode; or when they're using our product, we want the insights to understand how we can influence the consumer, build a stronger relationship with them and educate them as to how best to use our product," says Britanik.That's why every program starts with "integrated consumer insights," a combination of brand, shopper and user research findings. "We use insights at the strategic level all the way down to the tactical, executional level, and that drives what we say, how we say it and when we say it," Britanik says.For one program, the RCM team identified a new trip type, called "Big Basket Big Fun," in which shoppers explore the store and make unplanned purchases. At the same time, they learned that offering colored pitchers increased the likelihood of purchasing the Brita brand. "Now there are yellow and purple and green pitchers that you can buy," Kramer says. "We found that [color variation] played to [the "Big Fun"] trip type so much better that it became one of the big platforms that we built the brand on for the program."Creating Clorox PlatformsWith brands in categories from laundry to food storage to pet care, the RCM team focuses on creating platforms that link many of its -- and sometimes competitors' -- products together. Planning for these platforms begins about six months out, starting with an insight like, "Once people try one sustainable product, they tend to buy more and more," Wonzen says.Next, the team collaborates with sales and the brand groups to understand the brand strategy, and then brings everything to its agency partners, which include Chicago-based TPN, Southfield, Mich.-based MARS Advertising, and Pittsburgh-based MatchPoint Marketing. The result is a toolkit that illustrates what shippers, tearpads and other collateral might look like, which is then used to sell the platform into retail headquarters.In Wonzen's example, the seemingly disparate Burt's Bees (health and beauty), Green Works (cleaning supplies) and Brita (water filtration) brands came together under Clorox's sustainability platform: "Simple Steps to Make Your World a Healthier Place." Combined with GE lightbulbs, Kashi cereals and Stonyfield Farm yogurt, the platform is a natural fit for many retailers' Earth Day and other eco-conscious promotions.Often, such platforms come to life in different ways, depending on the retailer. With Kingsford charcoal as a grilling category leader, the brand is a big part of one retailer's "American Summer" platform. Clorox's role in this program has grown every year, and this year its brands were featured in co-op advertising, print ads and online, and specialty packaging incorporated a "Route 66" logo to coincide with the platform's summer theme. Clorox partnered with the retailer upfront and designed the annual plan for the season back in November [2009], and tailored the program to essentially drive the grilling business in a way that was consistent with Clorox brand messaging.Meanwhile, Kingsford played a large but slightly different role in the "Get Together Grill Together" program at another chain. Partnering with grill manufacturers for the second year in a row, the 360-degree program included in-store messaging, radio ads, and online and circular content."Even though we're all talking about backyard grilling and good times with family and friends, we do it a little bit differently," says Gilbert Leonard. "While that overriding message is consistent, the insights around shoppers' need states and why they are coming into one retailer as opposed to another are very different. [We need to] make sure we're really speaking to the shopper in a way that's relevant for them given the store and the mode of shopping that they're in."Clorox has been able to incorporate its brands into many of its retail clients' "big events" such as "Great Save" and "Back to College." The key, Kramer says, "is having brands that have the breadth of interest and brands that can offer the right amount of value to the guests to merit inclusion in those sorts of events." For "Back to College," one of Clorox's key products is disinfecting wipes. This year, the brand spent $500,000 on co-op ads and coupon offers, which linked to triple placement of the products in-store -- in the cleaning section, in the back-to-college section, and on pallets in those stores located closest to college campuses. "We've already seen lifts that are 20% to 50% greater than the equivalent periods last year," Kramer says. "It just goes to show what adding an element here or there can really do to sales."Delving into DigitalWith tools like the myStain iPhone app -- which gives consumers tips on how to get out any type of stain -- and a Facebook page with more than 139,000 fans, Clorox is well-versed in digital marketing from a consumer perspective. "We are now actively working on understanding it from a shopper application and partnering with our digital group, which has historically been focused on the consumer," Tucker says. "They see the value in the shopper and are working with us aggressively to figure that area out."Some areas of exploration include using QR codes and digital kiosks in-store, as well as partnering more closely with retailers online. "We do a ton of search advertising and banner ads for our brands," Wonzen says, "but what if somebody types in 'Kingsford' -- Should we be doing more search where it [primarily] says, 'You can buy this now on sale at Walmart?'"Clorox created a Brita landing page on one retailer's website where consumers can learn about the environmental, economic and health benefits of drinking filtered water. It's also one of the few Clorox brands available for purchase on the site. The effort has already proven to be a success: Via credit-card tracking, the chain is able to see who views the products online and then buys them in a store. Clorox found that based on that metric, the purchase likelihood went up 75%."Online really gives us the ideal medium to communicate all these things to consumers and give them a chance to both purchase the product at that time or to offer them a coupon to go buy it in-store," says Kramer. Those same talking points are communicated at the shelf to keep the message consistent throughout the purchase process.Clorox will continue these test-and-learn efforts in the digital space, including mobile. "We, as manufacturers, have a lot to learn," Britanik says. "Partnering with retailers, I think we can really help consumers be more efficient and effective in their shopping and using that technology. We've got what I call 'pilots' with many of our brands, and we continue to do market research in this realm to identify how to best meet the needs of consumers in this space."

Clorox: Boxing Above Their Weight

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