Toothbrush and toothpaste. The lemon and lime of oral care and part of people’s daily routines twice a day. A seemingly bullet-proof usage occasion within an intimidating category of big brands and budgets was the challenge that sustainable oral care brand PÄRLA briefed us on for their retail debut.

MAKE IT MOTIVATING

Despite shoppers understanding of sustainability’s importance, it doesn’t often turn into willingness to change out of established purchasing habits and rituals - especially when that change comes at a premium. Shopper intercepts and channel observations made it clear the challenges that needed to be overcome to deliver a retail plan which can protect hard-won listings. We needed to find a new way for shoppers to discover the brand, and importantly see how it could easily fit into their routine.

MAKE IT MATTER

Our first task was to work with the team at PÄRLA to understand beyond sustainability what else we could tap into which would help shoppers consider trial. Given the established at-home usage occasion travel retail offered a higher chance of trial with new shorter-term routines about to kick into gear.

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