Toothbrush and toothpaste. For longer than anyone knows they have been together, part of people’s daily routines twice a day. A seemingly bullet-proof usage occasion within an intimidating category of big brands and sharp marketing minds was the challenge that sustainable oral care brand PARLA briefed us on for their retail debut.

MAKE IT RIGHT

Sustainability and the now sea of products that offer solutions span almost every category making it possible to be completely lost amongst the noise without a compelling proposition and communications approach.

Despite shoppers understanding sustainability’s importance, that same understanding doesn’t often turn into willingness to change out of established purchasing habits and rituals - especially when that change comes at a premium. Facing the shopper scepticism of a sustainable product not matching the performance of a less sustainable one also gave us a deeper understanding of the challenges that we needed to overcome in our work.

MAKE IT MATTER

Our first task was to work with the team at PARLA to understand away from sustainability what else was there that we could tap into which would help shoppers consider PARLA and then select it. Given the established usage occasion our first recommendation was to target travel retail where the probability of trying something new is higher than in traditional channels. An overnight substitution was unrealistic, but talking about the format-fit suitability of a small jar for travel was of value to shoppers.

Away from travel we then turned our attention to the frustrations with traditional tubes, referencing the all too familiar bendy tube or crusty top to create impactful activations instore. Pack quantity was our last focus recommending smaller trial packs to make the initial big leap from supermarket shelf to bathroom cabinet more realistic. All underpinned by a solid sustainability and dentist designed story, but importantly not exclusively relying on it.