GoodsGuide- Toothpaste brand comparison
'In theory there is no difference between practice and theory, in practice there is.'
I chose the product that almost everybody use at least twice a day: the toothpaste. Being the product that we use so often, that comes in direct contact with our body I think that it is very important to choose the toothpaste that we use carefully, considering multiple factors such as ingredients, quality and environmental impact. It is not a secret that the competition is very harsh in that segment of market and we are all subjects to aggressive marketing campaigns that try to bias our choice to the advantage of specific competitor, so it seems like a perfect case to learn more on the competing products from the GoodsGuide.
I am a devoted Colgate user, I don't know even why, simply when I need a toothpaste I just go for this brand without considering much the alternatives. So I went to the website to find out the score of the product I use, it got 6.8/10 score, not bad I thought.
When looked closer, I found out that this product is pretty healthy: 8/10 in the Health category, but in the other category that of great importance to me- the Environment, things were not so bright: the score was 6.3/10. The environmental issues included low scores for Particulate Matter and VOCs and SOx and NOx reduction programs, high Liabilities for Hazardous Waste ($ 50 mil/anno) , low Hazardous Waste Targets and Toxic Emissions Targets and absence of Habitat Conservation policy. These are some issues that I prefer not to be associated with the product I am buying regularly.
To define the benchmark I've decided to compare Colgate toothpaste to the best product in the category according to the website – the Miessence Anise Toothpaste which scored 8.7/10. It got the 10/10 in Health category, 8.4/10 Environment score, with water management being the only issue.
And what about the prices? According to Eitan Garstner's article on price and quality correlation, one would expect with high probability that there is little or no correlation between the price of the toothpaste and it's quality( in our case the score) being the frequently bought item, but actually there is: the Miessence Anise is $11 for 5.3 Oz tube compared to $4.90 for Colgate's 6 Oz tube(according to Amazon). So maybe it's one of the relatively rare cases for frequently bought products where you actually are getting what you have paid for.
Conclusion:
Don't try to save a nickel on your toothpaste, don't help your dentist buy his wife a new Lexus.;-)
Ilya.
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