Shreya Vengurlekar

18BSP1135

Week 1:
• Choose a product- Nivea Lotion
• Explain Logo, Slogan(tagline), Mascot for brand (or product), State Buying
motives/Incentives to purchase products

Named from the Latin words “nix, nivis”, meaning “snow white”, NIVEA was and remains the
flagship product of the company by the same name – a white skin care crème designed to
promote skin health and appearance. This crème was originally introduced in 1900, and over one
hundred years later the German personal care bran has only grown, improving on that original
formula and building a family of skin care products to surround and complement it. The NIVEA
brand is one of the most recognised skin and beauty care brands in the world. NIVEA crème was
first introduced in 1911 and the NIVEA brand now extends to 14 product ranges worldwide from
sun care to facial moisturisers, deodorant and shower products.
Logo Explanation- In its almost 100-year history, the box has gone through numerous designs.
The famous eye-catching blue that is now inextricably linked with the brand, is one of the very
rare color marks protected worldwide. Meanwhile, the NIVEA brand has established itself on all
fronts in the cosmetics industry, apart from the also-classic body lotion she produces vast series
of shower gels, shampoos, hair styling products and creams for all skin types.

Slogan- It starts with you.

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Brand Ambassador- Nivea India has named Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu as its latest brand
ambassador, according to a report published by Brand Equity dated April 10, 2018.

Before April 10, 2018, the brand Ambassador is Anushka Sharma for Almost 6 years.

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 Week 2:

• State Target Market for Product

A business needs to set its overall direction for the company through a business plan. This plan
sets out how the company is to achieve its aims. The aims and objectives of a business inform
and shape its business plan. A vital part of the overall business plan is the marketing plan.
Segmentation:
• Demographic- Nivea is Personal skin care product and is mostly an Urban Care Product
i.e mostly used in urban cities.
• Behavioral- Nivea is among the top skin care brand in the world.
• Demographic- Middle class all age groups for skin care
• Psychographic- Lifestyle i.e looking and feeling good by using the product.
Segmentation and Targeting:

Women Men
AGE 18- 25 26-32 33 & ABOVE 18- 25 26-32 33 & ABOVE
INCOME Low Medium High Low Medium High
LIFESTYLE Medium High High Medium High High
PRICE SENSITIVE High Medium Low High Medium Low

The chart is self-explanatory, discusses the different people in different age groups and their
responses towards the different aspects.
Positioning and Brand Value- Positioned in the platform of "Gentle Care" and “Wellness".
High Quality

. Nivea
. Olay . L’Oréal
. The Body Shop . Dove

High Low
Price Price

. Rexona
. Clean and Clear
. Fair and Lovely
Low Quality

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The main sections of the plan covers:

• SWOT and competitive analysis to assess where the business or brand is currently and
what competitors are doing.
• Objectives what the plan needs to achieve
• The marketing strategy how the objectives will be achieved.
• Sales forecast by how much sales are likely to increase.
• Budget how much the marketing activities will cost and how the plan will be financed.
• Evaluation how outcomes will be monitored and measured.
There is no set model for a marketing plan. The structure of the plan and the amount of detail
will depend on the size of the brand, the timescale involved and how the market and economy is
behaving.
The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers
of the Nivea to develop four types of strategies:
1. SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
2. WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
3. ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
4. WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies
Step by Step Guide to Nivea SWOT Analysis:
Strengths of Nivea – Internal Strategic Factors:
As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Nivea has numerous strengths that help it to
thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing
markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on extensive research – some of the
strengths of Nivea are –

• Highly successful at Go to Market strategies for its products.

• Superb Performance in New Markets – Nivea has built expertise at entering new markets
and making success of them. The expansion has helped the organization to build new
revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the markets it operates in.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Nivea has invested in building a strong brand
portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Nivea just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be
extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Nivea is
investing huge resources in training and development of its employees resulting in a
workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Nivea is relatively successful at execution of new
projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue
streams.

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 • Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling
the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
• Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers &
acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past
few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.

