July 28, 2025 • 17 mins
Learn how Clorox invested in technological innovation so it could continue delivering superior consumer experiences.
Almost 90% of US households use Clorox products, giving the company a unique window into consumer behavior during this uncertain time. How has The Clorox Company used innovation and technology to reinvent itself and respond to shifting consumer needs?
Join David Young and guest Linda Rendle, CEO and chair of Clorox, to find out about her family background in CPG, the company's ongoing digital transformation, and the state of the consumer today.
The Leadership in Challenging Times discussions feature timely and insightful discussions with the outstanding CEOs who are recipients of CED’s Distinguished Leadership Awards. Business leader honorees discuss the unprecedented challenges facing the nation and how they are helping chart a path forward for both their companies and communities in which they .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}Mark as PlayedTranscript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
David K. Young (00:00):
Welcome to C-Suite Perspectives, a signature
series by The Conference Board.
I'm David Young, the president of theCommittee for Economic Development,
the public policy center here at TheConference Board, and delighted to
be guest host of today's episode.
In today's conversation, we'll discussLeadership in Challenging Times, where
we feature the outstanding CEOs who arethe recipients of CED's Distinguished
(00:26):
Leadership Awards for corporatecitizenship and business stewardship.
Today, I have the distinct privilegeof speaking with one of our 2025
honorees, Linda Rendle, chairand CEO of The Clorox Company.
Under Linda's leadership, Clorox ischampioning people to be well and to
(00:46):
thrive every day, and just how they doall of that is what we'll discuss today.
Linda, welcome.
We're so very pleasedfor you to be joining us.
Linda Rendle (00:56):
Very happy to be here, David.
Thank you for the time.
David K. Young (00:59):
So Linda, let's start with leadership, the topic of leadership.
You've been with The CloroxCompany now for more than 20 years.
You began, I believe, as a seniorsales analyst, and have gone on to
hold numerous different roles, allthe way up to when you took the
role of CEO in September of 2020.
(01:22):
You've led the company throughsome very interesting, challenging,
uncertain times, including the pandemic.
Tell us about your career.
It's really remarkable, the factthat you've been at The Clorox
Company for 20 years and moved allthe way up to this role of CEO.
Just curious about your reflectionsabout your path through leadership
to the role of CEO, and what are someof the core values you believe are
(01:46):
important to being a successful leader?
Linda Rendle (01:51):
I've had a wonderful and interesting career, and when I think
about the 25 years I've spent officiallyin consumer packaged goods, it actually
goes back a lot longer than that.
My dad was in consumer packagedgoods, and so I grew up doing
store checks as a young kid.
I always had high school jobs in stores,getting to know consumers, getting
(02:11):
to know what retailers wanted fromconsumer packaged goods companies.
And it's an industry I absolutely love.
I love being able to be in consumers'everyday lives with products
that make their lives better.
So I'm very honored to bethe CEO of this company.
I've had a number of experiences.
I started my career at Procter & Gamble.
I came over and, as you said, Istarted as a senior sales analyst
(02:33):
at Clorox, and went on to work inevery one of our business units.
Did rotations in different functions,mainly in sales, but I did supply
chain, general management, andultimately that led to being the CEO.
But I would say, if I were to look at ahallmark of my career, it was curiosity
and being willing to try things and takeon experiences that made me a better
(02:57):
leader and certainly made it easier forme to understand what really made it work
for the consumer at the end of the day.
And maybe the values that you highlighted,David, the things that I would carry for
my whole career, and I say are never moreimportant than being in the CEO role.
The first would be integrity.
And at Clorox, we call that do theright thing, always, without exception.
(03:19):
We want to make sure that our leadersare doing what's right for our consumers,
what's right from a business perspective.
Of course, following laws and regulations.
That's the first, and most important thingI look for in any leader that works for
our company or partners with our company.
And then second, I would say, andnever more important than today,
would be adaptability and resilience.
(03:40):
it is incredibly important that leaderscan change with the times, are willing
to understand when they've made abad decision and be humble about it,
and be able to adapt their way ofleading or adapt the priorities of the
company to deal with what's going on.
And then finally, and I think theone that is my hallmark, and most
important to me, is having courage.
(04:01):
There's a lot of uncertainty in the world.
