The Clorox Company

Matt Gregory is senior vice president and chief customer officer of The Clorox Company, responsible for the global sales function. He assumed this role and joined the Clorox Executive Committee in October 2021.

Previously, Gregory served as general manager of Health and Beauty, providing executive oversight of the company’s personal care and vitamins, minerals and supplements businesses. Before that, he was vice president and general manager – Burt’s Bees. Other leadership positions he has held include vice president and general manager – Kingsford; vice president of sales – Specialty Division; director of sales – Walmart U.S.; and director of sales – Cleaning Division. His career at Clorox began in 2004, when he joined the sales organization.

Prior to joining Clorox, Gregory worked at The Procter & Gamble Company and held several positions in sales management as well as market strategy and planning during his eight-year tenure.

He currently serves on the board of directors for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is a former member of the board of directors of the Natural Products Association.

Gregory received his undergraduate degree in economics from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

As the Chief Customer Officer, could you provide an overview of your role and responsibilities within the company?

Our purpose as a company is to champion people to be well and thrive every single day. In order to do that, we must know what our consumers need as users and as shoppers. Our desire to know consumers better than anyone else enables us to walk alongside them in their shopping journey whether that be in a mass merchandiser, drug store, grocery store, hospital, restaurant or online. Around the globe, our partnerships with our customers allow us to take that knowledge of consumers and reach shoppers in new and exciting ways.

My role as Chief Customer Officer is to bring consumers and customers together to ensure they both win with our trusted, leading brands. As the champion of our customers, my role is to have the right technology, the right business models and the right talent in place to meet the demands of a dynamic world.

Today’s shopping environment is always evolving, and our strong relationships with our customers allow us to collectively win.

What are some of the challenges that CCOs need to address in the domain of digital marketing and technology, ranging from recovery to resilience and reinvention?

The path to purchase is evolving at a faster pace than ever before, and we must build teams and enable technologies to keep pace. The power of the consumer to have unlimited information at their fingertips is unprecendentd.

"Today’s shopping environment is always evolving, and our strong relationships with our customers allow us to collectively win.”

Our most critical challenges revolve around ensuring we are creating meaningful value. A mighty example of this is bringing our consumer and customer data together to create personalized brand experiences at scale.

Together, with our customers, we are constantly seeking new ways and new technologies to reach them in every aspect of their shopping journey.

In the last 10 years, the rapid growth of marketing technology suppliers has brought exciting new ways to connect with customers and grow brands. While some businesses thrive in this new context, others struggle to see the value in technology. Your views on this?

If you aren’t listening to new marketing technology partners in the marketplace, you will be behind in the blink of an eye. We must have an insatiable desire to test and learn how to build stronger relationships with consumers utilizing the vast interactions that brands have with them every day.  While technology changes, what is perpetually important for our brands is creating those strong, enduring consumer relationships.

Would you like to give a piece of advice for the community as to how should they approach this industry?

The year is 2023. Everything we thought to be true is being challenged in this new environment as consumers have a world of knowledge in the palm of their hand. It is a race to reach consumers wherever they are, and the level of curiosity will undoubtedly be a deciding factor in who will have success for the long term.