How The Clorox Company Is Learning More About Its Customers

For more than 100 years, Americans interested in purchasing Clorox products have had to go to a physical store or online retailer. It's been fewer than 100 days since The Clorox Company added another option: direct-to-consumer. And aside from boosting its bottom line, the effort is designed to collect valuable first-party data. A visit to Clorox.com lets shoppers assemble their own bundle of disinfecting wipes, toilet cleaners and stain removers. A pop-up window offers people 10% off if they enter their email address. Additional products and features, such as subscriptions, are in the works. "The site will be a constant learning lab and testing ground as we seek to better meet people’s needs," The Clorox Company said in a statement. As Ad Industry Embraces First-Party Web, Media Owners Must Modernize Structure The company's goal: collect first-party data on 100 million consumers by the end of its 2025 fiscal year. So far, the California-based manufacturer behind brands such as Brita water filters, Burt's Bees lip balm and Hidden Valley Ranch condiments is about 70% of the way there. As Google prepares to get rid of third-party tracking cookies on its Chrome browser and government scrutiny over the handling of personal information grows, makers of consumer products like The Clorox Company are rushing to build their own databases. The Clorox Company's intention to gather more names, birthdays, phone numbers and number of cats in the home (the company also owns the cat litter brand Fresh Step) represents a growing trend among manufacturers, which have traditionally relied on retailers to establish close connections with shoppers. "The more we know about a person, the more we can be relevant to them at the time when they need the right information," said Doug Milliken, Clorox's vp of marketing transformation. Building a relationship with customers The Clorox Company is seeking to gather more first-party data by entering into what Milliken refers to as a "value exchange" with consumers. An example of this includes Hidden Valley Ranch sending tailored recipes to consumers who signup and answer a few questions about their preferences and family composition. Knowing more about shoppers helps the company refine its ad targeting, tailor online experiences and generate customer insights. "If you come to the Brita site, it's really helpful to know if you are already an owner of a Brita pitcher or not," said Milliken. "If you own a pitcher, you're likely there to find refills; if you're not, you're likely looking for information about how to improve water quality." To make the exchange feel fair, Clorox endeavors to only ask information that it needs—for example asking a cat litter customer how many cats they have, not necessarily where they live. "Our overall principle is to collect the minimum amount of data needed, and to not collect and store any sensitive data," explained Milliken. Clorox isn't the only manufacturer trying to cozy up to formerly distant customers. Companies from PepsiCo to Procter & Gamble have debuted DTC platforms to help capture first-party data. Last year, the Kellogg Company introduced a website dedicated to its cracker brand Cheez-It, where shoppers can find unique flavors and merchandise ranging from socks to beanies to headphones. "At the end of the day, data is gold," Jordan Narducci, Kellogg's former director of global direct-to-consumer ecommerce, told Adweek last August. "We need to be investing in capturing more of it." From having data to acting on it The first challenge for manufacturers like Clorox is getting customer data. But once companies have amassed lots of signals, figuring out how to use it effectively can be a daunting task, says Mike Woosely, chief operating officer at data-focused ad-tech company Lotame. "If I get the data, how do I act on it in the open web?" Woosley said. "It’s hard." Clorox has been leaning on ad-tech giant Google both for consultation on how to accrue first-party data and for the tools on how to use it. For example, Clorox has been experimenting with Google demand-side platform DV360's durable audience strategies, named for lasting past cookie deprecation, said David Temkin, Google's director of product management for ads privacy & trust. With one tool called Customer Match, Clorox uploads its first-party data and Google matches it against signed-in Google users to deliver ads to existing customers, Temkin said. Clorox also has Omnicom's data platform at its disposal, after consolidating media responsibilities with OMD in 2020. The tech allows it to build audience segments around its existing first-party data and then use this information to determine the most cost-effective media buys, per previous Adweek reporting. Making sure media buys deliver good returns on ad spend is particularly important of late. When the Covid-19 pandemic first spread across America, The Clorox Company couldn't keep enough disinfecting wipes on store shelves to meet demand. But as the health crisis subsides, The Clorox Company is seeing revenue cool. For its fiscal year ending June 30, the company reported net sales of $7.1 billion, a 3% decline compared to the prior 12-month period. Its share price is now lower than it was at the start of 2020. Against these pressures on its bottom line, Clorox's next challenge will not just be getting to know consumers, but staying in their lives. Many data signals like email aren't durable over time, meaning a brand must keep finding ways to be in touch with the customer, Woosley said. For a CPG brand, being a continued part of customer life can be tricky. "[A CPG brand] can do clever things like loyalty programs and discounts, but at the end of the day, I don’t wake up every day and think about bleach," Woosley said. "That’s the thing that my wife tells me not to put in the laundry. You don’t live and breathe it."