Key Points:
1. Young athletes are very likely to experience a mouth injury during their sports careers, but most parents and players resist calls to wear mouth guards.
2. The dental industry has a great product—the custom mouthguard—but adoption is low due to poor marketing.
3. Customizable options (colors, team logos, and MLB endorsements) could encourage players to want to wear mouth guards in a pull marketing strategy—a “win” for everyone involved.
It’s baseball season at the Voiovich household.
Both of our boys are part of organized teams for the first time—both in what you might call “developmental” leagues primarily concerned with teaching baseball fundamentals, working as a team, and having a good time. My wife and I have one more concern: safety.
We have a pointed example on my older son’s team this year. During last season, one of the young players had a tooth knocked out by an errant pitch. (In his league, the kids are just starting to pitch. You get the idea.)
This drove the point home for my wife and me as parents. As much as we like the family dentist, we don’t feel like buying him another boat.
So, we started to do our homework on mouthguards. As we fumbled our way through the available options, we did find a solution. Along the way, we also stumbled upon a marketing problem, but more on that later.
The first mouthguards we tried were what the American Dental Association calls “stock.” They are just what they sound like—you pick a size and hope it fits. It didn’t. So on we went.
The second option was better. The ADA calls these “Boil and Bites.” Essentially, they come in a few general “sizes,” but are without tooth impressions, for about $20 each. That’s where the boil (put it in hot water) and bite (clamp down to create the custom impression) name comes from. These fit better, of course, but neither of our two boys could close his mouth completely. They couldn’t talk. And they drooled. Clearly, this was not a good way to avoid taking flak from your teammates.
Finally, we gave up. We called the dentist. And he had a great answer: A custom mouthguard. After a fitting at the dentist, a few days of waiting, and a $225 bill for both kids, they arrived. I have to say, these are very nice. We can barely tell the boys are wearing them. They can talk normally, and they can close their mouths. My younger son even got to choose red for his mouth guard (because he plays for the Cincinnati Reds in his league).
A perfect solution, if you ask me. Safe, comfortable, and easy. Albeit a bit pricey.
If all that’s true, however, why aren’t more kids wearing them?
Even on our oldest son’s team, only my son and the boy who got hit last year wear mouthguards. Wearing one isn’t exactly a source of pride on the team. What gives?
Could it be that parents feel like “it won’t happen to my kid”? Possibly, but it’s not like the data doesn’t exist to prove us wrong.
Dr. Marty Zase, president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, cites some pretty troubling statistics. The National Youth Sports Foundation for Safety recorded over five million teeth knocked out last year during youth sporting events, with 80 percent of those injuries on the front teeth. In other words, that’s a lot of missing—noticeable—teeth.
Could it be that parents feel like safety equipment is too expensive? Possibly, but have you checked into how much baseball costs? League fees. Traveling. Bats, gloves, and gear. Batting cage time. Cleats. After all that, what’s another $100? And baseball is cheap, comparatively. Don’t get me started on hockey.
Could it be that coaches and leagues aren’t requiring them? That’s certainly an issue. Change is tough. The coaches were once little league players themselves, and if they never took a ball to the face, they are unlikely to see the immediate need to require more gear.
Certainly, parents could organize and demand that little leagues require mouth protection, but I think that approach is misguided. Coaches—and players—will fight it. They’re tough. They shake it off. That’s just the way the sports culture is wired.
This is not an effectiveness problem. Or a need problem. Or an expense problem.
This is a marketing problem.
The dental industry has an effective product, but not an exciting one.
Imagine a new marketing approach. Perhaps this new custom mouthguard has a Nike “swoosh.” Perhaps it’s emblazoned with your jersey number. Perhaps it features your favorite major league player’s signature. Perhaps you can choose your team logo and colors.
Now that could be a mouthguard that players want to wear.
The idea already is in the pipeline. A student at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Entrepreneurship Program, where I lecture part-time, is flushing out the business idea. A number of manufacturers are already working on prototypes. Some have released products.
But it really comes down to marketing to the players themselves. This is the classic pull strategy. If the child is the one asking for it, and it falls into the “safety” bucket for parents, it is more likely to get purchased.
Now before you decry my suggestion as another encouragement to market to kids, consider this: As an industry, we already market to kids. Effectively. And for products that are much, much worse for them than protective mouthguards. You could make the argument that marketing this product is not only profitable, but ethical.
It comes down to this: We can force kids to wear mouth guards, or they can want to wear mouth guards. We can use sticks, or we can use carrots.
For young players, “cool” matters. And for my wife and me, safety matters. With a stick, we as parents get what we want. Kids have to suck it up. That’s okay, I guess, but if we use a carrot instead, everyone gets what they want.
Seems like an easy choice to me.
Related Links
American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry: Sports Safety & Kids: Avoiding Tooth and Mouth Injuries
American Dental Association Mouth Guard Information
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Jason - great article!
As a marketer for another "prevention" product in the athletic arena (called ENGO Patches for relief from rubbing & blisters), I know first-hand that people quite simply are not keen on spending money to prevent something that hasn't happened. Same goes for car insurance, flood insurance, life insurance - the list goes on. We don't want to shell out money for this stuff. That's why there are organizations out there that require car insurance for drivers. And persuasive, young salespeople to convince us that life insurance is important too.
Glad to hear your student is taking the reigns on the mouthguard conundrum. I thought about it myself while reading the article. That's how great companies begin - recognizing a problem, identifying solutions and running with them.
Teeth are not cheap. Neither are x-rays and ER visits. Mouthguards, and even blister patches, are not just prevention - they're common sense!
Posted by: Jason Pawelsky | May 20, 2009 at 07:23 AM