marketing and investments
Company Overview and Strategy
Team #6
Clorox
Cleaning and Disinfecting
1. Company Overview [no more than 150 words]
General Information: Clorox is a manufacturer and marketer of some of the most trusted and well known brands, including their own bleach and cleaning supplies. Financial position: The company is publicly traded and is currently in a strong financial situation. COVID-19 has forced the industry's production rate to increase 23%, showing the growing demand for cleaning supplies. Clorox’s main competitors include Colgate Palmolive, Ecolab, Leo Burnett, Procter & Gambleand, and Henkel. Market Share: According to Statista (2020), Clorox has 31.45% of all US sales for all purpose/disinfectant products. Other Ratings (e.g., customer or employee satisfaction): This is a highly accredited company that is loved by their customers and employees, the company was recently ranked No. 6 on Morning Consult’s list of the Top 50 Most Loved Brands in Americ a and No. 6 on Diversity MBA magazine’s 50 Out Front list of the Best Places for Women and Diverse Managers to Work . SWOT analysis Discussion: Clorox’s SWOT shows that the company has more strengths and opportunities rather than weaknesses and threats. Clorox’s full SWOT is linked in the appendix (Appendix B).
0. Company’s vision, mission [no more than 200 words]
Vision: Clorox’s long term vision is to not only grow but also deliver value to shareholders and society, they plan on reaching this goal using the IGNITE strategy. The IGNITE strategy “takes the challenges of today and tomorrow — rising consumer expectations, an evolving retail landscape, shifts in costs and competition, and rapidly advancing technology — and makes them a competitive advantage,” as stated by the Clorox website. Clorox wants to remain successful in their sales while also remaining a leader in corporate responsibility.
Mission: Clorox’s core values are doing the right thing, stretching for results, taking personal ownership, and working together to win. The company prides themselves on being ethical and making decisions based on facts. Clorox strives to be environmentally friendly and communicate their plans with their consumers and shareholders. They also encourage their employees to be better people and work together to exceed customers expectations.
Overall evaluation of company’s vision, mission: Both the vision and mission are clear on Clorox’s website, these statements do not seem exaggerated because the company has won awards that show they have been successful in the past. Their future goals do not fall far from their previous goals, making it seem very possible for the company to achieve them.
3. Value Proposition [no more than 300 words]
Product Description: Focusing on the company’s cleaning and disinfecting products, Clorox has been a staple brand that can be found in about 70% of US homes and is known to be one of the most reliable companies in the industry. With the current COVID-19 outbreak, they have been relied on even more to keep people and families safe. Clorox provides these cleaning and disinfecting supplies for a wide variety of businesses and people. In today's world, Clorox has become a necessity for people all over, especially with the current virus and COVID-19 regulations craving down on businesses. Ideal Customer: Ideal customers for these products include teachers, restaurant owners and any homeowner. We see a lot of Clorox’s sales come from schools, restaurants, gyms ect. Due to strict Covid-19 guidelines, businesses and schools need to abide by the regulations and continuously keep their space clean and customers/students safe. The company’s main marketing strategy is through commercials, however the company has found its products in so many businesses and households that they are receiving “free” advertising from the people using their products, whether it’s a social gathering, or being used in big companies to keep their building clean.
Wants/Needs Product Fulfills: The main use for their products is to clean and disinfect surfaces that are commonly touched or used by people. Customers need a reliable product that does it’s job well, especially in businesses where the safety of their customers is always first in wants and needs. The products Clorox produces will always be needed, especially in a time like now where everyone needs to be extra safe and germ free. Clorox is able to have a competitive advantage over competitors due to it being such a well known brand that not only cares about their customers, but also the environment and its future.
4. Core Competency(ies) [no more than 300 words]
Resources and Capabilities: Clorox’s core competency that gives the company a competitive advantage is the company’s target market driven advertising campaigns. As previously mentioned, Clorox’s main source of revenue comes from all purpose and disinfectant products. The largest target markets of these products include homeowners and school teachers. Clorox runs advertisements that prompt these target markets to order Clorox products. For homeowners, Clorox visualizes parents cleaning up spills and wiping down surfaces to keep their children in a safe environment. This influences the homeowner market to buy Clorox to keep their home tidy and their kids clean and safe. Clorox also has ads catered to school teachers, who understand how fast germs can spread in a classroom setting. The company’s ads are made so the teacher visualizes a clean classroom that can be made easy with the use of Clorox products. In order to maintain their successful target market driven advertising strategy, Clorox needs a few resources to continue their core competency. The first is a strong positive cash flow in order to cover advertising expenses. Running advertisements can be an expensive cost, especially if a company chooses to run multiple ads repeatedly over time. Having a wide enough margin of profit to spend on additional advertising is an essential resource that will determine the success of the company in the future. Additionally, Clorox needs a strong public relations team in order to create quality advertisements to hit target markets. In order to attract new customers to the company, the public relations team must develop advertisements that catch the customer’s eye and show off their products in interesting ways. Being able to differentiate your products from competitors entices them to purchase Clorox items for their own personal use, which is why having a strong PR team is an important resource for Clorox.
0. Overall Strategy [no more than 300 words]
10K report: Looking at the 10k report for Clorox, the Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is important information that related to the company’s strategy. Additionally, this section contains the Executive Overview and included in this is the company’s strategic goals and initiatives. The company has goals to accelerate innovation in multiple areas of business striving for continuous growth and delivering value for both the Company's shareholders and society.
Porter's framework: In relations to COVID-19 in the recent year, Clorox has made an effort to make their priorities be the health and safety of their employees as well as their consumers. Because of this, Clorox’s product strategy does not fall under the low cost strategy. They claim that their ability to continue manufacturing and distributing their products depend on the health of their employees, and to meet consumers demand, there may be an increase in costs for their products. Although they do not follow a low-cost strategy according to Porter’s Strategy Framework, Clorox does follow a market segmentation strategy. As mentioned previously, Clorox’s goal is to provide the best products for their consumers, and so with a market segmentation strategy, this focuses on satisfying the needs of a particular market segment.
Key competitive priorities and how they relate to value proposition: Currently, they play a major role during COVID-19 by providing quality products to consumers and continuing their long-standing tradition of helping those in need. (See Appendix A). Furthermore, according to this strategy, Clorox has key competitive priorities of cost, quality, and value added service. As mentioned in Part 3, Clorox makes an effort to provide the best quality products that are reliable for their customers.
0. Overall statement about company strategy [no more than 200 words]
Clorox is among the renowned manufacturers with high trusted brands. During the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike other manufacturers, Clorox has benefited from the pandemic by increasing various disinfectant products. The company is determined to provide its consumers with the best products that meet their needs and preferences through market segmentation strategies. Clorox manufacturer has gained high customer loyalty due to their brand quality. Clorox manufacturer exhibits a high competency that enables the manufacturer to gain a competitive edge through targeted advertising. Clorox needs to adopt several strategies to maintain a competitive market edge. One of the essential strategies is running several advertisements to hit the market target. These structuring of the advertisements should attract consumers through showing their diverse products in various attractive ways. The company's financial statements in 2020 indicated the success of the company’s strategy. The company sells products through various channels such as mass retailers, e-commerce channels, and distributors, making the products accessible by many consumers. Product strategy adopted by Clorox is not under the low-cost strategy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Clorox Company has responded by taking precautionary measures to mitigate the virus's spread by mobilizing customers and employees and aligning the company's operations with the new transmission prevention protocols.