Doug Milliken joined The Clorox Company in 1987 before “digital” was even a strategy. After 34 years, he’s now the VP of marketing and digital transformation at the company. Milliken has seen Clorox expand and diversify into the global powerhouse it is today, with a portfolio of brands ranging from its namesake bleach to Burt’s Bees to Kingsford charcoal. We sit down with Milliken and ask him what’s the point of capturing first-party data to sell lip balm, as well as why the brand kept spending ad dollars during the pandemic when other companies were hitting pause.
Damian Fowler (00:00):
I'm Damian Fowler.
George Slefo (00:01):
And I'm George Slefo.
Damian Fowler (00:02):
And this is The Current.
George Slefo (00:10):
The Current is your deep dive into the future of TV, media, and data privacy, all explained in plain English.
Damian Fowler (00:15):
In plain English. And today we'll hear from Doug Milliken, the VP of Marketing and Transformation at Clorox. That's definitely a title I've never heard of.
George Slefo (00:24):
You're telling me. So I asked Doug, "What exactly does a Marketing Transformation Vice President do?"
Doug Milliken (00:32):
What it means is my team is responsible for innovating our brand building model at Clorox. Thinking ahead to what's the next iteration of how we think about building brands in today's world and trying to build the capability to do that. So right now, as an example, we're really focused on the idea of how do we use the data and technology that's now available in the CPG industry to help us personalize or customize, to our consumers at scale. And we see that as the next kind of era in brand building within our industry and our focus is on leading the company's transition to being able to do that.
George Slefo (01:14):
And you're actually in a really interesting position because you've been with the company for 33 years, and now you're in charge of transformation. Is there any insight you could share from having that sort of perspective?
Doug Milliken (01:29):
Yeah, what's interesting to me is, Clorox has been around 100, 110 years. Most companies don't live that long. And when I look back, part of the reason we've been successful is Clorox is a company that is very open to looking outside, understanding how the world is evolving, questioning what we're doing and positioning ourselves to be relevant in the way the world works at that time.
George Slefo (02:00):
So, the words digital transformation get thrown around a ton in our industry. What does that mean for Clorox?
Doug Milliken (02:10):
The way that we expressed it is, digital transformation for us means changing how we do business leveraging digital technology. So we said, digital is a technology. Yep. Digital is a channel, we can market digitally. Yep. But really at the end of the day, what digital represents is a change to how we do business. But it goes all the way to the macro. How do we build brands? The way we build brands in the digital environment is different. And we see it as being fundamental because if you don't do this, you can't operate in the digital ecosystem all businesses operate in, and you can't connect with the consumer in the way that they expect us to. So this is the way we approach it. And therefore, every function in every business has a detailed plan about how it is transforming, leveraging digital tools.
Damian Fowler (03:10):
Doug, can I jump in here and ask you, you talk about connecting with the consumer. What does that mean when you've got, what is it, 49 brands in your portfolio, if that's correct? I mean, to name a few, you've got Kingsford Charcoal, Hidden Valley Ranch, the Brita Filter, which I use at home, Clean Paws Kitty Litter. I don't have a cat, so I don't use that, but that's a lot of brands under your umbrella. Is there a sort of coherent underpinning to the marketing strategy for each brand or is each one a different kind of way of thinking and approaching this consumer relationship?
Doug Milliken (03:46):
Well, each brand like most CPG companies, each brand is managed as an individual brand with an individual consumer set goals, visions, individual brand purpose. What is consistent is, what we can bring as a company across all those brands is a consistent point of view and set of capabilities. So as an example for us, we believe modern brands are purpose driven, human centered and technology enabled. So all of our brands therefore, are kind of operating under this ethos. They need to be purpose driven. So all of our brands need to have what we would call a brand purpose. Why does it exist beyond the need to make money? Our marketing needs to be human centered, meaning it's not about Clorox, it's about the consumer. And all brands need to be technology enabled in today's world.
Doug Milliken (04:41):
Technology is the way we connect the consumer to the brand. And so we need to have a robust data and technology strategy to make that happen. So we all, all the brands operate under that kind of idea, but their individual objectives, strategies and tactics are all particular to that business. So one of the key things that we're trying to do now in being human centered, is this idea of being more personalized. Technology has fundamentally changed consumer's expectations. All of us, we want what we want, when we want it, how we want it, where we want it. We expect very high utility. We don't expect brands to know us in a creepy way, but we expect that brands are going to be really relevant to what we need at any given time. So we have a goal around personalizing all of our interactions with our consumers.
Doug Milliken (05:37):
Now, by that, I mean, it's probably more customizing at a segment level. I don't mean every single interaction is one to one. We just use the term personalized. To do that, we have to know more people and we need to know more about them. In the old days, all of our consumers were anonymous. We had no idea who they were. And so what we need to do is move from our consumer being anonymous, to our consumer being known to us in some way. In other words, there's some signal that allows us to be more customized to what their need is. What we're trying to do, is to build a database. We've just set a goal for ourselves, it just helps to motivate us, to get to a hundred million known consumers. Meaning, we could reach out to them in some ways, getting to that number by 2025. But that again, just lets us do things like, well, we know you're in Seattle and it's raining this weekend, there's no need to send you an ad for Kingsford Charcoal.