There's a lot of things that, youknow, choices that you can make.
And I think whatever you need todo, you need to face that head on,
have courage, make a decision, andexecute to the best of your ability.
And I try to have courage everysingle moment, whether that be at
work or at home dealing with my kids.
David K. Young (04:20):
Yeah.
Courage in different environments.
But you mentioned integrity.
I love this line, "Do the rightthing, always, without exception."
You also mentioned adaptability andresilience are then, obviously, courage.
Beyond leadership, you have beeninstrumental in the formation of business
strategy and the execution of that.
You're the architect of the company'slong-range Ignite business strategy.
(04:44):
Can you tell us just a little bit moreabout that, about that strategy, how
it came into existence, and how it'sevolved through the pandemic to now?
And, the major question,has it been effective?
Linda Rendle (05:00):
I'm lucky to lead a company that's been around for over 110 years.
And so what that strategy set out todo was take the amazing brands that we
have—we're in almost nine out of 10 UShouseholds today and in households all
around the world—and we wanted moregrowth from the portfolio that we had.
And the way we set out to do that wasto make sure that we were driving more
innovation, and we wanted to enableour teams to drive more innovation and
(05:24):
superior experiences for our consumer,through enabling them with data and
technology and moving as fast asthe consumer in the world around us.
That's our strategy, simply stated.
In order to do that, we also had to createthe fuel to invest in those innovations,
to invest in those superior experiences.
and that builds off a long historythe company's had of removing any
(05:44):
waste that we have in our systemand investing that back with the
consumer, back with our retailers.
to grow our brands.
I would say in large part, thisstrategy's been very successful and
helped us navigate not only the pandemic.
but a round of or multipleyears of incredible inflation.
We also experienced a cyberattack,unfortunately, about a year and a
half ago, and that strategy helpedus make the choices to ensure that
(06:08):
we could win, even in a time when ourcompany was incredibly challenged.
In that period of time, ourstrategy was able to recover almost
a thousand basis points of grossmargin erosion from inflation.
We increased the percentage of ourportfolio deemed superior by consumers
significantly during this period of time.
And I would say the one thingthat we're still trying to
(06:28):
get is more regular growth.
We've had periods over this lastfive years of great growth, and then
given some of the other dynamicswe have, we just want to make
that more consistent over time.
But feel terrific about the progressthe team has made, getting closer to
the consumer, implementing a digitaltransformation, which I think we'll talk
about here in a minute, and ensuring thatwe know the consumer better than anyone.
David K. Young (06:51):
Interesting.
So, 110, did I hear this correct?
110 years old.
Linda Rendle (06:55):
Yes.
David K. Young (06:56):
Amazing.
You mentioned innovationand transformation.
You've obviously led or are leadingthe organization through a period
of significant transformation asan organization, especially in
terms of kind of a new operatingmodel and your digital investments.
Can you share a little bit moreabout why it is important, but also
(07:18):
why it's important for shoring uplong-term growth and aspirations?
Linda Rendle (07:24):
Yeah, as we reflected upon what we could do better, as we
were writing our strategy, we had highlyrelevant brands that consumers loved,
but we needed to move faster in themarketplace to be more competitive.
And frankly, we needed to enable ourteams with the data and insights as
(07:44):
fast as those consumers were moving.
And we knew we needed to take on apretty big transformation to do that.
So we fundamentally redesigned ourdata and technology from the ground
up, rebuilding all of our data tohave it harmonized and be able to
take it from different sources.
And then implementing a new version ofour ERP, as well as technologies that
support all of the functions across thebusiness to drive innovation, et cetera.
(08:07):
That's been a five-year process.
At the same time, we put an operatingmodel in place to be able to
leverage that data and technologyinvestment that we were making.
And at the same time, continuing toinvest to ensure that our culture
is a place where all people canthrive and do their very best work.
That's incredibly importantthat we get the best talent.
And we're at the tail end of thatdigital transformation coming up here.
(08:30):
We're actually implementing the final bigpart of our technology implementation here
in just a week, which is an exciting thingfor our team and an exciting milestone.
And what's really great is to seeour people moving with the speed
they haven't moved with before.
