Toothpaste Innovations
I never really thought much about toothpaste. But at the last two innovation conferences where I spoke, toothpaste was one of the hot topics.
At the FT Innovate conference in London, Unilever discussed their “Signal White Now” (and other brands) toothpaste. Instead of using harsh bleaches and abrasives, they borrowed an optical-effect technology from their laundry team. This toothpaste uses a blue pigment to make yellow teeth instantly appear whiter. This same ingredient is used to make white clothes look even whiter.
At the Open Innovation Summit in Orlando, GSK discussed how their “Aquafresh iso-active” toothpaste borrowed an idea from a GSK cleaning product which acts like Edge shaving cream (she used that example since most people in the room would understand it). The toothpaste comes out like a gel, but foams in the mouth, much like the shaving cream. This formulation, according to the can I was given, removes 25% more bacteria than regular toothpaste – or 3x more according to the picture left.
This got me thinking. If toothpaste manufacturers can get ideas from shaving cream and laundry detergent, where else could they get ideas? Within 5 minutes, I thought up a few ideas of how to gain inspiration from other products:
- Pop Rocks: As a kid, I loved how Pop Rocks, the carbonated candy, exploded in your mouth. What if you added Pop Rock-like crystals to toothpaste? Not only would the toothpaste foam, it would fizz and explode. Maybe this would blast the plaque off your teeth. Of course, it might blast off your teeth like Pop Rocks reputedly did a few times.
- Shampoo: Shampoos are infused with vitamins and minerals to give your hair bounce and shine. What if you infused toothpaste with these ingredients? Or maybe you could add some homeopathic remedies – for those who believe in these alternative “medicines.” Sublingual administration (under the tongue) is a common and effective way of delivering drugs directly into the bloodstream.
- Conditioner: We use shampoo to clean and conditioner to protect. Maybe they can create a tooth conditioner; a special toothpaste that you use after your regular toothpaste. It could coat your teeth to prevent staining, bad breath, or split ends. Even better, they could borrow the “technology” used by shampoos like “Pearl” that combine shampoo and conditioner into one formulation.
- Moisturizers: Several moisturizers have an AM and a PM formulation. One is used in the morning and the other at night before you go to sleep. The AM formula of toothpaste could be infused with caffeine that would be absorbed into the bloodstream sublingually (see idea #2 above). And the PM formulation could be infused with melatonin to help you sleep better at night.
- Weight Loss Products: I’m not sure how this would work, but what if you could create a toothpaste that somehow made certain foods taste bad? This might cause you to reduce the amount of food you eat. Or maybe there is another way to make toothpaste a weight loss product. OK, this one is a stretch, but there might be a kernel of an idea there!
In a breakout at the Open Innovation Summit, an innovation leader from Johnson & Johnson, when asked to name the most important word for their business right now, answered “Convergence.” By this, he meant the sharing of ideas across business units and brands.
Ideas can indeed come from anywhere. And quite often, the best ideas will come from inside your own organization- just from a different product, function, division, or brand. Where will your next big idea come from?
If you want to learn how to tap into the collective wisdom of your organization, look into InnoCentive’s @Work product. This collaboration tool helps you post challenges to anyone inside your organization. And if you don’t get the answer you like internally, you can “flip a switch” and post your challenge externally to their 185,000 solvers.
If you have other toothpaste innovation ideas, I would love for you to post them as comments!
P.S. In addition to the comments below, look at the solutions provided on the InnoCentive blog. There are some great ideas there!
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12 Responses to “Toothpaste Innovations”
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Indiebound
Some good ideas here and they get one thinking… I like what GSK did with this new product, as their convergence of ideas has resulted in a great product. My teeth have never been cleaner – thanks Helene for the sample – and it’s a fun product to use too.
PS Nice meeting you at the Open Innovation Summit.
It’s great that they brought this to market, but this type of evolutionary innovation is something that companies should be bringing to market more frequently. Unfortunately, large companies such as Unilever tend to operate in “silos” and not realize their full potential. This type of cross-category knowledge sharing is, unfortunately, rare and few companies do it well. P&G does the best job of sharing across categories internally; other companies, such as J&J, need to do it much more.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by stephenshapiro: Toothpaste innovations come from anywhere. Read some crazy ideas and share your own http://bit.ly/86U29R #innovation…
I’ve got it: Caffeinated toothpaste. Clean your teeth and get your morning caffeine jolt at the same time
)
Or nicotine toothpaste for smokers trying to quit..?
Steve – thanks for writing about GSK! The original idea was actually from a household cleaner, the Edge example just makes a good visual for the gel-to-foam action. The convergence of the idea led to partnering with 4 different companies to make the project work.
BTW- I love your ideas! I will forward them along..
Jeff – glad you like the toothpaste, great meeting you too, we can be frenemies, or was that “Compartners” from the Cisco talk!
About that weight loss idea – just mix a little Crazy Glue into the toothpaste. The resulting oral seal should act as a “barrier to entry” for most forms of caloric intake.
Here’s another idea that was submitted on my Facebook page…
What about trying to steal the idea of “leave in” conditioner. One problem that people have is that they don’t brush their teeth long enough. What if there was a way to apply toothpaste but not have to spit it out. Rather you could go about your day and it could keep working. Maybe they could put certain amino acids or something that react with sugars or other plaque forming foods.
[...] Ideas can indeed come from anywhere. (Read more to find out how!) [...]
The possibilities are endless:
- Oral Contraceptive.
- Vitamin supplements
- Antabuse toothpastes fro people trying to give up drink
- Toothpaste tubes that send an update to twitter. I have just got up! I am going to bed!
- Toothpaste that gradually changes colour as it is being used to encourage people to brush for long enough…eg red to green to transparent.
Nick, great ideas!
Let’s take it the next step…
I would love for someone to invest something the eliminates the need for brushing altogether.
Why can’t we create a gum infused with some kind of foaming agent. Dish washing machines don’t need to “brush†the dishes. They blast the grime away. Maybe the next generate of Pop Rocks that infuses teeth cleaning agents.
Or how about something that coats our teeth so that we never even need to clean them. Sort of a Rain-x for our teeth. We can prevent water from sticking to a windshield. Why not stop bad stuff from sticking to our teeth.
The possibilities are endless
>Or how about something that coats our teeth so that we never even need to clean them.
I thought of this long time ago too.
I am surprised nobody has been doing anything as clearly there is a demand .
Check out http://www.PearlyDreams.net for a melatonin/toothpaste patented and manufactured by a renowned NYC dentist and oral surgeon Dr Z. He’s also got a patent on appetite suppressing+caffeinated toothpaste to use and get you going in the morning. The melatonin version (Pearly Dreams) works pretty well.