Nivea : Gentle Care

Brand : Nivea
Company : Beirsdorf AG (JL Morrison in India)
Agency: TBWA

Brand Count : 147

Nivea is a German brand marketed in India by JL Morrison. This brand has a history of
around 96 years. Nivea came into existence in the year 1911. The brand has derived its
name from the Latin word Nivius meaning "Snow White".

Nivea has been in Indian market for more than 30 years. But this brand which is truly a
global brand has not met with success in India. Nivea globally is the brand that has its
presence in around 20 product categories in more than 50 countries. But in the 1300
crore Indian skin care market, the presence of Nivea don't justify its rich heritage.

Nivea is famous worldwide for its face cream. Nivea Creme created by Dermatologists
was launched in 1911 . The brand is considered to be the first to take the skin care
category from the elite class to the masses. The brand worldwide is known for its Trust,
Reliability and Accessibility. Globally this brand is positioned in the platform of "Gentle
Care" and " Wellness". The brand has its elements of Color embedded firmly in the
minds of the customers. Nivea took its "Blue and White" color as its brand element as
early as 1924. From there onwards, this color scheme has been a brand identity for
Nivea.
In India, the brand is known for its skin cream. Nivea cream is but perceived as a winter
cream because of its thickness and oily consistency. While in other parts of the world,
Nivea has successfully came out of this narrow perception, in India, the marketers were
not able to effectively take the brand forward. With most of Indian stated do not have
severe winter, the market for winter cream is very limited.Nivea has a market share of
19% in the Rs 108 crore skin cream market which is dominated by Ponds.Now Ponds
hold the position which Nivea could have taken had it been more aggressive in the
market.

Although JL Morrison tried to extend the brand to soaps, the extension has not been

successful bec ause of the halfhearted effort. With

salespromotion now being used to promote this brand of soaps,further dilution of the
brand equity is inevitable.

Nivea face serious marketing issues in India. The brand has not been aggressive enough
in this market which is crowded with established brands. Nivea was never bothered
about strengthening its positioning as a skin care leader. While Pondssuccessfully
extended itself to other product categories, Nivea is stuck with its cream.This is a brand
that failed because of marketing laziness. Nivea have huge brand recall and equity. It
has the global parentage, successful positioning opportunity but was not able to leverage
the strength because the Indian marketers didnot want to invest in the brand. The
problem is that when the brand is licensed to a marketer in a country, the objective of
the brand manager will be to milk maximum out of the brand rather than invest in
longterm brand building. Every ads and campaigns will be weighed interms of the ROI
and sales growth. Successful brands required longterm investment that will yeild results
over a period of time. But in the case of Nivea, no such brand building efforts were to be
seen.

The potential of the brand is evident from the fact that in the Grey market, the brand is
sold well. There is also significant difference in the quality of imported Nivea and the
local one. It is said that Nivea Deo is the best selling product in the grey market.

Nivea is sad story of a brand that failed to succeed inspite of having all essential Brand
qualities. If failed because of marketing laziness.

source:rediff,brandweek,businesstoday,nivea.com

Labels: branding, failed brands, FMCG, Heritage Brand, marketing myopia, personal

