dinsdag 8 maart 2011

Nivea’s promotion in marketing mix

NIVEA has an established name in very high quality beauty care and skin products. NIVEA is a global company which specializes in skin and beauty care. The main aim and objective of NIVEA is to have its products close to its customers, regardless of where they live. They understand their customers in many different markets and delight them with innovative products for beauty care and skin needs.  They are still growing and coming up with new products. In 2005 they came up with this new product NIVEA VISAGE Young. It’s a part of NIVEA VISAGE range offering a comprehensive selection of products aimed at Young women.  This product help Young woman to develop a proper skin care routine to keep their skin beautiful and healthier. When NIVEA came up with this new product they make a lot promotion which is very important for marketing activities of NIVEA. They used promotion to create a favorable predisposition toward the service, person, idea and the brand. They basic element of promotional mix that NIVEA uses are: 
Public relations: is very important for NIVEA. This is communication toward public. PR can create a good will and can add value to Nivea’s brand image.

Advertising: This is a way of communication with current and potential customers which is done through the media. For example you can see NIVEA VISAGE YOUNG products on bill boards, internet, TV etc.. Advertising create for NIVEA VISAGE awareness and informs a lot people at once ( in one time).

Sales promotions: is also important, especially is in this time that we have the economic crisis is important for NIVEA  to keep their products sold. For example giving a shampoo free by buying a hair conditioner etc.. This is an excellent way for reaching niche audiences and is good for trade promotion.

Personal sales: This is a way of promotion activity where employee directly contacting the customers. This is develop relationship with their customers and could also be not persuasive tool.

The role of promotion in the marketing mix for NIVEA VISAGE YOUNG is:                                                                                                                                    
1. To increase the sales for several products.
2. To increase the market share.
3. To establish a brand identity (giving the product an image)
4. To establish a corporate image
5. To enable a long-term planning which take place?
6. To provide the potential customers with readily available info.

Beiersdorf launched NIVEA VISAGE Young using the right place, promotion, price and product. These four elements are known as the marketing mix or the 4Ps. Below I’m going to explain each element of the 4 P’s.

Product: 

The first element is product. Understanding the market and what the market ask from NIVEA is the first stage in building an effective mix. NIVEA do a lot market research to find out about people wants from NIVEA. They do this by different ways like gathering data from customers, products testing, using focus group etc.. By doing that kind of research they found out that there is a gap in the market. Younger woman’s wanted a product which is more specialized for face care and is aimed at their own age group. To fulfill this gap NIVEA came with NIVEA VISAGE YOUNG product which provides those needs by targeting at girls between 13-19.  Beierdorf tested this new product on a sample group from its target audience before they finalize the range for re-launch. With this new product range NIVEA become more successful than they were and the fact that the direct competitors on NIVEA are focused to offers medicated solution give them a competitive advantage.

Promotion:

Promotion is always very important when a business want to sell its products. Promotion creates awareness of existence of the products or services offered. With making promotion NIVEA provide their customers with information about the product which is useful to them and therefore produces an incentive for their customers to by Nivea´s products. They choose promotional strategies that reflect the lifestyle of their audience.  To promote NIVEA VISAGE Young they use the following methods:
Using a product sample. In this way people can touch the product, use the product and see whether they like it or not and then make decision to buy the product. Also NIVEA VISAGE Young came up with an online magazine which is called FYI. FYI stands for fun, Young and Independent.  The purpose of this magazine is to give teenagers the confidence to become a young woman and enjoy their new-found independence.  This magazine is focused in the first place to the experience of young people with NIVEA VISAGE Young.  Also promoting on face book, twitter, MySpace etc.. is very essential for NIVEA VISAGE Young because nowadays most young people use at least one of this social media networks and it’s a way to come closer to their customers. Through this channels they can promote their brand, but what you also see is the commercial on TV, especially the channels that teenagers like to watch like MTV, TMF etc..

Price:

This is one of the components of the Marketing mix. The main purpose of pricing is to produce the required level of sales so that NIVEA can achieve their objectives. The pricing for NIVEA VISAGE Young was higher than previously. This was because of the new formulation, packaging and extended product range. They are also the price leader. This is effective of course as they are one of the leading skins care ranges that meets the beautifying needs of the market segment. The pricing strategic that NIVEA VISAGE Young use is high enough to make profit, but also not high to discourage people to buy its products. They also have the rule to sells its products to retailers at one price. The retailers are free to give the product they price what they want. What you see for example is that a NIVEA VISAGE product in Kruidvat is usually cheaper than in ETOS.  So the retailers are free to use any strategies they take for their sales promotion. This promotion activities are aimed to the customers.

Place: 

Promotion has the key role of informing the customers where to buy Nivea’s products. NIVEA VISAGE Young aims to use many relevant distributions channels as possible to ensure the widest reach of their products to their target market. For example to make it easier for customers they can buy NIVEA VISAGE Young products online. Buying product through the internet means that NIVEA should undertake all the promotional activities by them self. Decisions about the placement will therefore have an important impact on the promotional activities for NIVEA. NIVEA sells its products also to wholesalers who sell it to smaller retailers. The product is widely provided.


M1
1. Identify Nivea's Aims and Objectives


In general we can say that the main purpose of most businesses is to make money/profit. Nivea´s goal is to:
  • Increase their marketshare through qualitative growth.
  • Increase sales and make profit & dominate the market.
  • To show month to month movement of turnover for body & skin and selected services.          



NIVEA VISAGE Young wants to come close to its consumers. Therefore the continue their market research programme what they carried out to fill the gap in the market which is earlier explained in this assignment. Their main purpose with NIVEA VISAGE Young is to reach young women between 13-19 and to help them to develope a healty and good skin care routine. The most effective business objectives meet the SMART critera. So does Nivea. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time specific. To reach their goals NIVEA VISAGE Young shows it concern about its customers friendliness of this new product by removing alcohol in some of its new product and they use natural ingredients like minerals or sea shells. Also they shows their concern about their target market and environment by changing using recyclable plastic containers. NIVEA VISAGE Young wants to tells its customers by taking this kind of actions that they are a like with corporate social responsibility and therefore being more attractive for customers.

2. Describe how promotion as part of the marketing mix helps Nivea to achieve their aims & objectives.
Marketing team uses research data to forecast market trend over the next 3 to 5 years. This will help them to set specific target for increasing sales, improving their brand image and growth in their market share. Promotion and advertisement is one of the most important things for a business. It tells the customers that products are available and persuades them to buy. NIVEA VISAGE Young uses promotion to communicate and inform the public about their product. They also uses promotion to influence the marketers target market usually via means of interpellation and promoting their products better as any other product which is similar to NIVEA VISAGE Young (Like Dove), or by changing awareness, the view, the feelings and beliefs of a prespective customer. For example, they use interpellation by promoting their products with the help of a famous person. When people see that this famous person is using NIVEA VISAGE, they he/she will be more motivated to by this specific product, due to that famous person who is using the product.


Conclusion:
I conclude that the balance of NIVEA VISAGE Young is essential. They have achieved their goal and filled the gap in the market. I think that NIVEA need to make some decisions like cutting costs, which may seem to be a great way for their interest at that present moment and they can also see this as an opportunity for the management view what can become a future threat.