George Slefo (06:45):
It makes sense. You guys have all these different brands, and you want to know about the consumer, so you're serving them relevant ads, but do consumers really want a relationship with something like 409 cleaner? Can you expand why that's important to the Clorox brand?
Doug Milliken (07:00):
We build brands. That's what we do as a company. By that, we mean, we build an enduring relationship with the consumer based on their functional needs, their emotional needs. To do that, we need to understand them. They need to understand us. And there are ways in which we can be more relevant to people, even if it isn't, do I want a relationship with 409? So let me give you an example. I'll just give you a good example. An example from our disinfecting wipes business, currently we've launched a compostable wipe. There are some consumers for whom that is an interesting product because they are more environmentally conscious and it's important to them to understand that, that product composts. There are other people for whom what compostable means is it's probably a safer product, safer around kids and pets, a little bit different motivation. So, with the consumers that we know, if we can sort out, are they more of a natural consumer versus a safety consumer, we will send them one of those two say, versions of a compostable wipe ad, more relevant to them.
Doug Milliken (08:13):
What we're trying to do is to help them solve their needs. We're trying to help them solve their goal. Ultimately, our hope is they say, "I love that brand!" Okay? Now they may not think about us very often. We know people aren't thinking about disinfecting wipes 23 hours a day. They may think about us for two seconds a day, but when they do, we want them to say, "I love that brand!" Right? Because they totally get me. The key is for each brand to understand the value exchange for the consumer. That would be worth it for them to give us some kind of information that would help us reach them more directly.
Doug Milliken (08:55):
So Hidden Valley, which has a good size database, the value exchange there, is people use ranch dressing as a condiment. They use it on lots of different foods. And what the consumer really wants is often a break from the rut of every day, figuring out every night, what to make for dinner. So they look for recipe inspiration, and Hidden Valley has a robust set of recipes that help people figure out, hey, what can you make for dinner tonight? The value exchange there is, if you give us some information about your likes and desires, we will customize recipes for you.
Damian Fowler (09:30):
Recently in an interview, with The Brave Podcast, we're giving them a shout to out, you said that Clorox was an existential crossroads in terms of being relevant to customers and consumers. What do you mean by that? I mean, this is big picture stuff, I presume.
Doug Milliken (09:45):
Things are really different now, in the digital world that we're in. People's imagination and the innovation is being captured by other things like technology, that's really interesting to people. Smaller brands, really interesting to people. The average CPG brand is a little bit less of a wow thing than it was, that is if you don't manage it correctly, then it was 30, 40 years ago. So the existential crisis to me is, there's no God-given right that Clorox has to exist or any of our, any brand in CPG has to exist. And if you can't keep up with what is the evolution of the consumer in the outside world, you're going to this cease to exist.
Doug Milliken (10:38):
So the existential crisis is, how does a CPG brand become relevant and interesting and useful to the consumer as much today as it was 50 years ago in a world that has really fundamentally changed? So this is when we think about well, what motivates us around this digital transformation and connecting with consumers is, the wolf is at the door. I think about it like that. And if we do not get ahead of it, if we do not evolve our model, if we don't do this digital transformation change, how we do business, build new skills, reach consumers in a new way, then your brand is not going to do well. It's a real, it is a real crisis for legacy brands that have been around for 100 years.
Damian Fowler (11:29):
It's amazing to think that. I mean, Clorox is a verb at this point. So you wouldn't think you'd need to do that much to keep that message front and center in people's minds. On that point though, do you think now that consumers are less loyal to longstanding brands, are they ready to move on, if a brand has a different message that appeals to them?
Doug Milliken (11:51):
Brands that aren't doing well? Yes. They are losing loyalty. Brands that are able to meet the consumer where they are today, in the way that I was describing, those brands are not losing loyalty. So I mean, our business, partly as a result of COVID, last year we grew faster than we have ever, in 110 or so years. The loyalty on many of our brands is higher than it's ever been. The perceived consumer value of most of our brands is higher than it's ever been. So it's definitely not the case that CPG brands will sort of de facto, lose loyalty. But no. So I don't buy that narrative at all, and our data would say not true.
George Slefo (12:48):
With COVID, during the early days of the pandemic, you guys were unexpectedly, one of the hottest brands. Most people would assume you guys would stop marketing in that instance with maybe some suggesting that if you continued marketing, you'd seem opportunistic, but you guys didn't. Can you touch on that? What was the rationale behind that?
Doug Milliken (13:08):
Yeah, that's a great question. The rationale is we believe in building brands over the long term. What we've seen is brand building, meaning communicating about the purpose of the brand, what it's about, what it does, understanding the consumer's need. Brand building marketing pays off hugely. It builds the business, it reduces price sensitivity. It helps innovation, all of these things. And it's a long term. It's a long term. It's an evergreen effort. The way brand building works is you don't turn it on and turn it off. The Clorox brand is 110 years old. Most of our other brands are probably 30 to 50 years old. The average Fortune 500 company doesn't last that long. Why is that? That's because we build brands over the incredibly long term. So we would never look at it and think just because we are out of stock, we should stop communicating with the consumer.
