NIVEA Marketing Communication Analysis

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MARKETING!COMMUNICATION!ANALYSIS!!

SPRING!2013!!

EMERSON!COLLEGE!

Marketing*Communication*Analysis* * *Siriwan*Siriwangsanti**

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NIVEA is the first brand and most important brand of Beiersdorf, a skin care company

originated from Germany. Beiersdorf’s corporate objective is to be the No.1 skin care brand

in the market and categories. The company plans to achieve such objective by strategically

using NIVEA as the star brand. NIVEA’s communication object is to strengthen NIVEA as

No.1 skin care brand and to modernize NIVEA brand image.

Recently, the company has announced Blue agenda as the brand compass, which focuses on

strengthening NIVEA brand. However, the company doesn’t reveal the details of this blue

agenda. According to NIVEA’s press release, the first move is to rebrand NIVEA, making it

more modernized. This is a reason why I am interested in tracking NIVEA because I used to

do NIVEA communication review for my client and it appears that NIVEA has always

relied on mass and traditional media for its communication strategy. Therefore, given an

updated brand direction, I’d like to see how other branding and marketing communication

strategy would be executed in accordance to the Blue Agenda.

In terms of company culture, NIVEA relies on research & development as a basis to create

new product to maintain its reputation of being superior, high quality, and innovative.

NIVEA also has an online platform that welcomes smart and creative minds worldwide in

helping developing the new products. The platform is called Pearlfinder. Yet, Pearlfinder is

a closed online community, which requires membership registration.

The target market for NIVEA is women aged 18-35. They have middle to high income.

They are self-empowered. They take care of their skin well for their own goodness and to

boost confidence. As a result, we rarely see NIVEA using celebrity as brand presenter.

The analysis of this report is based on a recent launch of NIVEA Stress Protect deodorant in

UK and Germany. The report will cover communication tools used in the campaign, which

are social media, mass media, buzz, and promotions. NIVEA seems to have an integrated

marketing communication that creates awareness and supports a message in a consistent

way. However, the awareness doesn’t necessarily convert to purchase, especially when the

product has a low involvement given its inexpensive price and low perceived risk.


Moreover, there are prevalent substitute products offered by competitors. Therefore,

consumer journey and touch points should not be ignored. By reaching every touch point of

consumer, NIVEA can keep consumers in a communication loop planned to guide to

product shelf and make a purchase. However, the analysis shows that NIVEA still has to

improve its integration of call-to-action and use of POPs to complete consumer journey,

which will eventually encourage product trial.

As for creative execution, NIVEA Stress Protect in UK and Germany uses the same

thematic TVC with minor adaptation. Yet, the BTL communication channels differ in terms

of the insight and content use i.e. in UK a date situation is used to illustrate product benefits

whereas in Germany becoming a suspect at the airport is used. Both creative executions

have their pros and cons. A date to remember launched during Valentines Day may be

relevant in a certain period of time, yet highly appealing. Suspect at the airport creates a

striking buzz, yet the spread is limited to one location, Hamburg area. No matter what

execution is used, a single message consistency and relevant marketing communication tool

are the top priority.

BRAND BACKGROUND

NIVEA was founded in 1911 by Beiersdorf, its German parent company that also owns

Eucerin and La Prairie. NIVEA was innovated by a discovery of Eucerit, a kind of

emulsifying agent, which made it possible to develop the world’s first stable oil-and-water

based cream.

The name NIVEA derived from the latin words, “nix and nivis”, which means snow. Given

a change in consumer lifestyles and supermarket boom, NIVEA substantially expanded its

skin care product range in 1930s with a support from its research and development division.

Today, NIVEA has launched more than 500 products under its umbrella brand, globally.

