Graph 1. Sample record of the interview with one stakeholder
In order to better understand the market, each member interviewed at least one parent who had a child suffered from caries. The questions were designed to ask for parents' previous experiences with dealing with children’s dental caries, their feedback, and their opinions on current governmental policies and medical services or products that target caries prevention and curing. Sample questions are as follows:
At the end, we collected a total of 15 pieces of interview records. To summarize, interviewees explained that the common strategies for dental caries treatment were applying fluoride and fissure sealants and then they conveys the hope of more awareness of oral hygiene.
The majority of the respondents were adults who had given birth (48.76%), followed by high school students (24.86%) and adults who had not given birth (17.78%). Middle school and primary school students account for less than 10%.
Figure 1. Survey result of the question: “What is your identification?”
Within adults who have given birth, the percentage of their children’s ages are as follows (from highest to lowest by percentages): high school students (43.14%), primary school students (25.49%), kindergarten students (24.71%), and finally middle school students (19.61%). The percentage of high school students is slightly higher, but overall the percentages are relatively average.
Figure 2. Survey result of the question: “What is your child’s age range?”
The ratio of male to female respondents was about 3:7 (160:360). Non-binary gender respondents were not counted in the survey because the sample size is too small (4) to be representative.
Figure 3. Survey result of the question: “What is your gender?”
The vast majority of the respondents lived in urban cities (87.38%). The percentage of respondents living in county towns, rural areas, and abroad are 7.65%, 2.49%, and 2.49% respectively. Among parents with children, 90.23% live in cities. The survey is not considered to be accurate in categorizing areas of residence because there are fewer respondents in other areas.
Figure 4. Survey result of the question: “Where you live in?”
Of all respondents, 62% clearly stated that they had had dental caries, with 63% indicating that they had had two or more, showing the high prevalence of this disease. The actual probability may be higher than this data because dental caries occur more often during childhood, and there might be a great possibility of memory bias.
People generally use oral cleaning products frequently, and the potential market for designing the final product as a portable oral cleaning product is large.
Figure 5. Survey result of the question: “ How often do you use the oral-cleaning products?”
Figure 6. Survey result of the question: “How often do you brush your teeth?”
Figure 7. Survey results by cross-analyzing the gender question and the effect of the caries question
Gender has no significant effect on the cognition of dental caries, showing that the subsequent scientific articles do not need to be gender-specific.
Figure 8. Survey results by cross-analyzing the residence question and the effect of the caries question
Whether in cities, counties, or abroad, there are still at least 35% of people whose knowledge about dental caries is not accurate, which demonstrates the need for scientific education activities.
Figure 9. Survey results by cross-analyzing the residence question and the preference question to
private clinics or public hospitals
People living in cities and abroad are more likely to take their children to private clinics for dental caries than in counties and rural areas. There was a significant positive correlation between the economic level and the choice of private clinics. If our BTL (Below The Line) works with a private clinic, the client is more likely to have financial strength.
Figure 10. Survey results by cross-analyzing the gender question and the information source question
regarding dental caring
Dentists and scientific articles were the dominant sources of dental caring information, having no significant difference between the sexes. This data demonstrated the feasibility of the promotion approach of applying for health insurance, collaborating with clinics, and promoting scientific articles online. As for specific channels, WeChat will be the main platform in China, and we can spread educational and scientific information through WeChat Official Account.
If a new product that can both scientifically and efficiently prevent and treat dental caries emerges on the market, the average maximum acceptable price for parents is 62.79 RMB. For parents living in the city, the figure is 63.44 RMB. Thus, we can set the price at around 60 RMB in our business plan.
The average satisfaction of the respondents with government policies on the prevention and treatment of dental caries was 2.8 out of 5 with 1 being very unsatisfied and 5 being very satisfied, indicating that there is a large market for our products.
Figure 11. Survey result of the question: “How do you feel like the government’s current policies and
measures on public dental health?”
Among the respondents who have given birth, 92.55% of them have bought toothpaste fo their children while 40.39% also bought mouthwash and 9.02% bought others. This reflects that for the existing market of anticaries products, toothpaste is very widespread, and mouthwash products also have a large potential market, but other categories are less popular (dental floss, water dental floss, dental flushing, medical services, spray). Therefore, the final product is recommended to be in the form of toothpaste or mouthwash.
Figure 12. Survey result of the question: “What kind of products have you bought for your children for
caries prevention?”
Parents were slightly more inclined to use health insurance in public hospitals, but private hospitals also accounted for 38.43%, indicating the feasibility of business cooperation with private clinics.
Figure 13. Survey result of the question: “If your child is caught dental caries, would you prefer to the
private hospital at your own expense or the public hospital paying by medical insurance?”
Graph 2. Virtual Interview with Dr. Wang
In order to ensure the feasibility of our experiment design and further optimize our experimental technique, we interviewed Dr. Qingzhuo Wang, who is an expert in the fields of microbial research and genetic engineering. Our interview mainly surrounded three issues: the current advantages and disadvantages of biosynthesis, the preservation and bio-transformation of our product reagents, and the way we construct our final product.
