I've always been of the opinion that while cheaper prices are good for consumers, commoditization is not. When products in a field become commoditized, profit margins fall drastically, and so do companies' incentives to innovate in that space. Think about it: when was the last time we saw a totally innovative toothpaste or a laundry detergent? The answer is never.
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To play devil's advocate, how much innovation is needed for toothpaste? It works, it's safe, and it's not unpleasant to use. Maybe consumers benefit more from having cheap commoditised toothpaste than they would from paying extra to stimulate innovation.
> To play devil's advocate, how much innovation is needed for toothpaste?
Having the market structured such that innovation is rewarded might not be important in toothpaste, but it's really important in technology. Commoditization can kill innovation in a technology market, which is exactly what happened with PCs once Windows reached monopoly market share.
Monopolies != commodities.
I suppose there are corner cases where they could be, but they're two rather different things.
Right. I was saying that in the PC industry, it was the Windows monopoly that commoditized PC hardware. I wasn't saying that every monopoly necessarily leads to commoditization.
Just a thought -- there's lots of little packaging innovations that, collectively, make commodity products better to use.
Ketchup bottles: store upside down, wide mouth
Toothpaste: flat tops you can store vertically
Toothbrushes: grips, padding, strips, etc.
Even slicing bread is a huge innovation [how annoying is it to make a sandwich otherwise?].
How about the last toothpaste you'd ever have to use: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4213679
That's the problem with not innovating: you don't know what you're giving up.
Even if that was possible, which I'm sceptical of (you can already get toothpaste with antibiotics, you still need to use it regularly), I doubt that companies making a comfortable profit margin from non-commoditised toothpaste would be interested in that kind of innovation. They would stand to lose a lot from it. A new company could emerge with it, but they could equally disrupt a commoditised market.
Interesting that you bring up toothbrushes. Actually some company spent tons of money and time to come up with THE ULTIMATE shape for a toothbrush. They tried all different shapes, twists, angles and grips. The result? Simple straight toothbrushes are the most ergonomic and effective shapes.