The stories we tell ourselves about clean teeth
lion asked why people choose the toothpaste they do. the answer had less to do with teeth than we expected.
toothpaste gets sold on function.
cavity protection, whitening, gum care. we wanted to know what happens at the shelf. is it the aftertaste, the packaging, the brand your parents bought? and how does it tie into how people see themselves?
we got up close with people's brushing habits. yes, we had to.
- week 1Stimulus from lionlion supplied the products, unbranded, for the blind tests. we planned the order they'd be tried in so no tube always went first.
- weeks 1 to 2Screeningwrote the screener for loyalists, habitual switchers and people still using the brand they grew up with, and our vendor recruited against it.
- weeks 3 to 5Mini groups & testsconversation first, blind tests after, in the same session, so we could compare what people said with how they reacted.
- week 6Claims decodinglaid the brands' marketing claims next to the language participants used about self-care, line by line.
- weeks 7 to 8Debriefpresented the mismatches between loyalty and sensation to lion's marketing team.
toothpaste was doing some heavy emotional lifting.
people chose brands that felt right, even when their senses told them otherwise. texture, freshness and foam were tied to what "clean" meant. messages about control and routine resonated most. for some people brushing was a pillar of self-discipline. for others it was a box to tick before bed.
oral care as a moment of self-maintenance.
lion reframed products around emotion and aspiration as well as function, wrote messaging closer to how people talk about care, and examined where loyalty and lived experience diverged.