Duration

2 months (2019)

Tools

Paper, Google Workspace apps

Role

Lead Researcher

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Under A Non-disclosure Agreement

Some of the details in this case study may be vague to protect the client's intellectual property.

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We teamed up with Lion Group to explore a simple question that turned out to be anything but: why do people choose the toothpaste they do? On the surface, it’s all about clean teeth and fresh breath. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes a story about identity, comfort, and the tiny rituals that quietly shape our days.

Challenge

Toothpaste is often framed as a functional product — cavity protection, whitening, gum care. But we wanted to know what really drives that moment of decision at the store shelf.

Is it the minty aftertaste? The packaging? The brand their parents always bought?

And more importantly — how do these choices tie into how people see themselves, or how they want to?

Approach

We got up close and personal with people’s brushing habits. (Yes, we had to.)

• Intimate group conversations We talked to folks about their daily routines — what they used, how they felt about it. These stories revealed everything from inherited brand loyalty to sensory nostalgia
• Blind product testing We stripped away the branding and watched people react to the actual stuff — the texture, the sting, the foam. It got real fast
• Message decoding We compared marketing claims to the personal care identities people were building. What landed? What felt off?