care, soap brands
 Mercedes-Benz. In 1995 the German car giant opened a plant in Indiato produce
its E-class Sedan. The car, which was targeted at the growing ranks of India’s
wealthy middle class, failed to inspire. By 1997, the plant was using only 10 per cent
of its 20,000 car capacity. ‘Indians turned up their noses at the Sedan – a model
older than those sold in Europe,’ reported Business Week at the time. ‘Now Mercedes
has to reassess its mistakes and start exporting excess cars to Africaand elsewhere.’
 Lufthansa. Germany’s Lufthansa airline joined forces with Indian company, the
Modi Group, to launch a new domestic private airline, Modi-Luft, in 1993. However,
three years later ModiLuft had gone bust and Lufthansa filed a lawsuit against one of
the Modi brothers, claiming he had used funds obtained from the German company in
other ventures. In return, the Modi Group accused Lufthansa of charging too much
and of producing defective planes.
 Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola company understood that distribution was the key to
building a strong Indian brand. It therefore decided to buy out one of India’s most
successful soft drink companies and manufacturers of popular soda brand Thums Up.
However, although this gave Coca-Cola an instant distribution network, Thums Up
remained more popular than Coke for many years. Most Indians initially thought that
the new entryto the market wasn’t fizzy enough.
 Whirlpool. When Whirlpool launched its refrigerators on the Indian market, it
found the market unwilling to buy larger sizes than the standard 165 litres.
 MTV. When MTV India was launched, the aim was to bring Western rock, rap
and pop to the sub-continent. Now, however, the music policy has shifted to
accommodate Indian genres such as bhangra.
 Domino’s Pizza. Initially, Domino’s Pizza transferred its Western offerings
direct to the Indian market, but the company eventually realized that it had to bow
to local tastes, as Arvind Nair, chief executive officer at Domino’s Pizza India
explains. ‘Initially, our focus was to stay only in metropolitan areas, but in the last
two years we have felt the need to spread ourselves into “mini metros” and B-
category towns. We have also experimented with our taste options, especially when
we went into smaller towns. We have focused on more regional flavours now,’ he
says. As a result of this change of strategy, Domino’s came up with localized toppings
such as ‘Peppy Paneer’ and ‘Chicken Chettinad’. This move was greeted with a wry
smile from Domino’s main Indian competitor, US Pizza, which was the first to offer
local topping. ‘In 1995, when we offered tandoori chicken and paneer toppings, some
made fun of us saying, why not offer spaghetti and pasta toppings? The same
companies are now offering chole and spicy masala pizzas,’ says Wahid Berenjian,
the managing director for US Pizza. He told the Hindu newspaper Business Line that
US brands such as Domino’s made the mistake of thinking that US tastes are
universal. ‘You cannot change the taste buds that were developed more than a
thousand years ago,’ he said.
 Citibank. When Citibank entered the Indian market, the firm’s aim was to
target only high-income earners. But, in the words of the Business Line newspaper,
Citibank soon realized that ‘in India it makes sense to go the mass banking way
rather than the class banking way.’
 Lessons from Kellogg’s

 Do your homework. Why did Kellogg’s cereals have a tough ride inIndia? ‘It was just clumsy
cultural homework,’ says Titoo Ahluwalia, chairman of market research company ORG MARG
in Bombay.
 Don’t underestimate local competitors. Although Indian brands were worried they would
struggle against a new wave of foreign competition following the market opening of 1991, they were
wrong. ‘Multinational corporations must not start with the assumption thatIndia is a barren field,’
said C K Prahalad, business professor at theUniversity of Michigan, in a Business Week article. ‘The
trick is not to be too big.’
 Remember that square pegs don’t fit into round holes. When Kellogg’s first launched Corn
Flakes in India it was essentially launching a Western product attempting to appeal to Indian tastes.
Globalization may be an increasing trend, but regional identities, customs and tastes are as distinct
as ever. It may be easy for brand managers of global brands to view the world as homogenous, where
consumer demands are all the same, but the reality is rather different. ‘There is a bigger opportunity
in localizing your offerings and the smarter companies are realizing this,’ says Ramanujan Sridhar,
chief executive officer at Indian marketing and advertising consultancy firm Brand Comm.
 Don’t try and make consumers strangers to their culture. ‘The rules are very clear,’ says Wahid
Berenjian, the managing director for US Pizza (which has successfully launched a range of pizzas with
Indian toppings) in an article for the Hindu newspaper, Business Line. ‘You can alienate me a bit from
my culture, but you cannot make me a stranger to my culture. The society is much stronger than any
company or product.’ Brands who want to succeed in India and other culturally distinct markets need
to remember this.