I recently had to buy myself some more toothpaste and walked into the toothpaste aisle of the drugstore, because toothpaste takes up so much space to display that an entire aisle is devoted to it alone: not “tooth care products”, with toothbrushes and mouthwashes and flosses all joining it like one happy family; there’s no room for them in this house. Here we come to my concern and possible confusion.
There are so many toothpastes. So many! How do three toothpaste companies manage to have that many toothpastes between them?
I don’t say this because I’m a cranky old man who wants to ramble about the simpler days when we just scrubbed our teeth with mint leaves when we wanted them to smell nice. I say this out of concern.
To use what I’m most familiar with (thank you, advertisements), let’s take Crest. Crest has this toothpaste called “Pro-Health”. As far as I can tell from the advertisements, this toothpaste is just the bee’s knees. It does everything! Amazing. That’s great.
So why does Crest have any other toothpastes?
I’m fairly sure the Pro-Health variety has the same price-tag as inferior pastes. But rather than saying, “Wow, great work, team! Let’s get rid of our obsolete products that do anything less than this one does, so that our consumers can have the best health,” Crest continues to sell their second-rate products.
The only reason I can think of to keep everything in stock is to keep customers happy. But as someone who is fiercely loyal to Crest’s anti-cavity “regular paste” for its pleasant minty flavor, I still think I wouldn’t mind if the company said, “Hey, we’re dropping your preferred toothpaste line, because we made something that will be better for your teeth.”
Say you like this specific brand of cold medicine that treats your sore throat and stuffy nose but not your cough. Suddenly it changes taste slightly because the company developed a way to make it also stop your cough. Are you going to say, “Hmm, I really want something to get rid of all my cold symptoms, but I just can’t accept the way that this tastes”?
No, because you’re not buying it for its taste. The taste is something you endure because you know whatever you’re putting in your mouth is good for you.
This post brought to you by: CAPITALISM
