marketing operations fundamentals

1. Company Overview

Clorox is a manufacturer and marketer of some of the most trusted and well known brands, including their own bleach and cleaning supplies. 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. (company market share). Clorox’s main competitors include Colgate Palmolive, Ecolab, Leo Burnett, Procter & Gambleand, and Henkel. 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 America .  (not finished) 

0. Company’s vision/mission-

3. Value Proposition -

Clorox offers a wide variety of cleaning and disinfecting products. These goods have always been very popular and sales have boomed recently due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Colorx focuses on tailoring their ads towards home owners, teachers and restaurants. We will be focusing on their disinfecting products as that makes up a majority of their products. These customers always need to keep things disinfected as well as do activities such as cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry. According to Statista (2020), Clorox has 31.45% of all US sales for all purpose/disinfectant products. Clorox has become a household name and almost 70% of homes in the US use their products. People use Clorox because they are a very reliable company that has been around for over 100 years. They continue to come out every year with better products and scents to please their customers. 

4. Core Competency -

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, visualizing a clean classroom that can be made easy with the use of their 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.

5. Company Strategy

Part 1, Item 1

“The Clorox Company is a leading multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products with fiscal year 2020 net sales of $6.7 billion and approximately 8,800 employees worldwide as of June 30, 2020. Clorox sells its products primarily through mass retailers, grocery outlets, warehouse clubs, dollar stores, home hardware centers, drug, pet and military stores, third-party and owned e-commerce channels, and distributors. Clorox markets some of the most trusted and recognized consumer brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products; Pine-Sol® cleaners; Liquid-Plumr® clog removers; Poett® home care products; Fresh Step® cat litter; Glad® bags and wraps; Kingsford® grilling products; Hidden Valley® dressings; Brita® water-filtration systems and filters; Burt’s Bees® natural personal care products; and RenewLife®, Rainbow Light®, Natural Vitality®, NeoCell® and Stop Aging Now® vitamins, minerals and supplements. The Company also markets industry-leading products and technologies for professional customers, including those sold under the CloroxPro™ and Clorox Healthcare® brand names. More than 80% of the Company’s sales are generated from brands that hold the No. 1 or No. 2 market share positions in their categories. The Company was founded in Oakland, California, in 1913 and is incorporated in Delaware. In fiscal year 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused a severe global health crisis, along with economic and societal disruptions and uncertainties. In response, the Company has been taking a pro-active role in addressing the impact of the pandemic on its employees, operations, customers and consumers, including taking precautionary measures, such as implementing contingency plans, and making operational adjustments where necessary. COVID-19 and the responses of governments, consumers and others to the pandemic have affected and will continue to affect the business in many ways; however, the Company believes that the actions that it is taking will help it emerge from this global pandemic operationally sound and well positioned for continued long-term growth. The Company also continued its long-standing tradition of helping communities in times of natural disasters and health crises. Clorox and its foundations contributed more than $25 million in combined cash grants, product donations and cause marketing in fiscal year 2020.”

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. Furthermore, included in this section are the executive overview, results of operations, financial position and liquidity, contingencies, quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk, recent issued accounting standards,  critical accounting policies and estimates, and summary of non-gaap financial measures. More importantly, included in the Executive Overview section 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. 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.