And the reality is everyone atClorox will work differently than
they have a year ago, three yearsago, and we are ready for AI because
(08:54):
of these investments we've made.
We didn't even foresee that five years agoto the degree it would help our business,
but because of those investments, weare ready for the AI revolution and
using it in areas across our business.
David K. Young (09:05):
And do you, Linda, do you see that as a continuing process of
investment and evolution moving forwardto just keep up with the pace of change?
Linda Rendle (09:12):
Yeah, so we had to make a big one-time investment
to get caught up, but now it isjust the way of doing business.
I think everybody is thinking aboutthat: How do we make sure we continue
to invest in technology and dataand our business as a way to win?
But that will be more of anongoing process, like you said,
David, than a one-time event likewe did over the last few years.
David K. Young (09:29):
And well-received by employees and colleagues?
Linda Rendle (09:33):
Yes.
You know what?
Everybody loves the idea of movingoff of Excel spreadsheets to manage
our business and actually having dataand insights at their fingertips.
it's a terrific thing, and the teamhas been wonderful embracing it.
David K. Young (09:46):
Lovely.
So we're going to take a short breakand be right back with more of my
conversation today with Linda Rendle.
Welcome back to C-Suite Perspectives.
I'm your host, David Young, thepresident of the Committee for
Economic Development, the public policycenter here at The Conference Board.
I'm joined today by Linda Rendle, thechair and CEO of The Clorox Company.
(10:09):
Welcome back, Linda.
Linda Rendle (10:11):
Thanks, David.
Great to be here.
David K. Young (10:13):
So before the break, Linda, you alluded to and mentioned
a little bit about the consumer.
And I want this second half oftoday's conversation just to focus
on the state of the consumer.
This series is about leading inchallenging times, and these have
certainly been some challengingtimes since you took over as
the CEO of The Clorox Company.
(10:33):
And this is especially challengingenvironment for consumers, both from
the macroeconomic environment, butalso the geopolitical environment that
we find ourselves navigating through.
From where you sit as the CEO ofa company with essential household
brands, and I think you said before thebreak, your brands are in nine out of
(10:55):
10 households, if I recall correctly.
You are also the chair of theConsumer Brands Association.
So you have a unique perspectiveon the consumer right now.
What are you seeing in terms ofconsumer behavior, given all the
uncertainty that we're living through?
Linda Rendle (11:14):
David, I think you nailed the important point, which is uncertainty.
So if you look back over the last numberof years, consumers have been under
incredible pressure, from the pandemicto experiencing inflation, to your
point, the geopolitical environment.
But what we see that is marking thisperiod specifically is uncertainty.
They just don't know what toexpect one day to the next.
(11:35):
And so they're making decisionswithout having full visibility into
the impact it will have in their lives.
And that is really what we're seeing: A still fairly resilient consumer. (11:40):
undefined
We're continuing to see them shop, butthey're making different choices depending
on the news cycle and to ensure that theycan meet all of their household needs.
So we've seen pretty dramatic changes incategories that are fairly consistent,
as consumers hear news on what's going onand may decide to pull forward a purchase
(12:03):
that they think is going to be impacted.
it's a really unique time to watchtheir behavior, but I would say overall,
if you kind of take a step back fromall of that, consumer spending in
aggregate has been fairly strong.
Again, they're making choices to deal withthe day-to-day news of uncertainty and
not knowing exactly what impacts them.
(12:24):
And they're still always lookingfor a superior experience.
And that's what we're focused on, ismaking sure they have the right value.
And we have found if you give them a greatvalue, they're willing to pay for it.
They're willing to pay forproducts that are a premium.
That hasn't changed.
They're just doing the very smart thingsthey need to in the short term to deal
with a pretty big amount of volatilityand, to your point, uncertainty.
David K. Young (12:47):
Yeah.
It's interesting, you mentioned,when we look at the consumer making
different choices, but also looking,you have this great line, "looking
for a superior experience." Just givenall the uncertainty, are there ways
that you are seeing how consumers canthrive despite the kind of the economic
and financial challenges and just theglobal environment of uncertainty?
Linda Rendle (13:08):
We've seen some really interesting trends emerge.
And one of them that I love, becauseit really impacts our portfolio,
is that consumers want to controlwhat they can at this moment in
time, when there's such uncertainty.
