I recently had the pleasure of speaking on the CPG Guys podcast with Patricia (Patty) Descamps, The Clorox Company’s Associate Director of Consumer Experience. Patty and I discussed various topics including CPG trends, the power of personalization, the rise of ecommerce and the future of digital advertising. Below are some takeaways from our conversation.

Customer centricity is key

Customer centricity means putting the customer first and at the center of every business decision. It’s about supporting each individual customer’s unique needs and building trust, which is vital for brands to develop lasting relationships.

This is now more important than ever with the rise of ecommerce sales creating both opportunities and challenges for brands. There are new opportunities to engage with consumers across their path to purchase and there are also new barriers blocking brands from driving loyalty.

Hearing from Patty about fostering a value-based customer experience was insightful as it provided solutions to overcoming these challenges. Patty has developed a career in customer experience because she is passionate about supporting consumers across their shopping journey. Patty said “I really wanted to be in touch with consumers all the time, and I really wanted to help my organization serve consumers in the best way possible. In everything I do, I place the consumer at the center.” Patty went on to say “what really makes CX so important to me is that idea of serving consumers in a meaningful way.”

Partnership success is powered by personalization

To serve these consumers in a meaningful way, The Clorox Company partners with Aki by leveraging our personalization technology and targeting optimal moments that deliver strong campaign performance and a more relevant and enjoyable shopping experience for its consumers.

As the personalization lead for the cleaning division at Clorox, Patty is responsible for developing that division’s personalization strategies. Patty said “Aki is helping us enhance the consumer experience by serving personalized advertising based on data and insights.”

It’s important for both Aki and The Clorox Company that a foundation of quality data is accessed to distill the insights that inform our personalization solutions. For these strategies to be effective, we need to reach consumers at scale while still ensuring we share a unique and relevant advertising experience. Patty went on to say:

“With Aki, we have delivered personalization at scale. It’s not only personalized for the sake of personalization… but we’re using personalization at scale to get the best benefits out of this specific tactic.”

Privacy protection is fundamental

Consumers want brands to customize their advertising experiences. They also increasingly expect – and deserve – respect for their data privacy. The abundance of data that marketers have at hand creates new opportunities in personalization, and also new challenges when it comes to data collection, usage, storage, handling and sharing.

When asked about predictions for the future of the CPG category, Patty emphasized the growing importance of data privacy, saying that “[data privacy] is a very very important topic… we need to be guardians. We have a huge responsibility to understand how the laws are changing over time, and [adapt] how we serve consumers with our own data by using that data right.”

Thankfully, there are ways for advertisers to ensure privacy compliance while offering the relevant experiences that consumers expect. This is outlined in detail in the Consumer Goods Technology article How to Respect Privacy and Still Win with Advertising.

I’m proud to support Patty and The Clorox Company in their efforts to engage consumers with meaningful, relevant, and personalized advertisements across their shopping journey, and I look forward to continuing to grow this partnership.

Listen to the full podcast via The CPG Guys or on any of your favorite streaming services.

Risa Crandall, SVP CPG Strategy and Sales at Aki