Gain a deeper understanding of what’s in, what’s out, and which trends to pay attention to for your brand’s oral care lines to excel in 2023.
Data Analyzed for this Report
Any brand that’s tried to stay ahead of the trends can tell you that it’s not an easy task. Consumer tastes are constantly changing, and what’s popular today may be old news tomorrow. That’s why we’ve leveraged our White Space AI tool to analyze 14.8 million consumer data points specific to oral care. By understanding where consumer trends are headed, businesses can stay one step ahead of the competition.
So, how does it work?
Our White Space AI tool collected, scanned, and analyzed social media mentions, consumer sentiment patterns, product descriptions, and search traffic to identify emerging trends. This comprehensive approach ensures that our team can make highly accurate trend predictions. So, these insights are invaluable if you’re looking to launch a new product or simply want to stay ahead of the curve.
Here’s a breakdown of the data we ingest:
- Social Engagement: Massive data pools and analysis of influential posts
- Search: A leading indicator of consumer purchasing behavior
- Reviews: Helps identify unmet need states and consumer language used to describe products
- Descriptions: Allow us to extract language used by competitors and how often specific attributes are being used
When we analyze data, we’re looking for patterns and trends that can tell us about consumer demand, the size of the overall opportunity, the level of competition, and potential innovation opportunities.
Through this process, we can understand what ingredients, need states, and sensory attributes are coming up in that data. We use that information to make predictions, considering the following:
- Consumer demand
- Overall opportunity size
- Competition
- Innovation opportunities
This analysis helps brands decide where to invest their resources for new product development. And that can lead to increased revenue from new products. Insights gained from data analysis can be valuable for any business that wants to stay ahead of the competition.
Overall Insights
With nearly 15 million consumer data points analyzed from October 2017-21, the team here at Simporter is predicting quite a bit of growth in the oral care market. We will see a shift towards more natural, plant-based, and herbal ingredients that consumers – specifically younger millennials and generation Z – are passionate about.
To win over these passionate consumers, it’s essential to be precise in how ingredients support specific use cases and need states. Additionally, we are seeing a trend toward focusing on narrow use cases to capitalize on growth opportunities — the more specialized or unique, the better.
A more detailed flavor map provides a runway of opportunity for unique flavors. Form and convenience will continue to be critical for many consumers. And last but not least, Generation z is assuming the majority of the buying power, and they are a passionate group of consumers. So, keep these factors in mind when shaping your oral care strategy for 2023.
Not surprisingly, we will see a higher percentage of consumer conversations and searches for natural and sustainable products. Convenience will become top of mind for consumers shopping for dental hygiene products as they regain active post-pandemic lifestyles.
Oral Care Key Takeaways
- Non-Toxic, Natural, Plant-Based, and Herbal will only continue to grow. Be precise in how ingredients support specific use cases and need states to win over passionate consumers.
- Focus on narrow use cases to capitalize on growth opportunities—the more specialized or unique, the better.
- A more detailed flavor map provides a runway of opportunity for unique flavors.
- Form and convenience will continue to be critical for many consumers.
Non-toxic, natural, plant-based, and herbal ingredients will continue to grow in popularity. Consumers are becoming more passionate about what they put in their bodies and looking for brands that share their values.
To win over these consumers, brands need to be precise in communicating the benefits of their products. They should focus on narrow use cases and highlight how specific ingredients support specific needs. In addition, a more detailed flavor map will provide opportunities for brands to create unique flavors that stand out in a crowded market.
Finally, form and convenience will continue to be critical for many consumers. Brands catering to these needs will be well-positioned to succeed in 2023 and beyond.
Oral Care
Categories Winners & Losers
While other industries are seeing a general shift towards consolidation and multipurpose products, the oral care industry is seeing the opposite. When it comes to taking care of their teeth, consumers are becoming more and more specialized in their needs. The categories with the highest opportunity for growth include Dental Guards, Retainer Cleaners, and Electric Toothbrushes, each niche market areas. Specializing for uniqueness and focusing on narrow use-case products within up-and-coming areas can open unique paths for growth, primarily within eCommerce.
Comparatively, mature areas like Toothpaste, Mouthwash, and Whitening Strips will have a lower potential for growth.
Themes Winners & Losers
Non-Toxic hold the highest potential for growth (28.45 percent), while most other items on our list have a modest-at-best growth outlook.
The team here at Simporter is surprised to predict popular claims like Vegan and Flouride Free will decline in 2022. We believe this is because after peaking in popularity during 2020 and early 2021, it’s difficult for themes like these to maintain the same growth trajectory year-over-year. So, they’ll continue to be popular but will just grow slower than the past year.
