Nivea: Centennial celebrations for the Crème de la Crème

Nivea, the global skincare brand from the German company Beiersdorf, has completed 100 years of its existence. afaqs! traces the brand's journey as it creams its way to a century.

When Nivea Crème was first introduced in 1911, it was a welcome luxury that added to women's limited dress-up routine comprising mere soap-and-water and talcum powder. Since then, it has evolved, and how! Today, it exists across almost all sub-categories that comprise the modern-day notion of skincare. afaqs! takes a look at the brand's history and development and traces the journey of the humble blue tin and the contents therein.

In a conversation with afaqs!, Rakshit Hargave, managing director, Nivea India, talks about the various positioning statements that the brand has adopted in India, so far. He tells afaqs! that Nivea is a 'single brand', because of which it possesses the legitimacy to extend itself to so many different categories of skincare, including moisturiser, deodorant, fairness product and as an anti-aging product.

"As far as I understand, Nivea has not adopted too many positioning statements for different variants, nor has it had too many taglines. It basically goes with a brand statement and the communication for individual categories works on product benefits. You won't find each product or category talking a different language. So, to that extent, there would be a certain limitation where you wouldn't find too many advertising statements," he explains.

The brand commands premium imagery in the Indian market. Nivea's core TG (target group) in India, specifically in terms of its communication, comprises people in the age group of 20-35 years, modern, socially-developed men and women, belonging to SEC B + onwards.

The brand has been available in India since the 1940s, but it is only in the past six-seven years that it has been available in so many different formats and variants. And, it has started investing heavily in various media in the past four-five years.

Currently, the brand's creative agency is Interface Communications, while Mediaedge:cia handles its media planning and buying duties.

'100 Years Better Skincare for Life'

On the occasion of its 100th birthday, Nivea has already rolled out a global campaign, '100 Years Better Skincare for Life', centered around the values that have been associated with the brand for generations, namely, trust, honesty, reliability, quality and family.

Hinged on the platform of 'care', the Indian campaign featuring the brand's key bodycare product lines -- body and deodorant -- will merge with the international communication and the product benefits will be articulated in a localised manner. Scheduled to roll out within the next couple of months, the Indian campaign -- which is slated to be very print-heavy -- will be played only across select media channels.

Around the second week of August, the 100-year celebration campaign will be available on the digital platform. The brand also has a lot of consumer engagement and activation plans in the pipeline.

Interestingly, the 100-year celebrations coincide with the launch of the brand's new manifesto that focusses on certain values that are common across all the variants of the brand. It is a superior brand key statement for Nivea, describing the qualities it stands for.

Different markets are playing out the communication in different manners. However, this brand manifesto is being adapted across different categories. Common templates plucked out of the global platform are being localised in terms of product benefits. For instance, whitening is a proposition typical of the Southeast Asian and Indian markets. Also, local Nivea websites will be adapted to the look and feel of the international campaign.

Down memory lane

Since its inception, the brand has innovated by tapping into the consumer insights that dominated the respective eras.

In 1911, pharmacist and entrepreneur Dr Oscar Troplowitz and dermatologist Dr Paul Gerson Unna created a new product -- the first stable skin cream based on a water-in-oil emulsion, which went on to become Nivea. A decade later, in 1922, Nivea was discovered by men; recognising the skincare needs of men before and after shaving, the brand introduced its first product tailored to the needs of the male consumers -- the shaving soap.

More than a decade later, in 1936, as women cast aside their corsets and the new 'beauty ideal' focussed on athletic bodies with healthy tans, Nivea promoted sun protection. The company's scientists conducted in-depth research into the effects of the sun's rays on the skin and the first sunscreen products, Nivea Nut Oil and Ultra Oil, were launched.

In 1958, Nivea's Sun Spray was launched; the brand developed Ultra Oil Spray, an easy-to-use spray oil, with a pleasantly light consistency that was in sync with the mindset of the generation.

Then, in 1963, Nivea revolutionised cosmetics with its emulsion concept for Nivea Milk. The brand developed a pioneering oil-in-water emulsion aimed at simplifying users' lives at a time when show of legs was just taking off on the fashion circuit. This was around the time Mary Quant caused a sensation by designing the mini skirt.

In tandem with changes in personal hygiene trends, Nivea launched its very first shower product in 1978, when weekly baths had been replaced by daily showers. By the 1980s, the cosmetics market was booming and most people had more than one jar of cream in their bathroom cabinet. It was the dawn of the age of specialist products. Thus, in 1982, Nivea Visage united the international brand family by launching a line of face care products.

More recently, in 1991, Nivea came out with its dual action deodorant, to cater to consumers who were beginning to demand high-performance products. The brand's alcohol-free deodorant line matched these expectations by uniting the brand propositions of both protection and care. In 1994, Nivea Soft -- the 'little sister' -- was launched because young women desired products that carried the propositions 'naturalness' and 'lightness'. Thus, a lighter, 'younger' version of the traditional Nivea Crème was introduced.

Evolution of the crème tin

Nivea's classic blue tin that is currently displayed across many design museums and collections across the world (alongside prestigious counterparts such as the Porsche 911 and Lufthansa logos), wasn't always blue. In 1911, it was yellow, decorated with fancy green Art Nouveau tendrils. The colour wasn't changed until 1925, the year in which the timeless blue and white tin made its debut.

The social changes that took place after World War I and the consequent change in the consumer mindset had a role to play in this packaging alteration. Sports and leisure activities became popular, ultimately also changing the concept of beauty. Adapting to the times, Nivea developed a look and feel, using blue and white -- colours that represented responsibility, trust and purity -- to translate its intangible brand values into a new, tangible design. Since the colour was changed, even the packaging has been far more than just an aluminium tin.

In the decades that followed, only minor changes were made to the wording on the lid, such that the tin could be adapted to prevailing contemporary tastes. For instance, the words 'For home and sports' were added in 1931.

Since 1959, an elegant cursive lettering was introduced for the word Crème. In 1970, the white circle around the edge of the tin disappeared. Interestingly, in 1992, a new font called Nivea bold was designed exclusively for the five letters, making up the Nivea logo that had appeared on the tin lid since 1959. It has also been embossed onto the lid since 2007.

'Category'cally Speaking

Hargave adds that today, skincare as a category has many segments, including men's deodorants, women's deodorants, the moisturising segment, cold creams (predominantly used in winter), body lotions, and a whole range of whitening, anti-aging and facewash products. Emerging niche sub-categories further include lip care and under-eye care.

Awareness about different skin types is high and there exist consumers with different wallet sizes. "The upper-end consumer wants something which is very advanced, while the lower-end wants something basic and functional. There's an absolute explosion happening in this category and there is constant upgradation as those from the lower level are moving to the upper level and the upper level consumers are getting more and more demanding," Hargave elaborates.

He adds that today, skincare is one of the most competitive categories from a product, as well as a media perspective.

Given this competition, what slice of the skincare pie would Nivea want to own in the near future? "While we would play in all segments, we would want to improve our positions of strength, particularly in three segments -- bodycare, deodorant and lip care. The intangible virtues that Nivea wants to stand for are trust, quality and honesty." Additionally, it wants to be positioned as a family-centred brand in the days ahead.

Looking Ahead

Hargave shares that in the near future, Indian consumers will certainly see heightened levels of media investments from Nivea, particularly in the deodorant and bodycare categories. "We're looking at this market very positively, so our investments will be in line with what is required to get a healthy market share and healthy volumes. We will invest in the right kind of media vehicles. There will be a lot of television and print communication," he informs.