Weakness of Nivea – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Nivea can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and
weakness are the areas where a firm can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its
competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

• Limited success outside core business – Even though Nivea is one of the leading
organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments
with its present culture.
• Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different
geographies the company is planning to expand into, Nivea needs to put more money in
technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in
technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
• The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in
the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Nivea has to build
internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these
challenges.
• Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid
asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is
doing at present.
• Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed
opportunities compare to its competitors. One of the reason why the days inventory is
high compare to its competitors is that Nivea is not very good at demand forecasting thus
end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Nivea are below the industry average.
• There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a
new competitor a foothold in the market.

Opportunities for Nivea – External Strategic Factors

• The new technology provides an opportunity to Nivea to practices differentiated pricing

strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with
great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.

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 • Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Nivea products
by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new
technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Nivea an
opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A
comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil
drilling machines.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable
credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Nivea.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Nivea
to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the company has invested
vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales
channel for Nivea. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by
knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
• New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for
all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Nivea to drive home its
advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.

Threats Nivea Facing - External Strategic Factors

• Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing
physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous
fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Nivea’s product
especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the
China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Nivea.
• As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations
especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.
• The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event
during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium
term.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Nivea profitability.
• Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the
industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability
but also on overall sales.

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Week 3:

• State Product Strategy for Product

Product Concept

Core Product Expected Product Augmented Product

Products are the backbone for Nivea. In order to come up with products, once should understand
about the market and what the market wants from the company. This is what Nivea works upon.
They do extensive market research to understand what people want from Nivea. They adopt
various techniques to gather information such as directly from customers or through product
testing. One such example includes introduction of Nivea Visage that targeted girls between the
age group 13 to 19 years. This added to the success story of Nivea. Product line consists of skin
care products, face care and personal care products. Under Skin care, it has Nivea crème, Nivea
body, Nivea Hand and Nivea Baby. Under face care, it has Nivea Visage, Vital. Lip care and Nivea
for men. Personal care includes Nivea Deo, Nivea bath care and hair care. This explains the
product strategy in the marketing mix of Nivea.

The emotional values associated with the Nivea brand have changed little in the last 90 years.
'Nivea Cares for Your Skin' encapsulates Nivea's brand values. These values are communicated
via clean, fresh, healthy and positive imagery in all Nivea's promotional material and
advertisements.

Nivea is dedicated to protecting the skin of the entire family; therefore family values form an
important aspect of its brand character. Nivea, however, is also stylish, contemporary and fashion
conscious, creating products that fit in with the latest cosmetic trends, such as the 'Pearl and
Shine' Nivea Lip Care balm. It is a tribute to the strength and years of experience of the Nivea
brand that it can appeal to consumers on so many levels.

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 Packaging

Labelling Decisions:

Label include the contents like what the product is made of, who should use it, instructions to
take care of, Price of the product, etc.

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Week 4:

• State Place Strategy for Product

Nivea is a global brand that has spread its product presence in more than fifty countries
worldwide with its headquarters based in Hamburg. The company has also opened a highly
developed skin research center at Hamburg.

It has a strong and powerful distribution channel that helps the products to reach consumer
markets quickly and efficiently. Its distribution network is cost-effective and thus helps in keeping
down the cost prices via the services of retailers, distributors, and wholesalers. Nivea has a
centralized distribution point. Products from different production plants arrive via contract
vehicles. These vehicles are in most cases used later for onward delivery of products to its retail
outlets. The company does not interact directly with small retailers but takes the help of
wholesalers for cost-expediency.

Nivea sells its commodities mostly via its retail outlets, spread across most parts of the country.
Products are easily available in grocery stores, discount outlets, convenience stores,
hypermarket, and supermarkets. Products from this highly-acclaimed brand are also available
online. Nivea does not sell products directly via its website as it is not cost-efficient for the
company to deal with small orders. Instead, it has taken help of other retailers to sell its own
products through their online stores.

Nivea has a very strong distribution channel. Distribution channel plays vital role to make the
products available to the customers. They do adopt various channels to reach out to the
customers. Customers can buy Nivea’s products online which means they themselves need to
take care of the promotional activities. But the mail channel for selling the products is the retail
outlets. They have many outlets spread across the country where customers can directly choose
the products based on his/her needs. It has been that around two-third of the sales happen
through high street shops such as boots and Superdrug. One-third of the Nivea sales happen
through grocery chains.

