The Internet. Now with Tartar Control.

By Charlie on April 17th, 2008 | Filed in Good Business Practice, Marketing | 0 Comments

The Internet, Now With Tartar ControlI think every time I buy toothpaste I buy a different type. I can’t remember from tube to tube which brand I owned before, so every time I go to the market I have to look at 120 boxes all over again.

Every single time.

In fact, the only specific tooth product I can think of at all at the moment is one old people use to soak their dentures in at night. I only remember that because the commercial for it is absolutely abhorrent. Watching someone take out their teeth and stick them in a cup of fizzy liquid as the camera zooms in isn’t my idea of a good time.

But then again, if I were 96 I’m sure that would be the stuff I’d buy because I’d be in the market for fizzy tooth solvent and it’s certainly a memorable commercial.

Individual toothpastes aren’t memorable because individual toothpastes don’t have unique branding.

Toothpaste in general, as a product, has branding: you take a box, add some swooshy toothpaste-like shapes, put some glitter on it, add the words “white,” “tartar” and “control” in any combination and you’re golden. Every toothpaste company is stuck in that rut and that’s why I have no idea what’s on my bathroom counter.

Sounds like the internet doesn’t it?

Today a website is a website is a website. There are thousands of new sites every day and if my own web surfing is any measure, fewer and fewer of them are worth a damn. Perhaps we’re seeing the proliferation of a new day where the unique website is dead and the best you can hope for is to buy 67 domain names, put template-based websites up and hope for your .05 cents of revenue from Adsense.

Not gonna happen.

I mean, think of how many websites you’ve ever seen since the beginning of the internet. Lots and lots.

Now tell me how many sites are in your bookmark list. See?

Now, I’m not one to say that every site has to be different and designed by a $15,000 designer. There are millions and millions of websites and obviously the line is going to blur somewhere.

But having a generic site is not enough. A plug-n-play theme is not doing you, your site or your product any good at all.

If we can’t distinguish your site from another, it’s just another toothpaste, isn’t it?


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