History of Lucky Toothpaste

The concept of toothpaste was non-existent in Korea, until after liberation from Japanese colonialism in1945. The Korean people mostly used their fingers and salt to brush their teeth. 

The US troops deployed in Korea were the source of the introduction of toothpaste, however, only the minority of privileged and wealthy people were able to use it. 

Toothpaste was a luxurious product up to the mid-1950s until the first domestic toothpaste product was developed by Rakhee Chemical Company, which has now evolved to LG Chemical. 

The company first sold toothbrushes but soon understood that without affordable toothpaste, people would not be willing to buy toothbrushes. Thus, for the sake of profiting from both complementary goods, Rakhee Chemicals decided to mimic Colgate, which was the only existing toothpaste product at the time. 

After repeated failures of mixing ingredients and experimentation to develop toothpaste with the same quality of Colgate, “Lucky Toothpaste” was finally ready to hit the markets. 

However, the consumers’ interest in the product was lower than expected, due to the consumers’ mistrust against domestic products. To overcome this problem, the company used various marketing strategies such as using slogans like “ingredients and formula as the US” and “let’s use home-made toothpaste on home-made toothbrushes,” and gave out 100,000 sample products to visitors at business fairs. 

As a result, after three years in 1958, Lucky Toothpaste rose up to be the leading brand in the toothpaste market of Korea. It became a common practice for Koreans to use toothbrushes and toothpaste.

To expand the market, Lucky Toothpaste aired public service advertisements which ended up functioning as a ‘campaign of enlightenment.’ The people were informed of the benefits brushing one’s teeth had on dental health and how this good habit helped in with cavities and gum diseases. The sales grew as the awareness expanded. 

Though it had some competition along the road, good marketing strategies and also unintended help from governmental polices – which prevented development of new products due to inflation concerns – Lucky Toothpaste remained monopolizing the toothpaste industry in the 1960 through the late 70s. 

In the early 80s, the Rakhee development team created Perio toothpaste which was an advanced version targeting the middle and high class consumers who were not using Lucky toothpaste. 

The aluminum tubes were replaced with plastic tubes, the first blue coloring and medical effects which ‘prevented’ dental diseases made Perio overtake 40% of the toothpaste market within the first year of launching. Perio also continuously upgraded and strengthened the effectiveness and the design, actively responding to the consumer’s needs. 

From the late 1990s, a variety of different toothpaste brands entered the market and Perio’s stronghold was shaken by other competitors. The threat was faced with LG’s diversification of the same Perio product into three products with different functions: gum, breath, and cavity care. This helped the partial recovery of LG’s toothpaste market share.