Recently, the smartphone market has been quite bustling, with Huawei quietly launching the Mate 60, Apple updating the iPhone 15 series as scheduled, and new and established brands like Google, OPPO, and NIO also joining the fray.

However, despite the market seeing dozens of new models each year, the shipment volume of the domestic smartphone market continues to decline. Consumers are less inclined to buy new phones, all because smartphones are increasingly lacking in standout features.

This is also the current state of most digital products, where the industry growth is stimulated by turning durable hardware devices into consumables, rather than through technological innovation.

But in the present day where more and more daily necessities are being electrified and smartened, relying solely on "consumption" is hardly enough to drive brand growth. As daily consumer goods start to enter the "digital mode," how to drive industry revolution will also become a new challenge for consumer brands.

01 The Electric Toothbrush Market, Trapped in the "Toothpaste Squeezing Model"

The electric toothbrush is also a daily consumer good that has been "electrified." According to the American Dental Association, the earliest bristle toothbrush in the world was invented in 1498 by the Ming Dynasty Emperor Xiaozong, Zhu Youxiao.

Advertisement

In 1954, Swedish doctor Philippe-Guy Woog invented the world's first electric toothbrush to make brushing more convenient for patients with limited mobility. A year later, General Electric in the United States introduced the world's first cordless electric toothbrush, and since then, electric toothbrushes have gradually become popular.

It took several centuries for the manual toothbrush to enter the era of electrification, with bristles evolving from pig hair to horsehair and then to nylon. However, neither in appearance nor in technology has there been a revolutionary change. In the eyes of many consumers, the electric toothbrush is just a toothbrush that vibrates.

Therefore, even though electric toothbrushes began to enter the Chinese market in the 1980s, the current market penetration rate is only 8%, far below the penetration rate of about 40% in the European, American, and Japanese markets.Moreover, after experiencing rapid growth in the domestic market from 2015 to 2019, the sales of electric toothbrushes began to decline starting from 2020. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of electric toothbrush brands dropped from 658 to less than 300. It was not until the first half of this year that the electric toothbrush market saw a resurgence in growth.

The resurgence of the electric toothbrush market is attributed to the increased awareness of oral care among consumers and the structural upgrading of the entire category of electric toothbrushes. However, why did the market shift from "enthusiasm" to "cooling off" in just two years?

On one hand, as the electric toothbrush market boomed, many merchants saw the potential profits. Around 2019, it was also a period of rapid growth in internet traffic. Some merchants, aiming to "cash in" on the traffic, launched low-priced counterfeit products to capture the market.

But when the entire electric toothbrush market turned into a "price meat grinder," no brand emerged victorious, and it even damaged consumers' recognition and trust in the category of electric toothbrushes.

On the other hand, the "toothpaste-squeezing" innovation of electric toothbrushes also failed to stimulate consumers' desire to purchase. After General Electric invented the first cordless electric toothbrush, Oral-B quickly invented the world's first electric toothbrush that mimics the left and right rotation of a manual toothbrush, which is also the prototype of the electric toothbrush.

Following this, the electric toothbrush introduced many new marketing concepts, such as sonic vibration, ultrasonic vibration, and magnetic levitation vibration. From the consumer's perspective, the cleaning power of electric toothbrushes achieved a revolutionary breakthrough, using principles that we might find hard to understand, allowing the toothbrush, toothpaste, plaque, and water to interact to achieve a cleaning effect similar to that of ultrasonic waves.

However, beyond these fancy marketing concepts, the principle of cleaning teeth with an electric toothbrush is still "abrasion," that is, by forming an "arc" through the vibration frequency and the swinging of the brush head, allowing the brush head to swing back and forth within this amplitude to clean the teeth.

Therefore, the core factors to consider the cleaning power of an electric toothbrush are essentially "amplitude + swing," and both of these factors are determined by the electric motor. If there is no breakthrough in motor technology, it is also difficult for electric toothbrushes to achieve revolutionary breakthroughs.02 "Sweep and Vibration Integration" - Can it truly revolutionize the toothbrushing experience?

Taking the "side-to-side rotation" electric toothbrush first invented by Oral-B as an example, this mode primarily operates by driving the motor to rotate left and right through an eccentric wheel, which is also a common structure for electric toothbrushes under a hundred dollars. However, this vibration pattern is far from the oscillation required by the internationally recognized most effective Bass刷牙法 (Bass brushing technique).

If it's merely "side-to-side rotation," the bristles cannot penetrate the gum line, and due to the weak power of the eccentric wheel motor, a slight squeeze can stop the toothbrush from working, ultimately only giving consumers a psychological illusion of "having wiped over," which may not even be as clean as manual brushing.

Therefore, to better align with the Bass brushing technique, high-frequency vibration and adjustable amplitude are key. To this end, the motors of electric toothbrushes are also continuously evolving. For instance, increasing from one pair of magnets in traditional motors to two sets to achieve 360° rotation; many brands have also begun to adopt brushless motors to achieve a larger amplitude.

Among them, Lefin, which has achieved remarkable results in the field of high-speed hair dryers, has also started to cross over into the electric toothbrush field this year and launched the Lefin Sweep and Vibration Integrated Electric Toothbrush.

As the "domestic leader" in high-speed hair dryers, Lefin's self-developed and self-produced high-speed brushless motor has a peak rotation speed of 110,000 RPM, which can fully match the "pioneer" Dyson in terms of numbers. The experience in mechatronics technology that Lefin has mastered during the research and development and production of high-speed hair dryers has also become the core of its innovation and iteration in electric toothbrushes.