And so they're looking to spaces intheir home to be able to provide that
control and certainty that they like.
We've seen trends emerge about howthey might be taking care of the
(13:29):
inside of the refrigerator becausethat gives them a little bit of joy.
Perhaps they're using a productthat has a more effusive scent
experience because that gives themthat joy and that control at home.
So there's so many opportunities forbrands to delight consumers and, to your
point, to help them thrive in a timewhen it's difficult for them to navigate.
(13:50):
And that's what we found is reconnectingto what brings them joy, what
helps them thrive, and what theythink is important at the moment.
And each one of our brands are alwayslooking to say, what combination of
things can we do to make sure that we aregiving consumers that superior experience
and help them have a little joy and alittle control in their everyday life?
David K. Young (14:11):
Could you elaborate a little bit, and this is my final question
for you today, but just I was going askwhat Clorox is doing to meet those needs,
to provide this superior experience?
But how are you able to do that?
Linda Rendle (14:24):
We look at all aspects of what consumers consider
to be a superior experience.
Do we have the right brand, and doesit promise the consumer and deliver on
the promise what it says it's going to?
Is the package that theproduct in delightful?
When you spray a trigger to cleanyour home, does it spray nice?
Is the product experience—does itkill the germs it says it's going to?
(14:46):
Does it clean the messes?
Does it keep your catlitter box from smelling?
All of these things is what ourbrands are looking at today to say,
"Are we delighting the consumerat every turn?" and therefore, we
know they'll reward us in the end,and they'll choose our products.
But those are the things we're focusingon, making sure we're getting all of
those small things right, to delight them.
(15:08):
And our brands are, as I said,more of our portfolio is deemed
superior than it was before.
And then that's because we'refocusing on those little moments
that matter to the consumer.
David K. Young (15:18):
The Clorox Company.
I've got your new slogan here.
Are we delighting theconsumer at every turn?
Linda Rendle (15:24):
I love it.
David K. Young (15:25):
It's a heck of a challenge that you have, but it is, been an absolute
delight, Linda, speaking with you today.
And thank you so much for joining us.
And we, as I said at the beginning,we very much look forward to
celebrating you and the entireClorox team at CED's Distinguished
Leadership Awards this October.
(15:46):
Thank you, Linda.
Linda Rendle (15:47):
It was great to be here, David.
I really appreciate it.
David K. Young (15:50):
And thanks to all of you for listening to C-Suite Perspectives.
I'm David Young, and thisseries today has been brought
to you by The Conference Board.
Welcome to C-Suite Perspectives, a signature
series by The Conference Board.
I'm David Young, the president of theCommittee for Economic Development,
the public policy center here at TheConference Board, and delighted to
be guest host of today's episode.
In today's conversation, we'll discussLeadership in Challenging Times, where
we feature the outstanding CEOs who arethe recipients of CED's Distinguished
(00:26):
Leadership Awards for corporatecitizenship and business stewardship.
Today, I have the distinct privilegeof speaking with one of our 2025
honorees, Linda Rendle, chairand CEO of The Clorox Company.
Under Linda's leadership, Clorox ischampioning people to be well and to
(00:46):
thrive every day, and just how they doall of that is what we'll discuss today.
Linda, welcome.
We're so very pleasedfor you to be joining us.
Linda Rendle (00:56):
Very happy to be here, David.
Thank you for the time.
David K. Young (00:59):
So Linda, let's start with leadership, the topic of leadership.
You've been with The CloroxCompany now for more than 20 years.
You began, I believe, as a seniorsales analyst, and have gone on to
hold numerous different roles, allthe way up to when you took the
role of CEO in September of 2020.
(01:22):
You've led the company throughsome very interesting, challenging,
uncertain times, including the pandemic.
Tell us about your career.
It's really remarkable, the factthat you've been at The Clorox
Company for 20 years and moved allthe way up to this role of CEO.
Just curious about your reflectionsabout your path through leadership
to the role of CEO, and what are someof the core values you believe are
(01:46):
important to being a successful leader?
Linda Rendle (01:51):
I've had a wonderful and interesting career, and when I think
about the 25 years I've spent officiallyin consumer packaged goods, it actually
goes back a lot longer than that.
