[JohnBooty]

When you see this, particularly on supermarket shelves, this is a deliberate attempt to crowd out other brands.

You're focusing on the micro ("WTF is each one of these ridiculous micro variations?") and not on the macro (Colgate is absolutely dominating that aisle, and fully 75% of the toothpaste choices are Colgate while Crest and Aquafresh fight over the scraps)

    It's frustrating and unnecessarily complicated.

This is also by design, more or less. If you give up and "just grab one" you're pretty likely to pick a Colgate, since that represents 75% of the options available and it's also one of the oldest and therefore most "trusted" brands. You can't exactly go wrong with a Colgate, right?

Of course some people will rebel, and say "screw Colgate" and pick some other brand, and some people will just literally pick the cheapest option no matter what.

But again, if I'm Colgate or whatever their parent company? I absolutely love the way that toothpaste aisle looks. 75% of it is Colgate Red and I bet the sales figures hew pretty closely to that.

[kwanbix]

I imagine it works if they are still doing it, but I think is worst. As soon as a brand comes with simpler naming, it can steal your customers.