Such products are under NIVEA Bath Care, NIVEA Body, NIVEA Beaute’, NIVEA Hand

Cream, NIVEA Deodorant, NIVEA Visage, NIVEA Lip Care, NIVEA Hair Care, and

NIVEA For Men. 1 (beiersdorf.com)


CONTEXT ANALYSIS In this report, we will analyze the marketing communication strategy for the new NIVEA

Stress Protect launch in February 2013 in UK and in Germany. NIVEA Stress Protect comes

in three forms: roll-on, spray, and stick. The product claims to have 48 hours anti-perspirant

protection against sweat and odor. 2 (nivea.co.uk)

Customer Context

NIVEA Stress Protect is a low involvement product in the sense that the price range is

inexpensive, £2.10-£2.55 2; thus, consumers don’t necessarily have to think too much when

making a purchase. Moreover, a perceived risk from deodorant is unlikely significant when

compared to facial nourishing cream and hair cream color.

In terms of motivation, I would argue that having seen the communication campaign

(external factor) first motivates consumers. The communication exposure makes consumers

recognize the needs for the product, they may recall past experience (internal factor) and

realize that the current product could be the solution to their past problems.

Therefore, NIVEA must be able to define consumer touch points to trigger the needs.

According to Internetworldstats, people in UK and Germany are heavily on social media like

Facebook and Twitter. 3 (mashable.com) Hence, apart from relying on mass media to create

awareness, NIVEA must also utilize the social media to engage with consumers.

Business context

A current communication strategy for NIVEA tends to be more content-oriented rather than

media channel-oriented. NIVEA Stress Protect could have talked about its functional

benefits solely. Yet, the campaign used the fact that people sweat when they get stressed for

campaign execution. Then, media channel that can deliver the content is selected. In this

case, the channels are social media like Facebook and Youtube. Indeed, the awareness is

important to encourage trial and purchase. Therefore, mass media must be included to gain

brand coverage. The reason NIVEA is moving to social media is possibly because the brand

plans to modernize itself to keep up with consumers and where they are. The brand is not


only about message, advertising, and packaging, but also about communication channels

that can reflect the brand personality.

Deodorant by Unilever is the main competitor (Known as Degree in the U.S., Sure in the

UK, and Rexona in Germany). According to Mintel report in October 2012, Sure had the

highest deodorant brand value shares in the UK. 4 (marketingmagazine.co.uk) In terms of

communication strategy, Sure tends to rely on its brand heritage of being a long established

anti-odor and wetness. As for marketing communication, Sure uses online platform like

brand website and Facebook. But, the content is not engaging and interactive like NIVEA’s.

SURE online space is used for informative purpose such as promotion news and product

facts.

In terms of brand image, NIVEA is more feminine, soft, and caring. In most of the TVC,

woman in the ad is portrayed as taking care of herself well and there is always male

appreciation of woman beauty to confirm product performance. In contrary to Sure’s latest

communication launch of Sure Maximum Protection, woman is portrayed as strong and

independent. 5 (youtube.com)

Based on the current campaigns, NIVEA owns consumer engagement and blue color code

used across brand elements that consumers can easily associate with NIVEA as its

competitive advantage. The engagement is not only consumers’ entertainment, but also

embedded with product benefits.

Internal context

NIVEA values research as its base for product innovation. NIVEA was actually originated

by a research discovery of emulsions, which led to the development of oil-and-water base

cream. Moreover, NIVEA products are dermatologically tested and skin endurance proven.

External context

In order to maintain its brand promise of offering superior and innovative products, NIVEA

launched Pearlfinder online community to increase joint collaboration with smart and

creative minds worldwide. 6 (pearlfinder.beiersdorf.com) Yet, Pearlfinder is a close


community for only related parties. Pearlfinder members will be shared research knowledge

by Beiersdorf. At the same time, members can submit proposals, which will be

confidentially reviewed by Beirsdorf. And Beiersdorf will give feedback within eight weeks.

If the proposals catch an interest, Beiersdorf will contact members for cooperation and

members will be compensated with license payment for using the proposal.

