Linda Rendle
Analyst · Goldman Sachs.
Yes. Thanks Jason. I’ll start with that. You know these investment levels are not a mandate in our business, they are a choice. And we’re choosing to lean into the momentum we see in our portfolio right now, behind some of what Kevin covered. Household penetration has more than doubled the amount of our portfolio that’s stable or growing. We have the highest ever consumer value measures, so – the percentage of people deem our products as superior. We are seeing people enter our categories at rates we’ve never seen before, and we are seeing repeat, although it’s early, strong. And so what we are trying to do by increasing our advertising and sales promotion spending, by increasing our admin spending, is about accelerating the long-term performance of the company, and that is what we are aspiring to do. And so it’s a choice, it’s not something that we have to do or that’s dictated by the market, and we think it’s a smart choice, because what it allows us to do, is hold on to new households and you know the customer acquisition is one of the toughest things we do in established categories that have high share. So we want to make sure that we’re doing that. We see additional places where we can grow household penetration in the U.S. and beyond in our categories, and we want to ensure we’re doing that. And then we want to support the behavior change that we see with consumers, whether it be in Health and Wellness, the fact that they’re drinking more water or taking more supplements. In hygiene, the fact that they are cleaning more, the fact that they are cleaning new surfaces and they are doing it and inside and outside of the home, supporting behaviors, as people stay at home. So people have been delighted by the fact they get to cook and they are actually enjoying more time around the family meal table and they are able to use different methods of cooking, like grilling, during the week, not just on the weekend or a special occasion. So we think of this investment in both administrative spending and in A&SP, support keeping those new consumers in, bringing additional people into our franchise, in hopes that we can accelerate the long-term performance. But I just want to be clear, it’s a choice, and it’s always a choice that we can revisit, if these behaviors are not as sticky, and we can optimize. One other fact I’d give you, Jason, because I think it’s important. We went back and looked at our spending. Recall that we put about $70 million of incremental spending in the back half of fiscal year ‘20, and the return on investment was extremely strong, and it gave us confidence to lean in, in fiscal year ‘21, that this is both a good short term spend and long-term spend.