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Week 5:

• State Pricing Strategy for Product

Pricing strategy plays an important aspect of marketing mix. In order to achieve company’s
objectives, pricing should be done strategically to have required number of sales. Price of the
products mainly depends upon production costs. Nivea take care of its customers that they are
getting more value than what they are paying. When they’re launch their product Nivea Visage,
they brought it at higher prices because of new formula and packaging. There is a very unique
strategy adopted by Nivea with their retailers. They have made a rule that they will sell the
products to retailers at one price. Now, these retailers can in turn sell to customers at any price.
Thus, you can find prices do differ at different places.

Nivea is an established brand with good growth opportunities in emerging markets. It has placed
a highly qualified team for market research and the knowledge and understanding gained
through it has helped in formatting a suitable pricing policy. Day by day it has worked towards
increasing its market share by adopting well-defined pricing strategies. It has targeted the
middle-class section of a society to garner maximum customers for its products. The brand has
kept its prices reasonable so as to cater to a larger audience.

Nivea sells its products to retailers at a single set price and has adopted a constant pricing policy.
It is then up to the retailers to adopt a pricing strategy suitable for them. Most retailers have
maintained an affordable pricing structure so as to garner better revenues. In order to lure in
new customers and maintain previous ones, the retailers offer several incentives like discounts,
free gifts, free products and minimum pricing on bulk purchase.

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Week 6:

• State Promotional Strategy for Product

Nivea has become a known brand in global arena because of its excellent advertising policies.
Blue and White color on its packs have become synonymous with Nivea and has paved the way
for high brand visibility. It has apt taglines like 100 years of skin care for life and It helps protect
your skin. Nivea has adopted the above-the-line technique for marketing their products.

It has launched several ad campaigns via print, social and digital medium. Its ads are showcased
via newspapers, magazines, beauty magazines, television, and radio. The brand also advertises
heavily through e-portals and its official website.

The brand has launched its online magazine titled FYI – Fun, Young and Independent. Nivea also
follows below-the-line technique by actively participating in promotional events and trade fairs.
In the year 2008, it became the sponsors of Times Square New Year’s Ball Drop and later Carson’s
Countdown on New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly. In the year 2010, the launch of a new
productfeatured Touch, a song by famous singer Natasha Bedingfield, in its commercial. As part
of a commercial campaign to celebrate 100 years in existence, several programs were organized
by the brand featuring actress and singer Rihanna.

Nivea realizes the importance of celebrity marketing and has roped in several famous
personalities over the years to act as its brand ambassadors. Indian film actress Anushka
Sharma has been associated with this brand since last six years. Arjun Rampal is associated with
Nivea men products. Parineeti Chopra and recently Taapsee Pannu are its public faces. Nivea
Canada has appointed famous ice dancer Tessa Virtue as its ambassador.

Nivea products are best in the skin and beauty care segment. It is because of the product quality
that makes them the market leader. They use various promotional techniques to attract their
customers. They follow above the line marketing technique i.e. they go for TV advertisements.
They also follow below the line strategy such as trade fairs and promotional events. They also
come up with online magazine named FYI- Fun, Young and Independent. They also have presence
in social networking sites such as Facebook. This covers the entire Nivea marketing mix.

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Week 7:

• Summary
o What did you learn about the marketing of your product and the brand?
o What changes would you recommend regarding any of the 4Ps?

Through its successful use of a balanced marketing mix, Nivea Visage Young has managed to
create a clear position in the market. It addresses a need felt by a specific niche segment.
Traditional distribution methods are balanced by a unique product and updated promotional
strategies. This ensures that the brand message reaches the right people at the right time in the
right way.

As we see from the Nivea example, it is vital for any company to focus equally on all elements of
the marketing mix while planning for a product. Eventually, there may be a need to divert more
resources towards one variable such as strong distribution channels over promotional activities.
But this needs to come after a clear plan and strategy has been decided upon. An effective
marketing mix can mean the difference between a flash in the pan product and one that is bound
to become a well-loved classic.

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