Main communication needs

NIVEA has made a right decision to integrate social media in its communication campaign.

NIVEA Stress Protect in the UK has Youtube interactive VDO that allows users to explore

many different stressful situations on the date. While in Germany, the campaign started at

the airport creating buzz and is supported by interactive application on the website that

allows users to experience stressful games. The TVCs in both markets were launched to

create awareness and provide more information about the product. However, if consumers

search for more information on the Internet, there’s nothing much on NIVEA’s website. The

information provided is just a list of product ingredients and functional benefits, which is the

same message, delivered through thematic TVC. In addition, my friends in UK and in

Germany reported that they don’t see any POPs in the supermarket.

Therefore, NIVEA should have a communication plan that complete consumer journey. In

this sense, it should use more emotional contents on the Internet; for examples, having a

product review by bloggers and generating more conversation about the product on their

Facebook fanpage. Furthermore, key scenes and promotions could be used at POPs to

trigger recall and consumers’ impulse purchase.

Summary of context analysis

NIVEA Stress Protect is a low involvement product that emotional-driven approach tends to

be more effective in creating interest. Consumer journey is important in order to convert

interest to purchase that NIVEA has to make sure that it reaches every possible consumer

touch points. POPs or promotion is suggested to accelerate purchase decision. Nevertheless,

a message delivered in each touch point must be consistent. Communication channels must

also reflect the brand goal and personality such as social media as being modern and

Pearlfinder as be innovative company.


MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS GOALS AND POSITIONING

Corporate objectives

Currently, Beiersdorf and NIVEA don’t state its corporate objectives publicly. Hence,

implications from Chairman message are used for this assumption. The corporate objective

of Beiersdorf is to be No. 1 in skin care in its market and categories. The objective will be

achieved by increasing global presence and investment in product for superiority and

innovation. 7 (beiersdorf.com) Beiersdorf has a strategic business plan called “Blue agenda”

introduced in 2012 and will be effective in the next five years in which NIVEA brand is on

the focus. 8 (Bloomberg.com) Beiersdorf doesn’t reveal the details of the Blue Agenda plan,

but the first plan is to rebrand NIVEA logo and packaging to modernize the brand. The new

logo and packaging have been used in skin and body care categories since January 2013.

NIVEA’s positioning is superior, high-quality, and innovative products that people value

and enhance their lives.

In terms of communication, the objective is to strengthen NIVEA as No. 1 skin care brand

and new modern brand image. As discussed earlier, an integration of social media and

interactive platform are used to support brand goal and direction, internally and externally.

SEGMENTS, TARGETING, AND POSITIONS

NIVEA user profile is a woman aged 18-35. She has middle to high income. She takes care

of herself well. The reason she uses NIVEA is to enhance her skin care beauty, which gives

her a confidence when she has to go out or have an intimate moment. Given a technological

development trend, she is more Internet savvy. She is on social media like Facebook and

Twitter as means of seeking information. She is more self-empowered than inspired by

influencers. Everything she does is for her own goodness. We can see that NIVEA rarely

uses celebrity as brand presenter.

In terms of buying decision-making process, the model suggests that it starts with problem

recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase

evaluation 9 (Jill, P.167). However, in such a low involvement product like deodorant,

consumers may recognize the problem by having seen the TVC or print ads. It’s unlikely


that they will initially search for information about the deodorant. Instead, if the ad hits the

insights, they tend to skip to purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation. Then, they

may search for information about the product to confirm their purchase and share the

product experience to friends if the product is proven to be effective.

MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Given that NIVEA Stress Protect is consumer goods with a low involvement, both pull and

push-positioning strategy are essential in order for the product to be successful. A pull-

positioning strategy is used to create awareness to end consumers. 10 (Jill, P.295-301) The

core message proposition, stress protection, is supported and strengthened by the use of

social media to create a buzz in alignment with mass media to gain coverage. The push-

position strategy, distributing the product to retailers, is equally essential as product must be

available when consumers need it.