As the world's first electric toothbrush with a super-large amplitude sweep and vibration integration, Lefin's innovative self-developed servo system plays a key role. It contains two linear Hall devices that can accurately monitor the speed and angle of the brushless motor, then transmit the data to the control chip. Combined with the self-developed algorithm of the servo system, it precisely controls the amplitude and swing of the toothbrush output, equivalent to giving the toothbrush a "brain" that can think.From actual data, the vibration frequency limit of the Lefin oscillating electric toothbrush is up to 66,000 times per minute, significantly higher than the industry standard of 20,000 to 31,000 times per minute. However, considering the comfort of the brushing experience, Lefin has controlled the vibration frequency at 26,000 times per minute. Additionally, the Lefin servo system, capable of achieving 360-degree rotation, sets the amplitude within a human ergonomic 60-degree range, based on the average area of the human's upper and lower front teeth. This is also far higher than the average amplitude of traditional electric toothbrushes, which does not exceed 20 degrees, and the cleaning area is more than doubled compared to other electric toothbrushes.

According to the recommendations of the Bass brushing method, a healthier way to brush teeth is to press the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to the gum-tooth junction area and gently vibrate horizontally 10 times with a soft force, brushing 2 to 3 teeth at a time. This requires the electric toothbrush to provide a more stable vibration frequency and a larger amplitude of swing, which is also the reason why the Lefin oscillating electric toothbrush introduces the "sweep-vibration integration" concept.

Different from the mechanical limited-vibration of traditional electric toothbrushes, the large amplitude of "sweep-vibration integration" can further penetrate into the dental floss and gum grooves to remove plaque. In addition, the Lefin servo system can compensate for the required effectiveness through load changes, maintaining effective brushing force even when the brush head encounters significant resistance, which is also the "technical duty" of an electric toothbrush.

03 Understanding consumers is the "next generation" of electric toothbrushes

Of course, as the "next generation" of electric toothbrushes, in addition to technological innovation, the Lefin oscillating electric toothbrush must further understand the demands of contemporary consumers in order to regain consumer confidence in the electric toothbrush market, which is filled with varying quality products.

The "2023 JD Supermarket Oral Care Industry Trend Insight White Paper" (referred to as the "White Paper") released by JD Supermarket shows that among various oral care needs, consumers are most concerned about fresh breath issues, followed by cavity prevention, whitening, gum protection, and sensitivity resistance. It can be seen that in addition to oral cleaning issues, more people are concerned about oral sensitivity issues.In addition, the White Paper indicates that the typical buyers of oral care products are mainly high-end consumers, lower-tier users, new generation parents, Generation Z, and women. These main consumer groups often pay more attention to the functionality, aesthetics, and cost-performance ratio of electric toothbrushes.

To this end, Lifen has also deeply implemented its long-standing philosophy of "technology for all" into the field of electric toothbrushes, launching products with a higher "value for money" ratio. The hope is to enable more consumers who aspire to a better life to have the ability to own a higher quality electric toothbrush.

In terms of functionality, in addition to providing an innovative "sweep and vibrate integrated" brushing experience, Lifen's sweep and vibrate electric toothbrush also chooses the 0.02mm imported ultra-soft bristles, which are recognized as the most gum-friendly, as the standard brush head. Although the bristles are softer and more comfortable, this is a relatively rare choice in traditional electric toothbrushes. If the motor performance of the electric toothbrush is insufficient, the cleaning power and efficiency of ultra-soft bristles are generally average. Only with sufficient motor power can the soft bristles also exert significant cleaning power.

In terms of aesthetics, Lifen has chosen the metal monolithic molding process, which is more commonly used in high-end mobile phones and computers. By adopting a continuous 11-time stretching monolithic molding process, they have created a seamless metal casing with a more technological and metallic feel, ensuring both high aesthetics and the metal body's resistance to dirt and water, making it less likely to harbor dirt.

However, in terms of pricing, as Lifen's founder Ye Hongxin has said, the brand prioritizes "value for money," which means first achieving flagship-level product performance and quality, and then reducing the price to a level that is accessible to the general public, allowing more people to afford higher quality products.

The price of Lifen's sweep and vibrate electric toothbrush remains very down-to-earth, and the replacement brush heads that come with it are also only 9.9 yuan, changing the business model of some electric toothbrushes that profit from accessories.

Starting with Lifen's high-speed hair dryer, Ye Hongxin has been constantly pushing the boundaries of technology, even drawing on his experience in investing in aircraft projects, using "aircraft manufacturing" technology to create hair dryers and toothbrushes.In the exceptionally competitive electric toothbrush market, where everyone is vying for marketing supremacy and price wars, Lefin stands out like a breath of fresh air in the industry. They invest time, effort, and care in overcoming technical challenges, pushing the boundaries of technology to the extreme, and then offering their products at the most "value for money" prices.

In the realm of electric toothbrushes, foreign brands have long dominated the peak. Chinese consumers are in need of a different brand voice and also require a more revolutionary and innovative new product to truly realize the value of electric toothbrushes to users.

As a technology company with independent research and development and innovation capabilities, what surprises and value can Lefin bring to the electric toothbrush industry? Perhaps it is time for users to let go of their previous one-sided understanding of electric toothbrushes and embark on a "new generation" of brushing experiences, rediscovering the joy of oral care!