Dr. Wang provided that, compared to chemical synthesis, present biosynthesis techniques have relatively lower efficiency, a higher cost in development, and a higher requirement for the preservation and transportation of bacteria, which requires low temperature. Yet, the advantage of biosynthesis is that it has a low requirement during maturity, a high biotransformation rate, and great potential in the future. He pointed out that the main problem of chemical synthesis products in the field of curing caries is that they can only present treatment in a physical form. Therefore, traditional dental drugs’ efficiency is limited due to their inability to penetrate the biofilm in Streptococcus mutans. This, then, is the problem we aim to solve through biotechnology. Dr. Wang also informed us that biosynthetic product usually allows additives, including flavorings, without affecting the final effect. This characteristic is very beneficial to our product since our target consumer is mainly children, who would prefer products with flavorings. Finally, Dr. Wang reminds us that bacterial agents have a certain risk such as triggering an immune response, and therefore we will need clinical tests to confirm the safety and risk of the product to see if they can be applied to our target consumers.
Graph 3. Virtual Interview with Doctor Liu
Since our final product is related to oral hygiene, meaning that more professional knowledge and data in this field are required, we interviewed a oral doctor. Liu YeFei, who graduated from School of Stomatology in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This interview were divided into three main parts - social data, product design, production, and oral treatment.
In terms of social data, we asked about contemporary attitudes and treatment of dental caries among children and parents. According to the economic differences in different cities, doctor Liu explained, parents' awareness of the prevention and treatment of dental caries is also very different. The governments of first-tier cities, such as Shanghai, also have better oral medical resources and government benefits than second-tier and third-tier cities, such as fluoride coating. Even the caries incidence rate of 5-year-old children can be as high as 71.9%, and the caries rate is lower in the more developed areas alone. For the treatment and prevention methods, doctor Liu's suggestions also gave us a lot of inspiration. For example, different age groups require different products and treatment methods, and it is especially important to note that children under the age of 6 are not suitable for fluoride-containing products. In the current market, bioactive glass and nano-hydroxyapatite can be used to replace fluoride to be added into the toothpaste for preventing children from dental caries but they require higher price. He pointed out that it will be our chance to develop such innovative product for children to prevent dental caries by applying biotechnology.
At the end of the interview, we also sought his suggestions for the design and form of our products. He suggested a design idea for our final product - lollipop/gel/spray. In view of the fact that we use biological genetic engineering to carry out preventive work, and do not involve dangerous chemical components, our products can be mainly aimed at children who are not suitable for fluoride products before the age of 6, and use children's favorite ways to do it. According to the idea of traditional oral treatment or prevention products, gels or sprays can be introduced as the product forms.
Graph 4. Product samples that Givaudan sent us for discussion
Graph 5. Online meeting with Givaudan
Givaudan is a Swiss fragrance company that focuses on the concept of the aroma market. Its oral line is used for perfumery and fragrance making for various brands of toothpaste on the market. This interview mainly talked about the growth and proportion of the toothpaste market, the innovation of oral products, the goal of children's toothpaste and the environmental protection of products.
Yunnan Baiyao, Darlie, Crest, Colgate and Shuke are the top five toothpaste brands in China. In addition to the anti-caries function, other best-selling points of toothpaste are whitening, gum protection, anti-sensitivity and fresh breath, among which the whitening function accounts for the most, 23.7%. In China toothpaste’s growth is not that fast, but with a lot of innovation. Newer oral products, such as mouthwashes and mouth sprays, have arisen wildly, in all types and forms. But for children's toothpaste, the main function is to prevent dental caries. Regards to whitening, anti-sensitivity and other functions, they are less considered because the safety of the functional ingredients will be concerned. The current oral products for children use mainly focus on high safety and the naturalness of their ingredients, such as adding appropriate probiotics to balance the oral flora and the taste is kine to like fruit and dessert flavor. Today's oral products are very diverse, such as different aromas, packaging, flavors, endorsements, discoloration and content of paste, service customization, and endless marketing methods such as brand co-branding, milk tea-flavored toothpaste, festival co-branding, etc. Some products will be printed on the package with an open and transparent formula to demonstrate their health and safety. The main eco-friendly package is to use refills or eco-friendly paper bags. Environmentally friendly packaging can use degradable fibers to achieve sustainable development. Other ways of environmental protection to deal with the packages include recycling programs or using the consumed packages as toys and decorations. After this discussion meeting, we had a deeper understanding of the oral products’ marketing and we were also inspired on how to design and implement our final product.
Graph 6. Team daily seminar
In order to maintain the same pace between dry lab work and wet lab work, we took rotation to proceed with team tasks. Therefore progress was able to flow between dry lab and wet lab fluently due to this special arrangement. That is, there are no distinct borders between the members of the dry lab and wet lab, which means everyone had a profound experience of each team's work. Still, we met every afternoon and summarized our progress each day in order to ensure everyone was caught up.
