How relevant is toothpaste to your business?
It could be as enlightening as it is whitening.
Yesterday The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Whitens, Brightens and Confuses” about how manufacturers have been offering too many products. Differentiated by flavor, preventative ingredients, cosmetic value, all-natural vs. pyrophosphate-enforced, gel vs. paste, etc., such a wide variety has customers feeling overwhelmed by choices in the dental care sections of stores.
Companies like Procter & Gamble, maker of Crest, noticed that their excess of solutions was becoming more burdensome than an excess of plaque among their consumer base and subsequently it has been reducing its tube-shaped offering over the past two years. The conglomerate’s director of global oral-care research and development Matt Doyle said: “We’ve come to realize that fewer is better.”
Other businesses are squeezing down too. In 2007, a total of 102 new toothpastes were introduced to stores. Last year, that number was 69. In March of 2008, there were 412 distinct types of toothpaste on shelves. Last month, that number was 352.
Whether you run a B-2-C or to B-2-B, we all must adapt our businesses to the pace of the age in which we’re currently operating. An overabundance of choices might have served us well in the past as we were able to offer anything and everything to anyone and everyone. It’s becoming grossly apparent, however, that consumers want to make quicker decisions without deliberation. Can your business meet this need?
With Google searches and smart phone apps, the masses are moving towards simplicity. People like to throw a few words into the Google search box and skim over the first few links yielded. If they don’t see what they want, they change the words in their query. People also want their smart phone to only deliver them the most pertinent headlines and provide only the commands and choices that are absolutely necessary for an efficient and entertaining mobile existence.
Is your business successful at this kind of sought-after simplification? Is your team doing the Google-like work by sort through the choices for your consumer target so that only the top options are presented? Is your message akin to a smart phone app making the minimum meaningful?
Consider taking a hint from the trends of toothpaste of clenching down on choices before a bite’s taken out of your business.
Kristen Zatina is a writing specialist at entreQuest who scours worldwide business news for corporate inspiration.
(*Information Sources: "Whitens, Brightens and Confuses" by Ellen Byron. The Wall Street Journal. Wednesday 23 February 2011.)
