NIVEA® is an
established name in high quality
skin and beauty care products. It is part of a
range of
brands produced and sold by Beiersdorf. Beiersdorf, founded in 1882, has grown to
be a
global company specialising in skin and beauty care.
In the UK, Beiersdorf’s
continuing goal is to have its products as close as possible to its
consumers,
regardless of where they live. Its aims are to understand its consumers in its
many different markets and
delight them with innovative products for their skin and beauty
care needs. This
strengthens the
trust and
appeal of Beiersdorf brands.
The business
prides itself on being
consumer-led and this focus has helped it to grow NIVEA into one of the
largest skin care brands in the world.
Beiersdorf’s continuing programme of
market research showed a
gap in the market.
This led to the launch of
NIVEA VISAGE® Young in 2005 as part of the NIVEA VISAGE range
offering a
comprehensive selection of products aimed at young women. It carries the strength
of the NIVEA brand image to the
target market of
girls aged 13-19. NIVEA VISAGE Young
helps girls to develop a
proper skin care routine to help keep their skin looking healthy and
beautiful.
The market can be developed by creating a good product/range and introducing it to the
market (product-orientated
approach) or by finding a gap in the market and developing a
product to fill it (market-orientated approach). Having
identified a gap in the market,
Beiersdorf launched NIVEA VISAGE Young using an
effective balance of the right
product,
price,
promotion and
place. This is known as the marketing mix or
‘four Ps’.
It is
vital that
a company gets the balance of these four elements
correct so that a product will
achieve its critical
success factors. Beiersdorf needed to develop a mix that
suited the product and
the target market as well as meeting its own business
objectives.
The company
re-launched the NIVEA VISAGE Young range in June 2007 further optimising its
position in the market. Optimised means the product had a
new formula,
new design,
new
packaging and a
new name. This case study shows how a carefully balanced marketing mix
provides the platform for launching and re-launching a brand onto the market.