My dad was in consumer packagedgoods, and so I grew up doing
store checks as a young kid.
I always had high school jobs in stores,getting to know consumers, getting
(02:11):
to know what retailers wanted fromconsumer packaged goods companies.
And it's an industry I absolutely love.
I love being able to be in consumers'everyday lives with products
that make their lives better.
So I'm very honored to bethe CEO of this company.
I've had a number of experiences.
I started my career at Procter & Gamble.
I came over and, as you said, Istarted as a senior sales analyst
(02:33):
at Clorox, and went on to work inevery one of our business units.
Did rotations in different functions,mainly in sales, but I did supply
chain, general management, andultimately that led to being the CEO.
But I would say, if I were to look at ahallmark of my career, it was curiosity
and being willing to try things and takeon experiences that made me a better
(02:57):
leader and certainly made it easier forme to understand what really made it work
for the consumer at the end of the day.
And maybe the values that you highlighted,David, the things that I would carry for
my whole career, and I say are never moreimportant than being in the CEO role.
The first would be integrity.
And at Clorox, we call that do theright thing, always, without exception.
(03:19):
We want to make sure that our leadersare doing what's right for our consumers,
what's right from a business perspective.
Of course, following laws and regulations.
That's the first, and most important thingI look for in any leader that works for
our company or partners with our company.
And then second, I would say, andnever more important than today,
would be adaptability and resilience.
(03:40):
it is incredibly important that leaderscan change with the times, are willing
to understand when they've made abad decision and be humble about it,
and be able to adapt their way ofleading or adapt the priorities of the
company to deal with what's going on.
And then finally, and I think theone that is my hallmark, and most
important to me, is having courage.
(04:01):
There's a lot of uncertainty in the world.
There's a lot of things that, youknow, choices that you can make.
And I think whatever you need todo, you need to face that head on,
have courage, make a decision, andexecute to the best of your ability.
And I try to have courage everysingle moment, whether that be at
work or at home dealing with my kids.
David K. Young (04:20):
Yeah.
Courage in different environments.
But you mentioned integrity.
I love this line, "Do the rightthing, always, without exception."
You also mentioned adaptability andresilience are then, obviously, courage.
Beyond leadership, you have beeninstrumental in the formation of business
strategy and the execution of that.
You're the architect of the company'slong-range Ignite business strategy.
(04:44):
Can you tell us just a little bit moreabout that, about that strategy, how
it came into existence, and how it'sevolved through the pandemic to now?
And, the major question,has it been effective?
Linda Rendle (05:00):
I'm lucky to lead a company that's been around for over 110 years.
And so what that strategy set out todo was take the amazing brands that we
have—we're in almost nine out of 10 UShouseholds today and in households all
around the world—and we wanted moregrowth from the portfolio that we had.
And the way we set out to do that wasto make sure that we were driving more
innovation, and we wanted to enableour teams to drive more innovation and
(05:24):
superior experiences for our consumer,through enabling them with data and
technology and moving as fast asthe consumer in the world around us.
That's our strategy, simply stated.
In order to do that, we also had to createthe fuel to invest in those innovations,
to invest in those superior experiences.
and that builds off a long historythe company's had of removing any
(05:44):
waste that we have in our systemand investing that back with the
consumer, back with our retailers.
to grow our brands.
I would say in large part, thisstrategy's been very successful and
helped us navigate not only the pandemic.
but a round of or multipleyears of incredible inflation.
We also experienced a cyberattack,unfortunately, about a year and a
half ago, and that strategy helpedus make the choices to ensure that
(06:08):
we could win, even in a time when ourcompany was incredibly challenged.
In that period of time, ourstrategy was able to recover almost
a thousand basis points of grossmargin erosion from inflation.
We increased the percentage of ourportfolio deemed superior by consumers
significantly during this period of time.
And I would say the one thingthat we're still trying to
(06:28):
get is more regular growth.
We've had periods over this lastfive years of great growth, and then
given some of the other dynamicswe have, we just want to make
that more consistent over time.
But feel terrific about the progressthe team has made, getting closer to
the consumer, implementing a digitaltransformation, which I think we'll talk
about here in a minute, and ensuring thatwe know the consumer better than anyone.
