NEW YORK: Clorox, the cleaning and household goods group, believes that achieving little wins through marketing innovation could help grow mature brands, which are increasingly engaged in a "small ball game".
Ashish Joshi, the organisation's senior director/consumer insights, discussed this subject at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) Audience Measurement 2015 conference.
With many established consumer packaged goods categories either stagnating or in decline, he suggested, the opportunities for dramatic growth are limited.
"For mature categories, large brands, given the environment ... there aren't these home runs available any more. This is a small ball game," said Joshi. (For more, including details of the firm's own marketing innovation, read Warc's exclusive report: Big brands, small wins: Clorox seeks out growth in mature categories.)
As Clorox owns several brands that boast considerable household penetration – like its eponymous cleaning line, Glad trash bags and Kingsford charcoal – it is aiming to identify new paths to progress.
"How can we actually leverage the small opportunities to drive within these mature categories and these dominant brands?" Joshi asked in describing the challenge.
"Granular measurement and granular activation plays a huge role, and it's important for them to work together."
The need for innovation in areas such as activation, execution and measurement has become particularly pressing as consumer habits change and own-label products continue to threaten national brands.
"When we start looking at more consumers getting exposed to the private-label value proposition, some consumers ... are obviously going to find the product actually sufficiently good, and the price significantly lower," continued Joshi.
"So that makes it very hard for us to bring those consumers back into our fold."
Taking advantage of the new data streams, technology and "intellectual firepower" available to marketers, he added, will be especially important in helping firms like Clorox maximise the impact of their communications.
"With innovation, you can drive consumers back into categories, you can upsell if your proposition is actually stronger. So you can do a lot with innovation," said Joshi.
"But when I'm talking about innovation in this case, it's not necessarily product innovation: it's holistic marketing innovation."
Ashish Joshi, the organisation's senior director/consumer insights, discussed this subject at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) Audience Measurement 2015 conference.
With many established consumer packaged goods categories either stagnating or in decline, he suggested, the opportunities for dramatic growth are limited.
"For mature categories, large brands, given the environment ... there aren't these home runs available any more. This is a small ball game," said Joshi. (For more, including details of the firm's own marketing innovation, read Warc's exclusive report: Big brands, small wins: Clorox seeks out growth in mature categories.)
As Clorox owns several brands that boast considerable household penetration – like its eponymous cleaning line, Glad trash bags and Kingsford charcoal – it is aiming to identify new paths to progress.
"How can we actually leverage the small opportunities to drive within these mature categories and these dominant brands?" Joshi asked in describing the challenge.
"Granular measurement and granular activation plays a huge role, and it's important for them to work together."
The need for innovation in areas such as activation, execution and measurement has become particularly pressing as consumer habits change and own-label products continue to threaten national brands.
"When we start looking at more consumers getting exposed to the private-label value proposition, some consumers ... are obviously going to find the product actually sufficiently good, and the price significantly lower," continued Joshi.
"So that makes it very hard for us to bring those consumers back into our fold."
Taking advantage of the new data streams, technology and "intellectual firepower" available to marketers, he added, will be especially important in helping firms like Clorox maximise the impact of their communications.
"With innovation, you can drive consumers back into categories, you can upsell if your proposition is actually stronger. So you can do a lot with innovation," said Joshi.
"But when I'm talking about innovation in this case, it's not necessarily product innovation: it's holistic marketing innovation."
Data sourced from Warc