Forms Winners & Losers
The demand for niche solutions extends itself into oral care forms. Ultra-niche products like Dental Wax and Tablets will experience double-digit growth. Brands like Bite are leading the way with tablet-based toothpaste products that ditch the plastic and are great for use at home or on the go.
More mainstream products like Pastes and Gels make our predicted loser’s list. However, more innovative forms like Sprays also manage to make the list, so it’s something brands should keep an eye on across the next year.
Need States Winners & Losers
When it comes to consumer needs, convenience and ease of use will be top of mind. While our predicted winners and items like Easy to Apply, Comfortable, and Long Lasting seem predictable, they all have one thing in common — they make oral care quick and convenient. As lives periodically resume pre-pandemic norms, consumers are more focused on the convenience of their oral care products than the benefits.
The more benefit-focused need states, like Freshens Breath, Squeaky Clean, and Healthy Gums are important, but when it comes to convenience, they’re nice-to-have but not need-to-have. If a benefit can’t expedite the oral care process or get someone to work on time, it won’t be as competitive.
Sensory Attributes Winners & Losers
Teeth Grinding was at the top of our need states winner’s list, so it’s no surprise to see Reliving top our sensory attribute predictions for 2022. A lot of what we see in other areas will strongly influence what we’ll see in sensory attribute performance.
Sensory attributes like Clean Feeling, Foaming, Light and refreshing will continue to be popular but grow at a much slower rate.
Flavors Winners & Losers
Our team is excited to see many more flavors appearing on our predictions list than in previous years. Working with new flavors is critical for differentiating your product or brand from competitors. Coconut Oil is a unique flavor topping our growth predictions. Traditional Spearmint will also experience growth but at a slower pace.
Innovative flavors like Cinnamon, Peppermint, Chocolate, and Strawberry have a negative growth outlook and will decline in 2022. There likely aren’t many toothpaste brands making products with these flavors. So, for the brands producing them, they probably aren’t performing well overall, which is driving the negative growth. But, what does this data tell us? The flavor map is growing; consumers’ taste preferences are widening, and innovative flavors are hitting the market at a much faster rate.
Additives Winners & Losers
Whenever our team begins research, we’re always on the hunt for the next trend, and additives give us a lot of optimism for what could be the next big thing in oral care. With the rise of social media, what could be the next wow-factor, viral product that dominates consumer conversations?
After dissecting the data, we found that additives will be on a downward trend. For example, Charcoal toothpaste has already gone viral, so this additive may not sustain the level of growth it once achieved.
Deep Dive into Natural
Ingredients Winners & Losers
We took a look at products that quality at natural to see the trends across ingredient lists. When we look at natural products specifically, we find that consumers are the most passionate about specific ingredients. So, for brands wanting to capitalize on high-growth trends like Charcoal, focus on the consumer segment that cares the most.
Within natural ingredients, we’re seeing less emphasis on benefits (Freshens Breath, Healthy Gums) and a heavier emphasis on trending ingredients — those that consumers are explicitly searching for.
Categories Winners & Losers
Whitening needs will dominate our predicted categories list, whether it’s a Whitening Pen, Whiteners, Whitening Gel, or Whitening Strips. Whitening products is a massive opportunity for brands within the natural segment to listen to what consumers are really talking about and searching for. Identifying subcategories within whitening within natural products will likely be a sweet spot for any brand in 2022.
At the same time we can a see a slight decline of such natural categories like tooth powder, dental guard and electric toothbrush in 2023.
Themes Winners & Losers
Herbal is the number one theme within natural oral care products. Focusing natural products around their herbal elements and claims is one way to capture this consumer segment.
While Herbal, Organic, and Vegan are all closely related, they are different claims. It’s important to note that while Organic and Vegan will decline, Herbal will grow, highlighting why it’s so important to stay on top of how consumers perceive these claims and benefits.
About Simporter
Founded in 2018, Simporter is a data analytics firm that automates new product research with AI software to automate new product research.
Brands and retailers use our software to pinpoint which products consumers truly want and how much they will purchase. Our proprietary technology analyzes billions of data points from point-of-sales, search traffic, social media sentiment, and customer reviews.
For more insights on luxury cosmetics trends, you can watch our recent webinar 2022 Fabric and Household Trends here on YouTube. If you’re ready to see Simporter AI in action and learn what it can do for you, request a demo on our website.
