Category Focus: A Real Beauty
Particularly in stores with a smaller space available for health and beauty ranges, it is essential to stock the best-selling products so shoppers won’t leave your store disappointed. Here, we take a look at Nivea’s latest innovations and successful brand strategy
Print15 July 2019
Premium skin care is expected to drive sales growth, according to the latest report by Euromonitor on ‘Skin Care in Ireland’, published just last month. The analyst reports skin care is expected to see marginally faster retail value sales growth over the five-year forecast period. Many Irish consumers heavily invest in their skin care routine as they seek products to make their skin look its best and particularly to prevent the anti-aging process.
Euromonitor adds that over the forecast period, anti-aging products and products that contain SPF are expected to be important for consumers. Younger-looking skin without invasive cosmetic treatment will continue to be in demand and a growing awareness that the damage and aging that the sun can do to skin will continue to see consumer demand for sun protection products to increase also.
The analyst likewise reports Nivea was the bestselling brand in 2018, with several innovations in 2017 that continued to be popular including its micellar water and double-effect eye make-up remover. Here, we look at the latest new innovations within Nivea’s portfolio and catch up with marketing manager Paddy Carmody to find out more about the factors behind the brand’s success.
Most powerful anti-aging range yet
This year, Nivea is bringing Q10 and Creatine to the forefront of skincare with the launch of new Nivea Q10 Power – the most powerful anti-ageing range yet.
With cell-active Q10 and 10 times more Creatine versus previous Q10 formulas, it’s clinically proven to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Nivea Q10 Power Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Day Cream replenishes the skin’s own nutrient reservoir with cell-active Q10. Its comprehensive UVA/UVB protection with SPF 15 guards skin from the damaging effects of sunlight.
Nivea Q10 Power Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Night Cream helps to regenerate skin while you sleep by replenishing the skin’s own nutrient reservoir with highly concentrated Creatine and Q10, and providing the skin with intensive moisture.
Nivea Q10 Power Anti-Wrinkle + Pore Refining Day Cream is specially developed for combination skin. Enriched with algae extract, it refines the skin to visibly minimise pores.
Nivea Q10 Power Replenishing Serum Pearls are based on a unique, patented formula with Q10, Creatine and Hyaluronic Acid. When activated, the pearls fuse with the moisture gel, melting into a silky serum, allowing the innovative formula to penetrate the skin.
Nivea Q10 Power Eye Cream reduces the appearance of wrinkles, firms the skin around the eyes and visibly alleviates dark circles, for noticeably smoother and brighter skin arounds the eyes.
Nivea Q10 Power Sleeping Melt-In Mask provides skin with overnight nourishment when used 2-3 times a week. The fast absorbing and velvety formula leaves skin with a healthy glow.
Q&A WITH PADDY CARMODY, Beiersdorf marketing manager, Ireland
Paddy Carmody, Beiersdorf marketing manager, Ireland
Q: What are the key factors responsible for Nivea’s success as Ireland’s number one skincare brand?
A: At Beiersdorf we look at everything through four lenses: Brand, retailers, shoppers and consumers. I would like to think that to achieve and hold the position of being a number one brand you need to win the hearts and minds of all four targets. Some of the key factors for our success would be:
A loved and trusted brand: Our consumers see us as professional skin experts but also as a caring and trusted brand. A lot of brands strive for trust, but this is something that is extremely hard to ‘buy’. We would hope that over the years we have proven ourselves time and time again, leading us to become ‘Europe’s Most Trusted Skincare brand’.*
Consumer centricity: One of the main reasons that we maintain our number one position year after year is because we stay close to our consumers and the markets we play in. Our NPD is based on real consumer needs. In other words, we give the consumer what they want. For example, we are Ireland’s number one body brand but recently our consumers told us that our bottles aren’t big enough, so we introduced larger sizes and added bottle pumps to make it easier for our Irish consumers to use our amazing products.
Think global, act local: Even though we are a global brand, we make an effort to be local. This allows us to work with the partners such as Electric Picnic, Ireland AM and Joe.ie among many others. I think the Irish consumer appreciates that we speak to them with an Irish tone of voice as opposed to solely through global platforms.
Retailers as strategic partners: For every launch we have our ‘retail customers’ at the heart of everything we do. This means that when we launch any NPD, we support it with a 360-degree communications plan to ensure that we create awareness of our product, excite our consumers and educate our consumers on the benefits of our products. We also give our retail customers the tools to help them unlock category growth.
Q: As Nivea’s new MicellAir range demonstrates, Nivea is clearly a strong believer in investing in scientific skin technology. How do you ensure the brand continues to deliver cutting-edge products?
A: Consumer centricity and investing in research: We call ourselves the inventor of modern-day skincare. In our Nivea manifesto, we talk about staying close to consumers and markets and this ensures that our consumers are at the heart of anything we do. The reason we are having such success with our NPD launches is because the hard work has already been done several years prior by our fantastic research and development team who are constantly pushing boundaries and launching ground-breaking innovations. For example, we were the first mass brand to launch sun protection and men’s skincare.
Q: How important is packaging in encouraging sales within the health and beauty sector?
A: You can have the best formula in the world but if the packaging isn’t strong then it will never sell. When time spent in-store or online is at a premium, you need to catch the eye of the shopper straight away and this is why packaging is so important. In health and beauty, a lot of our products need to have information on the packaging to explain what it does and how it can benefit the skin.
Q: How significantly has Nivea invested in marketing the brand in 2019?
A: Thankfully, at Beiersdorf, our global board appreciates the benefit of marketing and therefore we are seeing year on year increases to our budget when a lot of our competitors are cutting their marketing budgets. Again, this is why you are seeing Nivea launch fantastic NPDs as we have invested into our NPD pipeline and then used our marketing budget to communicate our products’ benefits to consumers.
Q: How does Nivea ensure it gets pricing right for the brand’s target audience?
A: Nivea is seen as the skincare expert and we see ourselves as being the skincare brand for everyone, everywhere, every day. Thus, we want to stay as a mass skincare brand. This allows everyone the opportunity to buy our great products and to feel good in their skin every day.
Q: While the men’s health and beauty sector has evolved hugely in the past decade, what can be done to drive further sales within this category?
A: Penetration and education are key here. The men’s toiletries categories, such as deodorant and shower, have high penetration levels but the men’s skincare categories have very low levels of penetration. As Ireland’s number one men’s skincare brand it is our role to grow the category for our retail partners and penetration is what is needed.
The reason I mention education is that there is a greater role for education when it comes to male consumers, who are often less aware of the benefits of cleansing and looking after their skin.
For example, men who just use shaving products are missing out on the perfect shave by not cleansing their skin with a cleanser and then caring for their skin after shaving with a moisturiser or after shave balm.
Fans 0
Followers