Toothpaste firm squeezes out new products

Homegrown competition is quite serious, and the future of herbal medicine lies in the oversea as market, experts say.

But foreign markets have their own obstacles. Some countries have separate standards for herbal toothpaste. "That makes it harder for our integration into the local daily products market, because LMZ toothpastes are sold in drugstores," Lin said.

But, he said, "the fast developments in electronic commerce and express delivery systems save us a lot in marketing costs and extend our marketing network further at home and abroad."

"In spite of the great potentials of robust growth in other fields of our business and fierce competition in the toothpaste industry, we cannot discard the toothpaste brand. LMZ will lose its identity if people cannot find a tube of toothpaste carrying the brand," stressed Luo Huaiyu, vice-manager of LMZ's daily products department.

Last summer, with the powerful support of Zhong, LMZ launched its most expensive line of herbal toothpastes to date. Priced from 30 to 60 yuan, the products address such things as inflammation, bleeding gums and bad breath.

The new products, together with bright new packaging for LMZ's other toothpastes, are changes brought about by Zhong.

"I appreciate that Mr. Zhong attaches great importance to innovation and increased research and development," noted Huang Hualai, vice-director of the technological center of LMZ.

"We used 10 to 20 kinds of herbal medicines before in one tube of toothpaste. What we are doing now is to find the specific functions of certain kind of herbal medicines to make our products better targeted," noted Huang, team leader of LMZ's postdoctoral toothpaste research station. With 40 engineers, it's the only one of its kind in China.

Referring to the look of many Western products, Huang said, "It is easy to make the paste body dazzlingly transparent, which is held by many customers as a symbol of good toothpaste.

"But LMZ's toothpaste is organic light green that comes from the herbal medicines in it. The color is LMZ's best brand," he said.