Portable care, electric brushes brighten category

Oral care is exhibiting growth at mass, with dollar sales in most sub-categories showing somewhat of a bump or a marked upswing. Portable oral is doing its share to lift the entire category with sales expanding a bright 17.6%, according to IRI data for the 52-week period ended May 15. But popular whiteners declined 5%, which buyers attributed to overloading of the category and less expensive choices that dragged down dollars.

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Dentist recommendations to trade up to power toothbrushes are gaining traction among consumers. Dollar sales of power toothbrushes rose by 5.5% to $454 million, during the same 52-week period. Some of the outstanding category growth products were the Arm & Hammer Spinbrush, the Colgate 360 Optic White Manual Brush and Philips Sonicare.



Procter & Gamble recently added a jolt to the power toothbrush segment with the debut of the Oral-B Genius, which it calls the most “intelligent” brushing system to date. The Oral-B Genius uses proprietary “Position Detection Technology,” a combination of a motion sensor and video recognition using a smartphone camera, to prevent users from missing any areas while they brush their teeth. The technology tracks which teeth have been brushed.



Meanwhile, dollar sales of toothbrushes and dental accessories increased by 3.9%, to $2.6 billion, for the 52-week period ended May 15. Manual toothbrush sales totaled $833 million, a 1.7% increase over dollar sales recorded for the identical 52-week period last year.



Mouthwash is also gaining ground. Mouthwash sales were $1.4 billion for the 52-week period ended May 15, up 3.8%, according to IRI. Marketers have been launching campaigns to encourage mouthwash use. Johnson & Johnson Consumer is talking up “The Power of the Twice-Daily Swish” with its Listerine mouthwash, using the product’s website to get the word out. Procter & Gamble’s Crest Pro-Health Advanced mouthwash brand has teamed up with vlogger Jack Douglass, who harnesses his JackAsk series to emphasize how using mouthwash can help to make a better first impression on a date.



Keeping gums healthy is also behind the explosion or portable oral care, buyers said. With dental hygienists stressing more attention to gums, consumers are turning to such items as picks or mini-brushes that they can use during the day. A few examples include the Medline Oral Care kit and TheraBreath Probiotics.



Toothpaste, too, is giving drug stores something to smile about — especially formulas that address teeth sensitivity. In its fourth-quarter 2015 earnings report, Colgate-Palmolive deemed Colgate Enamel Health toothpaste — along with the Colgate 360 degree Enamel Health toothbrush and Colgate Total for Gum Health — a major contributor to its profitability in the oral care market.



Similarly, new to the Crest brand franchise is Sensi-Stop Strips, designed to be applied directly to the gum line of sensitive teeth to provide immediate pain relief.



GlaxoSmithKline’s Aquafresh brand franchise also has been expanded to include a Maximum Strength Sensitive formulation. The company has also augmented its Sensodyne line to include Sensodyne True White. The latter is said to whiten teeth while simultaneously addressing relieving tooth sensitivity.