David K. Young (06:51):
Interesting.
So, 110, did I hear this correct?
110 years old.
Linda Rendle (06:55):
Yes.
David K. Young (06:56):
Amazing.
You mentioned innovationand transformation.
You've obviously led or are leadingthe organization through a period
of significant transformation asan organization, especially in
terms of kind of a new operatingmodel and your digital investments.
Can you share a little bit moreabout why it is important, but also
(07:18):
why it's important for shoring uplong-term growth and aspirations?
Linda Rendle (07:24):
Yeah, as we reflected upon what we could do better, as we
were writing our strategy, we had highlyrelevant brands that consumers loved,
but we needed to move faster in themarketplace to be more competitive.
And frankly, we needed to enable ourteams with the data and insights as
(07:44):
fast as those consumers were moving.
And we knew we needed to take on apretty big transformation to do that.
So we fundamentally redesigned ourdata and technology from the ground
up, rebuilding all of our data tohave it harmonized and be able to
take it from different sources.
And then implementing a new version ofour ERP, as well as technologies that
support all of the functions across thebusiness to drive innovation, et cetera.
(08:07):
That's been a five-year process.
At the same time, we put an operatingmodel in place to be able to
leverage that data and technologyinvestment that we were making.
And at the same time, continuing toinvest to ensure that our culture
is a place where all people canthrive and do their very best work.
That's incredibly importantthat we get the best talent.
And we're at the tail end of thatdigital transformation coming up here.
(08:30):
We're actually implementing the final bigpart of our technology implementation here
in just a week, which is an exciting thingfor our team and an exciting milestone.
And what's really great is to seeour people moving with the speed
they haven't moved with before.
And the reality is everyone atClorox will work differently than
they have a year ago, three yearsago, and we are ready for AI because
(08:54):
of these investments we've made.
We didn't even foresee that five years agoto the degree it would help our business,
but because of those investments, weare ready for the AI revolution and
using it in areas across our business.
David K. Young (09:05):
And do you, Linda, do you see that as a continuing process of
investment and evolution moving forwardto just keep up with the pace of change?
Linda Rendle (09:12):
Yeah, so we had to make a big one-time investment
to get caught up, but now it isjust the way of doing business.
I think everybody is thinking aboutthat: How do we make sure we continue
to invest in technology and dataand our business as a way to win?
But that will be more of anongoing process, like you said,
David, than a one-time event likewe did over the last few years.
David K. Young (09:29):
And well-received by employees and colleagues?
Linda Rendle (09:33):
Yes.
You know what?
Everybody loves the idea of movingoff of Excel spreadsheets to manage
our business and actually having dataand insights at their fingertips.
it's a terrific thing, and the teamhas been wonderful embracing it.
David K. Young (09:46):
Lovely.
So we're going to take a short breakand be right back with more of my
conversation today with Linda Rendle.
Welcome back to C-Suite Perspectives.
I'm your host, David Young, thepresident of the Committee for
Economic Development, the public policycenter here at The Conference Board.
I'm joined today by Linda Rendle, thechair and CEO of The Clorox Company.
(10:09):
Welcome back, Linda.
Linda Rendle (10:11):
Thanks, David.
Great to be here.
David K. Young (10:13):
So before the break, Linda, you alluded to and mentioned
a little bit about the consumer.
And I want this second half oftoday's conversation just to focus
on the state of the consumer.
This series is about leading inchallenging times, and these have
certainly been some challengingtimes since you took over as
the CEO of The Clorox Company.
(10:33):
And this is especially challengingenvironment for consumers, both from
the macroeconomic environment, butalso the geopolitical environment that
we find ourselves navigating through.
From where you sit as the CEO ofa company with essential household
brands, and I think you said before thebreak, your brands are in nine out of
(10:55):
10 households, if I recall correctly.
You are also the chair of theConsumer Brands Association.
So you have a unique perspectiveon the consumer right now.
What are you seeing in terms ofconsumer behavior, given all the
uncertainty that we're living through?
Linda Rendle (11:14):
David, I think you nailed the important point, which is uncertainty.
So if you look back over the last numberof years, consumers have been under
incredible pressure, from the pandemicto experiencing inflation, to your
point, the geopolitical environment.