MESSAGE AND CREATIVE

The message is delivered consistently in every communication channel: from product name

(Stress Protect), interactive VDO, web application, and TVC. The only difference between

UK and Germany is creative execution. In UK, the message is delivered through insights of

“a date to remember” situation, which seems to target more on women. In Germany, the

message is delivered through stressful situations at the airport. Yet, the interpretation of the

event is the same i.e. when you stress, you sweat and NIVEA Stress Protect is your solution.

The improvements as mentioned earlier are to use emotional contents online and incorporate

POPs.

COORDINATED COMMUNICATION MIX (MESSAGES, TOOLS & MEDIA)


BTL channels work effectively in both markets as it triggers needs that consumers may not

think about. I like “A date to remember” in UK more because it creates curiosity. I was lured

to click on every button to see other stressful situation on the character’s date and it took me

about 10 minutes to view all the situations. Thus, engagement was achieved and the key

message was repeated VDO after VDO. Moreover, the campaign was launched during

Valentines Day, which is one of the most important days for women. Therefore, the time of

the launch even creates personal relevance , curiosity, and interest.

RESOURCES The campaign was created by Agency Republic Knucklehead in UK 11 (coloribus.com) and

by Felix and Lamberti in Germany. 12 (adsoftheworld.com) Given that two different agencies

working on the same product launch, it is very important that NIVEA is the center of

information sharing. NIVEA UK and Germany should share the creative execution to cross

check that the message delivered in two markets is consistent.

SCHEDULING & IMPLIMENTATION (see exhibit 22)

It was unclear of an exact date of when “A date to remember” campaign was launched. But

it appears that NIVEA UK generated conversation about what would be the perfect gift on

Valentines Day on its Facebook page at the end of January. Then, the interactive VDO was

launched some times around the Valentines Day. NIVEA also used Twitter to maintain

conversation. As for thematic TVC, it is assumed that it was launched at the end of January.

In Germany, it appeared that NIVEA Stress Protect was launched in January. NIVEA

Germany started the campaign by generating conversation on Facebook page since early

January. But, the contents were more related to everyday stress like stress from workplace.

Then, the VDO about the stress test at the airport was launched in February, followed by the

thematic TVC and web application.

I think it is smart that both markets don’t use the same creative execution to launch the

product because at the end of the day NIVEA Stress Protect is for any stressful events, not

limited to special day like Valentines Day.


ISSUES Two possible issues are more related to consumer personal . The first issue is emotional

immaturity on her date, which some women may feel that women should not be dominated

by the presences of men. The second issue would mental health i.e. what if he target at the

airport has a severe stress control condition. However, there is no significant health report

for such feedback at the moment.

EVALUATION & CONTROL

Social Media The use of social media effectively creates the buzz and the quick spread of the news. In

UK, NIVEA currently has 571,534 likes on Facebook and 8,815 followers on Twitter and in

Germany, 565,534 likes on Facebook. NIVEA generates an active conversation on this

social media, which guides consumers what to expect for the incoming news. It is a long-

term relationship with consumers in the sense that consumers can generate and motivate

contents to other consumers as well. In this way, the brand can engage with consumers,

while consumers have a reference group, creating a strong online community, which can

increase brand loyalty in the long run.

Mass Media The same thematic TVC is used in both markets to ensure message consistency and to

announce the launch of the product to a broader public. There are some minor adaptation in

Germany, which are basically voice over and some scenes insertions.

Promotions A bundle package is used to increase product trial; however, as far as I observed the

promotion is only limited to NIVEA online stores and it is not heavily announced in the

social media. Moreover, POPs are not used to strengthen awareness and encourage impulse

purchase.

