Toothpaste Innovations
December 6, 2009 by Stephen Shapiro
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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29 Responses to “Toothpaste Innovations”
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Shows the importance of analogies RT @stephenshapiro: Toothpaste innovations come from anywhere. http://bit.ly/86U29R #innovation
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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.
Toothpaste Innovations http://bit.ly/5b0PDS
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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.
Toothpaste Innovations | Business Innovation Speaker and … http://bit.ly/5Adfvs
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Social comments and analytics for this post…
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…
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BlastOff Toothpaste Innovations | Business Innovation Speaker and …: Of course, it might blast off your teeth lik… http://bit.ly/5Adfvs
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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..?
RT @timkastelle RT @stephenshapiro: Toothpaste innovations come from anywhere. http://bit.ly/86U29R #innovation
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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.
Toothpaste Innovations http://bit.ly/73ilCB #postrank #innovation
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[...] Ideas can indeed come from anywhere. (Read more to find out how!) [...]
Apply these lessons to innovate your management processes. RT @pr_innovation: Toothpaste Innovations http://bit.ly/73ilCB
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Toothpaste Innovations | Business Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro http://bit.ly/5j80Zf
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Interesting toothpaste ideas, but what about the toothbrush? What if the toothbrushes were somehow biodegradable rather than the plastic versions in stores now? You could be helping the environment by brushing your teeth. Is it possible to infuse grass seeds into the biodegradable brush? People could brush their teeth as their walking to work, running to catch a bus/train and throw the brush in a park! Imagine people having Eco-Brushes in National Parks.
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
How to get inspiration from other products http://www.steveshapiro.com/2009/12/06/toothpaste-innovations/ #innovation
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
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
Son good all ideas, the bacterias at mouth come from inside and outside no all bacterias are dangerous, so the idea must be to get with the use of some special kind of toothpaste that makes constantly neutral PH like 7, then the product to develop will provide this effect for some time, let´s said until the next toothpaste use or mouthwash, think just a bite about it.
Another idea that switch in my mind is. A toothpaste birth control, to be used as preservative before making love, please think once more about the possibility, at least it could have some demand.
Merry Chrstmass an Happy New Year for all you.
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
Son good all ideas, the bacterias at mouth come from inside and outside no all bacterias are dangerous, so the idea must be to get with the use of some special kind of toothpaste that makes constantly neutral PH like 7, then the product to develop will provide this effect for some time, let´s said until the next toothpaste use or mouthwash, think just a bite about it.
Another idea that switch in my mind is. A toothpaste birth control, to be used as preservative before making love, please think once more about the possibility, at least it could have some demand.
Merry Chrstmass an Happy New Year for all you.
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
>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 .
OK – I like your idea of infusing vitamins and other agents in the toothpaste.
How about incorporating nicotine to make it into a quit-smoking therapy? Smoking is very bad for oral health – so using the nicotine as an incentive to improve dental care might help those who smoke. A nicotine-laden version of the antibacterial mouthwash, chlorhexidine gluconate, which used to treat gingivitis and other gum disorders, might also be effective. Gum problems are common side-effects of smoking.
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
Stephen,
I have researched the topic of dentifrice for some time and I found this article very interesting. In particular GSK’s “Aquafresh iso-active” but the question I have is whether all of its ingredients are GRAS? I invented the Dent-Chew Brush (www.dent-chew.com), a single use toothbrush made from a gel formulation, shaped like a mouth piece, that when chewed cleans the teeth, gums and the tongue. When the utility is completed it dissolves and can be disposed of or ingested. I originally designed it for use by the military and people on the go however beyond brushing is its use as a low cost delivery system for therapeutics. Would you have a POC for GSK?
NB. The second part of #5 is not as big a stretch as one might think!
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
Lots of brilliant ideas! This goes to show that there is no shortage of great solutions, especially when we tap into the InnoCentive network. I’m sure if we posted a formal InnoCentive challenge, we would find even more solutions that would not only be great in theory but would be practical and doable.
John, I can connect you with my GSK contact off-line.
If people missed them, check out some of the other ideas listed in the comments on my blog (http://www.steveshapiro.com/2009/12/06/toothpaste-innovations/)
Thanks!
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation
All are very inspiring ideas. One very simple, yet not new idea is to develop a toothpaste-like gum that can be chewed for at least one hour after every meal, with no sugar, no artificial sweeteners or colors, with different flavors that are simply based on savory natural oils found in tea leaves, jasmine leaves, lemon, orange, coconut, mint leaves, chamomile, and thousands more of plants. I grew up on the country side of a developing country and back there our grand parents used to chew home-made candies made up from tree’s resins mixed with different herbs. Later on some of them started to add sodium bicarbonate and that was the first sort of toothpaste that was affordable to everyone. Granted, those who used to chew sugar cane on a daily basis without washing their mouth later on would loose their teeth as early as their 50’s but those who didn’t still have very healthy mouths, and no stinky smells. Perhaps we have surrendered too much of our indigenous knowledge to trendy and expensive fashions and many lessons have been forgotten.
This comment was originally posted on Perspectives on Innovation