A Trifecta of (Female) CMOs -- Part 2: Stacey Grier - The Clorox Company

Her agency work led her to the brand sideHer version of CMO differs as the company39s first female CMOamp183 Its brands such as Britta are helping reduce singleuse plastics and improve sustainability efforts for the companyamp183 Grier and her team are moving from storytelling to quotstorydoingquot by quotliving our valuesquotThe following has been edited for clarity and length Read Part 1 featuring the takeaways from Alicia Tillman of SAP too And catch the entire podcast with Grier Tillman and Meredith39s Alysia Borsa everywhere including Stitcher Spotify iHeartRadio GooglePodcasts Apple TuneIn and YouTubeEB Moss Last year at the ANA Masters of Marketing I had the chance to interview your predecessor Eric Reynolds who is now EVP What was your path to the CMO role at The Clorox CompanyGrier I spent almost 30 years on the agency side and a good portion of that building the Clorox brands Then I came to Clorox to run brand and marketing strategy I39d done that for about two years and then amp8212 about four months after taking the assignment to run our brand engagement group which is all of our commerce channel and content amp8212 I got the offer for CMOMoss With our podcast theme of being female while CMO amp8212 along with Alicia Tillman and Alysia Borsa amp8212 while you39re each highly recognizable and capable do you think that you had any different level of anxiety about taking on the job than a man might have had Grier I actually did not think about it until I got home and my husband said quotHas there ever been a female CMO at Cloroxquot And I realized it there had not But Clorox as a company has a lot of female leaders so it is an environment in which women really thrive My boss is female There are lots of female executives and on our board as wellMoss We recognize the importance of that kind of environment at MediaVillage and are spotlighting those who foster it amp8212 like Shelly Zalis of the Female Quotient amp8212 with our Advancing Diversity HonorsGrier We can talk about diversity but it is inclusion that makes the difference Do you feel like you can bring your best self to work every single day because somebody has created an environment where you can be yourselfMoss Now as an influential woman yourself let39s talk about what39s going on with influencer marketing at The Clorox CompanyGrier We39re leaning harder and harder into thatamp8230 And we39ve looked at all kinds of influencers from macro to micro We39re fortunate to have a diverse portfolio with everything from Burt39s Bees to LiquidPlumr So each brand is using it in somewhat of a different way But we39ve seen the power of that in terms of connecting with people and having brands that can hand ideas over to someone and let them bring their creativity to that brand and make it richer and betterMoss What are you working on that you39re excited about Grier The work we39ve just put out into the world for Brita the brand invented a water bottle you can carry with you and filter water from anywhere We really believe that we39re making water better for people and the planet Because as you know singleuse plastic in the world is a huge problem amp8230 only a very small amount of it is actually getting recycled and it39s everywhere So we39re very committed to that and we39ve done a lot of good work It39s called Drink Like You Care amp8230 because you39re saying you care but you39re not drinking like you careThis conference amp8212 where we talk about purpose and being a force for good amp8212 is a good example of that We have more bottled water here and we39ve gotten so used to drinking bottled water that we don39t think about it anymoreMoss There is as you mentioned a throughline with Sustainable Brands39 initiative Brands for Goodamp8230 Being part of the CMO council here with ANA please take an opportunity to talk about one more example the tie in with Burt39s Bees and Nat GeoGrier Burt39s is our original purposedriven brandamp8230 When we acquired the brand they taught us so much about purpose and how to treat a brand in a responsible way and get people excited about it What we39re doing with Nat Geo is about trying to remind people that if we don39t take care of nature we39re going to lose itFor the UN Climate Summit we and Nat Geo actually posted a blackout And we invited all of our followers to do it as well Then we invited people to take simple ways to help the environment and gave 10 to Nat Geo to start cleaning up the problem for every hundred people who signed up We39re excited about living our values We39re trying to move from just storytelling to quotstorydoingquotMoss Well we39re on the same page Invoking Advancing Diversity again our theme is moving from advocacy to activism So hopefully this is a trendGrier Our core value at Clorox is quotDo the right thingquot And we have worked very hard to focus on inclusion We do feel like it39s a choice that people make and the more education people get the more inclusive they become So the fact that people like you are out there teaching people how to be more inclusive is powerful it will go a long way in the world as people grow up and realize there is something that makes all of us feel unique and different and separated If we can all work really hard to bring out the best in people it changes the work environment tremendously And people actually bring their ideas to the table because they39re not afraid of being rejectedMoss Another area that Eric and I touched on last year was the use of digital As a company and you personally have been on record in support of Facebook for example And in some of my recent podcasts like with your agency and friend Jennifer Zimmerman of mcgarrybowen we had a whole discussion around data influencing creative Tell me about your philosophyGrier My philosophy is that it39s a cycle I think we can get tremendous insights from data that really help us understand people better amp8212 particularly as we start to think about how we personalize more for people so that we can talk to you in ways that are more relevant My background in the creative agency is strategy so finding that inspiration for a creative idea very easily comes out of data None of this works though until you have a great creative idea bring it back into the world through data and then use it to give consumers content that39s more relevantFor example if you looked for Hidden Valley recipe content on our site we have an analytics recommendation engine there not unlike Netflix That tells you the next piece of content you39d like And if you39re there for the third or fourth time we39ll look at the recipes you39ve been interested in and customize those recipes We know that when people look at two or more recipes on Hidden Valley we get about 40 percent incremental sales it39s better for us and it39s better for the consumer So we39re trying to use data in ways that really help people not just sell productamp8230 You have a better experience as a result and you buy our productMoss Let39s focus on marketing channels and tactics Near and dear to my heart is the use of voice like brands creating voice assistants to help customers automatically order and help with other things What39s the Clorox Company doing with itGrier We have certainly invested in chatbots amp8212 not only for consumers but we actually have a chatbot that helps people navigate our systems internally So yes we believe in thatI think the question around audio is not where will it explode it39s when will it explode It39s such a natural way that we take in information that it absolutely has to be there I think brands haven39t quite found their voiceamp8230 But I think as we get better at doing that as an industry people will want to connect more and more with themClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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A Trifecta of (Female) CMOs -- Part 2: Stacey Grier - The Clorox Company

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