BUZZ

The stress test in Germany seems not to have a high coverage since the buzz only occurred

at Hamburg Airport and shared through Youtube, which has only 239,155 views. Even


though the web application is used to sustain the buzz, I doubt the number of people playing

it. It is more like temporary entertainment, rather than triggering consumer needs.

The overall communication is effective in terms of creating awareness, but it is unlikely that

awareness can be converted to product trial or purchase since NIVEA doesn’t heavily focus

on promotion. And consumers can switch to competitor’s product for better offer like

promotions easily due to a lack of POPs to keep consumers with the brand in the last

moment of purchase.

FEEDBACK

By using the social media, NIVEA can easily monitor feedback through comments, likes,

shares, and views. In general, it seems A date to Remember in UK gains more positive

feedback. Many likers found it insightful in a sense that the situation reflects what happened

in their dates. And they found it very engaging because the ability to mess up the date made

them curious of what could have gone wrong. In the other hand, consumers in Germany

seem to have negative feedback for the stress test at the airport. They are concerned about

possible health risks. But, it is important to keep in mind that not all viewers on Youtube are

NIVEA target audience. Thus, some viewers may find the content relevant, some may not.

The feedback in German social media is excluded here because of the translation barrier.

In terms of sales, NIVEA can evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign by benchmarking

the sales of deodorant at the time when it only relied on mass media with the current

campaign, which has integrated with social media and buzz marketing.

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

Taken consideration of NIVEA brand direction to become more modernized, integrating

with social media and below the line is a way to go. Everything about the brand, how it says,

how it looks, and where it talks represents what the brand is. However, the bottom line of

every company is sales and profits. Therefore, it is imperative that the brand can reach

consumers through out their journey. Marketing communication tools must be used to

support one another in a consistent way. In this case, NIVEA has successfully selected the

tools e.g. social media, mass media, promotions, and buzz to deliver the message, but it


lacks a call-to-action support, which is POPs. Thereafter, NIVEA should improve in

reaching consumer touch points and providing engaging information on the Internet such as

bloggers and engaging informative contents.

The other market that NIVEA Stress Protect could expand to can be determined my

geography where the climate is hot and damp or by psychographics where people tend to

value social status and image as their priority, which may lead them to more stressful

situation to get to that value. Regardless of where the product may be launched, the most

important task of NIVEA is to project the brand in a single voice. Marketing communication

tools must be carefully selected to achieve the brand objective.

APPENDIX Brand background Exhibit 1: Self-analyzed NIVEA brand architecture

Context analysis Exhibit 2: NIVEA Stress Product

Exhibit 3: A rebrand of logo and packaging Exhibit 4: Sure as main competitor

Exhibit 5: Sure Maximum Protective TVC 2012

Exhibit 6: How Pearlfinder works

Marketing communications goals and positioning Exhibit 7: Beiersdorf company promise

Exhibit 8: Chairman newsletter from NIVEA annual report 2012

Coordinated marketing communication mix Exhibit 9: Thematic TVC used in UK and Germany

Exhibit 10: UK—Facebook conversation, 7-day question prior to Valentines Day

Exhibit 11: UK—Interactive VDO on Youtube, A Date to Remember Exhibit 12: Germany—Facebook conversation, every day stress

Exhibit 13: Germany—Buzz, Suspect at the Airport

Exhibit 14: Germany—Web application stress test

Exhibit 15: UK&Germany, promotion bundles with other products

Exhibit 16: UK website and Facebook Page

Exhibit 17: Germany: website and Facebook Page

Evaluation & Control Exhibit 18: UK—Facebook (See exhibit 15), Twitter Page, and Youtube Channel

Exhibit 19: Germany—Facebook (See exhibit 15),and Youtube Channel

Feedback Exhibit 20: UK Feedback

Exhibit 21: Germany Feedback (Webgrader is not available.)

Exhibit 22: Assumed scheduling and implementation timeline

NIVEA Marketing Communication Analysis

Business

Transcript of NIVEA Marketing Communication Analysis