Doug Milliken (14:13):
We need to always be doing that. What we did was we just communicated different things. So if you take Clorox brand, as an example, we weren't really communicating messages that had an objective about, go out and buy the product now. We weren't doing sort of that kind of performance marketing or lower funnel marketing, because we knew that's only going to frustrate people. What we were doing was focusing more on helping consumers understand how they could stay safe. And so understanding the role of disinfecting, how disinfecting products could work, in some cases, what to do if they couldn't find the product and what you can do at home. So we just changed the nature. In fact, our marketing spend, I think the year of COVID was, might have been a record spend, even though we couldn't keep the product in stock. But again, it's because we're looking at this over the long term, and this is what allows our brands to weather all sorts of storms.
George Slefo (15:20):
So I have to, and that's fascinating, but I have to ask, so during the early days of the pandemic, I think the IEB came out, they said more than a third of brands paused their ad spend. Everyone was kind of re-pivoting their messaging and figuring things out. To your point, you guys spent a record ad spend during this time, but in terms of strategy, what channels did you guys turn to? Was it, did you guys continue the drum beat with your existing channels? Or did you guys look to other channels to send that message and continue to build your brand?
Doug Milliken (15:57):
I don't think there was a really significant change in the channel mix. The majority of our spend is in digital channels, because that's where the consumer is. The dramatic shift again, was more about the nature of the message. A lot of our brands were out of stock. A lot of our brands, being things of course that are done in the home, most of our brands were seeing an increase in demand. People were getting more pets, so cat litter was up. And people were spending more time in their backyard, so charcoal grilling was up. So our messages were more about how to help people do those activities, than, as I said, sort of lower funnel, by now kind of things.
Damian Fowler (16:39):
You mentioned charcoal grilling and we're here in summer again, and I'm noticing a lot of people grilling again. I'm seeing Kingsford Charcoal everywhere I look, in the parks, in people's yards. So we're at, kind of thankfully, a long way from last year. So what's changed for you since those anxious days when the pandemic was spreading? What sort of has shifted in the mindset in the way you think about consumers in that relationship?
Doug Milliken (17:09):
I think the main thing that's shifting is just what you described, which is people are getting out and about now more, and the way and what we talk about with our brands can start to shift and reflect what people's needs are now. So I'll give you another example. Burt's Bees, people weren't using a lot of lip balm during the pandemic because they were wearing a mask, they weren't going outside as much. Now people are going outside and we have a campaign around welcoming your lips back.
Doug Milliken (17:42):
The Clorox brand is another example. The consumer need that's really at the forefront now is about the concern of getting out and about in public again. So we've got a lot more emphasis now on how to be safe when you go out of the house. Historically, Clorox had not really marketed as a brand out of the house, but now this is a very predominant consumer need. What happens when you go to the airport? What happens when you go see a basketball game? How do you stay safe? And we're trying to create products like single use wipes and other things and safety protocols, partnerships with airlines and the NBA that are all things about helping people feel safe and be safe when they're leaving the house. So that's really what's changed with the relationship with the consumer, is how we support them as they begin to get into the reopening.
George Slefo (18:41):
You know, one of the things Damian and I have been wondering about, is which of those changes did your team decide to keep around as the world slowly starts to shift into to a new normal? In other words, what's changed across the company forever?
Doug Milliken (18:55):
I have to think about that. It changed forever. You know, I don't know if this is a... It's not a new change, it's just the acceleration around digital, both digital commerce, as well as consumption of digital media. And most companies have seen this. So we saw growth in our e-commerce business. You know, the percent of the business that's e-commerce now, is where we had projected it to be five years from now. So this changed to people call Omni retailing or Omni shopping, almost all consumers today say I'm going to shop both online and offline. So what has become, I think really apparent is this idea that the consumer is living digitally. They expect in the immediacy in how a brand shows up, helps them, moves them along their journey, their expectation that a brand can fulfill what they need in whatever way, one click away.
Doug Milliken (20:04):
I think this is what's changed. This change has been coming. It just accelerated. It was just sort of a disruptive shift of pulling forward by five or more years. The need for us to think in this Omni way, the consumer is just the consumer. The consumer doesn't think in channels, they don't think online, off. This is not how they think. They think, I have a need, I want to solve it now, click, where is the solution? And it better be there right away.
Damian Fowler (20:41):
And that's it for The Current. Stay tuned, because next week we'll have Jay Richman, VP of Global Ad Business and Platform at Spotify.
Jay Richman (20:49):
There's a tension between nativity and standardization, and you've got to try to find that sweet spot.
George Slefo (20:57):
The Current is produced by James C. Green and Kiara Powell. Greta Cohen is our executive producer. Rick Kwan is our mix engineer. Our theme is by Loving Caliber. The trade desk team includes Cassie Crosby, Ivan Sikic and Kat Vesce. The Current is a production of Transmitter Media. And remember.
Doug Milliken (21:17):
I love that brand!
Damian Fowler (21:19):
I'm Damian.
George Slefo (21:19):
And I'm George.
Damian Fowler (21:20):
And we'll see you next week.