But what we see that is marking thisperiod specifically is uncertainty.
They just don't know what toexpect one day to the next.
(11:35):
And so they're making decisionswithout having full visibility into
the impact it will have in their lives.
And that is really what we're seeing: A still fairly resilient consumer. (11:40):
undefined
We're continuing to see them shop, butthey're making different choices depending
on the news cycle and to ensure that theycan meet all of their household needs.
So we've seen pretty dramatic changes incategories that are fairly consistent,
as consumers hear news on what's going onand may decide to pull forward a purchase
(12:03):
that they think is going to be impacted.
it's a really unique time to watchtheir behavior, but I would say overall,
if you kind of take a step back fromall of that, consumer spending in
aggregate has been fairly strong.
Again, they're making choices to deal withthe day-to-day news of uncertainty and
not knowing exactly what impacts them.
(12:24):
And they're still always lookingfor a superior experience.
And that's what we're focused on, ismaking sure they have the right value.
And we have found if you give them a greatvalue, they're willing to pay for it.
They're willing to pay forproducts that are a premium.
That hasn't changed.
They're just doing the very smart thingsthey need to in the short term to deal
with a pretty big amount of volatilityand, to your point, uncertainty.
David K. Young (12:47):
Yeah.
It's interesting, you mentioned,when we look at the consumer making
different choices, but also looking,you have this great line, "looking
for a superior experience." Just givenall the uncertainty, are there ways
that you are seeing how consumers canthrive despite the kind of the economic
and financial challenges and just theglobal environment of uncertainty?
Linda Rendle (13:08):
We've seen some really interesting trends emerge.
And one of them that I love, becauseit really impacts our portfolio,
is that consumers want to controlwhat they can at this moment in
time, when there's such uncertainty.
And so they're looking to spaces intheir home to be able to provide that
control and certainty that they like.
We've seen trends emerge about howthey might be taking care of the
(13:29):
inside of the refrigerator becausethat gives them a little bit of joy.
Perhaps they're using a productthat has a more effusive scent
experience because that gives themthat joy and that control at home.
So there's so many opportunities forbrands to delight consumers and, to your
point, to help them thrive in a timewhen it's difficult for them to navigate.
(13:50):
And that's what we found is reconnectingto what brings them joy, what
helps them thrive, and what theythink is important at the moment.
And each one of our brands are alwayslooking to say, what combination of
things can we do to make sure that we aregiving consumers that superior experience
and help them have a little joy and alittle control in their everyday life?
David K. Young (14:11):
Could you elaborate a little bit, and this is my final question
for you today, but just I was going askwhat Clorox is doing to meet those needs,
to provide this superior experience?
But how are you able to do that?
Linda Rendle (14:24):
We look at all aspects of what consumers consider
to be a superior experience.
Do we have the right brand, and doesit promise the consumer and deliver on
the promise what it says it's going to?
Is the package that theproduct in delightful?
When you spray a trigger to cleanyour home, does it spray nice?
Is the product experience—does itkill the germs it says it's going to?
(14:46):
Does it clean the messes?
Does it keep your catlitter box from smelling?
All of these things is what ourbrands are looking at today to say,
"Are we delighting the consumerat every turn?" and therefore, we
know they'll reward us in the end,and they'll choose our products.
But those are the things we're focusingon, making sure we're getting all of
those small things right, to delight them.
(15:08):
And our brands are, as I said,more of our portfolio is deemed
superior than it was before.
And then that's because we'refocusing on those little moments
that matter to the consumer.
David K. Young (15:18):
The Clorox Company.
I've got your new slogan here.
Are we delighting theconsumer at every turn?
Linda Rendle (15:24):
I love it.
David K. Young (15:25):
It's a heck of a challenge that you have, but it is, been an absolute
delight, Linda, speaking with you today.
And thank you so much for joining us.
And we, as I said at the beginning,we very much look forward to
celebrating you and the entireClorox team at CED's Distinguished
Leadership Awards this October.
(15:46):
Thank you, Linda.
Linda Rendle (15:47):
It was great to be here, David.
I really appreciate it.
David K. Young (15:50):
And thanks to all of you for listening to C-Suite Perspectives.
I'm David Young, and thisseries today has been brought
to you by The Conference Board.
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