Electric Toothbrush
An affordable sonic toothbrush in a range of attractive colours.
2022 - 2023
Ordo
Client
Year
Brief
Conceive and bring to market a low cost electric toothbrush. To stand out in a crowded market the product needed to include:
USB-C charging.
An attractive and minimal aesthetic.
Several colourways which work with the brand.
Outcome
Generated a concept for the Sonic Lite, which was brought to market. The design was carefully developed to avoid unnecessary feature creep which would raise product cost. The considered and minimal features and aesthetics have helped separate the product from competitors.
The Sonic Lite launched to immediate praise, winning the prestigious “Top Launch 2023” for oral care products in the Grocer Awards. It has since gone on to gain market traction in many leading retail stores, even outcompeting the flagship alternative in the Ordo range in some retail stores.
Key Design Features
USB-C charging.
2 power modes.
6 different colour options.
IPX7 Water resistant.
Establishing a Modern Aesthetic for a Growing Product Range
This Sonic Lite was only the second product launch for Ordo behind the successful Sonic+ electric toothbrush. One of the main challenges in this project was bridging the gap between a solitary existing product and all future releases. We mirrored choice features in the current toothbrush while developing a matured design language. The result is a fresh and modern electric toothbrush which acts as a foundation for continuity across a growing product range.
Balancing Innovation with Affordability
The Sonic Lite offers an effective and attractive electric toothbrush to consumers at a budget friendly price. Maintaining this goal required close management of the creative development to balance ambitious thinking with manufacturing costs. Scope creep could have seen the final sale price increase and the aim of offering affordable oral care slip away.
We worked closely with the suppliers throughout the concept phase to ensure the features and functions remained cost effective. This meant putting focus on areas such as shape, surface finish and colour, which all had no impact on final costs.
Defending Good Design Choices During Manufacture to Get Great Outcomes.
After arriving at a strong concept for the Sonic Lite we then directly oversaw production communications to ensure function and quality was maintained. Suppliers may unwittingly modify designs to better suit their processes, capabilities, or budgets. This has the potential to compromise the end product.
During this project we needed to advocate for many design features to ensure our design intention made it to market. The height and width of the body went through several exchanges, where the supplier was pushing for the product to grow in size.
Capturing Dynamic Photography to Enhance Marketing
Real world photography can convey a message in a uniquely grounded way, something which is exemplified when water and human hands are involved. We supported the initial marketing for the Sonic Lite with a range of studio photographs.
Using our in-house photography equipment and extensive prior experience, we captured images of the electric toothbrush which showed the power of a Sonic brush head. Ordo used these pictures in communications with retailers and as reference for further media production.
