Information for Manufacturers
Leverage the marketing power of the world's strongest oral health brand
Smile Healthy leverages the marketing power of the most highly recognized brand in the important oral health category. As a certified product manufacturer, you will have the brand power of one of the world's most trusted names in health care. And you can do this at a time when consumers are focused as never before on their health, both oral and overall. Smile Healthy can strengthen your brand, differentiate your products, increase sales and highlight your company's social responsibility. |
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The Smile Healthy logo on products such as fluoridated bottled water and various foods and beverages tells consumers the product promotes oral health and has met rigorous performance and testing standards.
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Reasons to pursue certification
The public knows the American Dental Association. Its Seal of Acceptance program, launched more than 50 years ago, is the gold standard for oral health care products. Your products profit from an association with this powerful brand.
The Smile Healthy program's distinctive logo integrates a stylized smile with the Smile Healthy name and ADA logo. Consumer research on the logo drew responses such as eye-catching, happy, friendly, cheerful, believable and memorable. The Smile Healthy brand cuts through marketing clutter to serve as an emotional tiebreaker among undifferentiated products, services and brands.
That same research found that the Smile Healthy concept benefits from the high awareness, credibility and overall equity of the ADA brand. Most participants are aware of and impressed by the professionalism and ethical standards the ADA projects through its activities and endorsements. There also is a clear and persistent halo effect around the Smile Healthy program, with the ADA's positive image strongly inspiring consumer confidence.
The ADA enjoys an impressive 84 percent level of consumer awareness. Survey respondents saw the Smile Healthy program on a par with the American Heart Association's Heart Healthy check mark logo as a valuable and important decision-making tool. Further, when it comes to purchase intent, a full 57 percent said they were more likely to buy products bearing the Smile Healthy logo than those without the logo.
All Smile Healthy program revenue will go to ADA Foundation causes, such as access to care for the underserved, dental education, research and public education on oral health issues. All this will build goodwill for the licensee and the ADA.
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What consumers think
Most consumers are positively disposed toward certification programs on two levels: they often use the certification or affiliation as a way to help differentiate between products or brands, and the certification program is an endorsement that often serves as an emotional tiebreaker between undifferentiated products/brands.
"There are so many products available on the market today. A bit of added guidance helps."
"They make me feel like the companies/brands have my best interest at heart."
The program suggests a product or brand has undergone some type of testing or rigorous evaluation and has earned recognition for it. This suggests the product or service may be of higher quality and therefore has a higher perceived value.
"It makes me more confident when buying a product—that it will be good for me."
"I look for the endorser. If a company has established the seal, I look at it solely as a branding tool. If it's from an outside organization, it has more credibility,"
ADA is among the certification elite. The ADA and its Seal of Acceptance enjoy broad awareness and recognition as one of the gold standards of the industry. There is wide awareness and acknowledgment of the ADA and its oral health mission. Nearly all participants are aware of the organization.
"They have established ethical practices for the [dental] profession."
"I believe they are also involved in setting standards for the profession, re: training, establishing guidelines and recommended practices, etc."
For many respondents, the ADA Seal of Acceptance is the epitome of believability and credibility.
"If it's a Seal of approval from an unknown entity I don't know if I can put a lot of faith in it, but if it's the ADA or the AHA, I feel I can believe it."
"It has the stamp of approval from the ADA. I only purchase ADA products."
"It assures me that I am getting a quality, researched, effective product."
For others, it appears to help assuage reservations about marketing-based certification programs.
"We hold the dental association in high esteem and believe they are honest and can't be bought by big corporations. We are benefited by the seal."
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The ADA Smile Healthy program and fluoridated bottled water
More and more consumers are drinking bottled water, whether for their health, convenience or social cachet. Some even forgo tap water entirely for bottled water. But if bottled water is the main source of drinking water, the tooth-decay-preventive benefits of fluoride also are usually foregone. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps prevent tooth decay, but usually isn't in bottled water in amounts sufficient to benefit oral health (.7-1.2 parts per million).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proclaimed community water fluoridation one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century, along with vaccines and infectious disease control.
For more than 50 years, the American Dental Association has endorsed fluoridation of community water supplies and use of fluoride-containing products as safe and effective measures to prevent tooth decay. To ensure optimal fluoride intake, the ADA urges its member dentists to educate patients about the level of fluoride in bottled water and inquire about their primary and secondary water sources. The ADA supports labeling of bottled water with the fluoride concentration and company contact information. The ADA also advises consumers to check bottled water labels to see if fluoride is added.
According to the CDC, about two-thirds of the U.S. Population—170 million people—served by public water systems have access to fluoridated water. The ADA believes fluoridated bottled water could play an important role in bringing the benefits of fluoridation to tens of million more people. And with its Smile Healthy program, the ADA can now make it easier for consumers to see which bottled waters are fluoridated and to enjoy the decay-preventive benefits of fluoridated water. The Smile Healthy logo on bottled water also tells consumers that the product has been tested to ensure the water contains appropriate amounts of fluoride.
Under the Smile Healthy program, the ADA will grant manufacturers who comply with all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for fluoridated bottled water the right to identify their fluoridated bottled water products with the ADA's Smile Healthy logo.
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