Nivea - Global Marketing and Communication - Report Example

Word Count is 1996 (Excluding 2 Tables and References)

Global Marketing and Communication

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

One of the crucial steps when entering an international market is marketing so as to properly penetrate a new country that possesses a different culture (Sirdeshmukh, Singh, & Sabol, 2002). The localisation in the new market should be one precise measure. Otherwise, the company may coincidentally offend the target market (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). Presently, there is an increase in the rate at which companies enter international markets because of various factors combined, including the decrease in profit levels, saturated domestic markets, advanced technologies alongside the propagation of global media (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). There is a rising need in world marketing communications so as to improve the promotion of company products on the global platform. The formulation of this report is as per the request of the marketing director for her presentation to a group of local consumer marketers while encouraging the home businesses to make their businesses have a global prosperity and using Nivea as the international company of reference. Through making this critical awareness creation of world marketing and communication practices to the marketing consultants, company researchers, and marketing personnel, the report is of important in obtaining better ways of creating international sustainability of their businesses.

1.2 Objectives

• To identify the global, local and glocal strategies towards the Nivea products.
• To determine the local, local and glocal strategies towards the promotion of Nivea products.
• To identify the target market of Nivea products.

1.3 Scope

The report examines a combination of the global, local and glocal strategies that the company uses towards its products and promotion, besides including the primary target market that Nivea targets. On the other hand, the report will not examine the strategies of other related products towards their pricing and products leave alone concerning their target markets.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Strategies towards the Product

Global strategies refer to a term that shelters three areas, namely the multinational and international strategies that firms many use to promote their products (Han, Nunes & Drèze, 2010). The three sectors refer to the approaches that a company may put in place to realise its international expansion. There are five strategic options that businesses can use to promote their products at the international level. Among them include the product and communication extension, also called the dual extension (Chand, 2016). The approach suggests that a company may have to market its standard products by use of some consistent communication procedures (Agarwal, Malhotra, & Bolton, 2010). Second, international companies use the product extension strategy, also known as the Communications adaptation, which implies that due to the cultural differences in the global environment, the same product may be used to provide dramatically different functions from those in the domestic market (Spring, 2009). For example, the Levies clothing company has ads that appeal to both the international and localised markets. Because it has some status among the youth in Britain, the ads on TV indicate British icons of the youth practices like the quirky celebrities. In France, these ads emphasise on the perceived individual nature of the young (Martínez, Montaner, & Pina, 2009). The third strategy is the product adaptation, also called the communications extension. Here, firms adapt their product while marketing it using standardised communication strategies (Vrontis, Thrassou, & Lamprianou, 2009). The companies may add their brands to their product portfolio through the acquisition of local enterprises. For example, when the British Petroleum acquires a local company, it uses different petrol formula for every country to accommodate the nation’s uniqueness, while maintaining its core brand values (Franke, Keinz, & Steger, 2009). Moreover, companies may use the product and communications adaptation strategy, also famous as the dual adaptation, and is a combination of the adjustment of the two (Hultman, Robson, & Katsikeas, 2009). For example, Slim-Fast takes the two approaches to comply with the different government regulations on weight-loss products. Its first launch in Germany saw the use of local celebrity, while in Britain, stars may not be significant in ads, adopting to centre the campaign around the everyday people (Hao, Hu, & Bruning, 2009). Lastly, the product invention strategy is one ensures that the company continually provides new products instead of sticking to the existing ones (Toure & Hall, 2009).

2.2 Strategies towards the Promotion

Enterprises use the global development approach in presenting similar basic information of product or brand in its international market (Kokemuller & Media, 2016). Ideally, this promotion strategy provides a universal commodity that has benefits applicable to all their customers in every target market (Baines et al., 2009). One benefit of this strategy is that it provides consistency, where the customers in every market get to identify with the brand throughout the world. For instance, McDonalds has significantly used this strategy in promoting its international fast food business by continuously sending similar promotional messages about its family-friendly products (Ailawadi et al., 2009). Furthermore, international promotion is another approach that companies use towards achieving their competitiveness. It is when a corporation sends its promotional information that varies from one state to another, as it tailors these campaigns depending on the region (Rizvi, Malik & Zaidi, 2012). The primary purpose of the adoption of this strategy of promoting the products is because of the varied uses of commodities across nations and markets. Therefore, stronger brand loyalty results where there are different perceptions about them, but creating a disadvantage on the high costs (Shabnam, Choudhury, & Alam, 2013). A multinational strategy is when organisations engage in several markets beyond its domestic marketplace, adopting different strategies in each customer base because the competition and demand differ per country.

2.3 The Target Market of Nivea

While devising a market plan, the initial step is to evaluate the business brand and products, which comprises assessing of the brand’s position and the demand. In the case of Nivea for Men, it needs to understand what the male clients need and the direct competitor products (Fischer, Clement, & Shankar, 2005). Another important target is the women population, because besides using the female brand, they also purchase to their partners the grooming products alongside assisting them in the acquisition (Abdullah, Nasreen, & Ravichandran, 2012). The SWOT analysis is highly in use by the Nivea for Men brand for its help in assessing the market situation, providing the internal strengths, weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats that the brand faces in the marketplace. Among the strengths is that it is the leading facial skincare brand in the UK, has a stable financial base and staff members who are well skilled (Parmar, 2014). The weaknesses, on the other hand, are that it at times fail to use up to date market research, does not have adequate sales and distribution outlets and has difficulty determining the relevance of the target market (Palade, 2009). Its opportunities are that it has significantly seen a rise in the sale of skincare for men, grabbing a larger share of this market, besides taking advantage of the social attitude changes because men are increasingly adopting facial skincare products. The possible threats to the company are that the prices are relatively high, and there is a risk of competitors flooding the market, reducing profits (Jean, Sinkovics, & Kim, 2010).

2.3.1 The SWOT Analysis of Nivea

Strengths

• Globally, it represents the brand with a presence in approximately 20 product categories, in over 50 countries
• It has a huge brand recall and equity
• It has a strong distribution network
• It has excellent advertising and

Weaknesses

• High competition from other products such as Unilever’s Vaseline
• Its cream is considered a winter cream due to the thickness, limiting sale to winter seasons

Opportunities

• Entry into the men’s segments as they increasingly adopt skincare
• It has the opportunity to increase the market share
• It has a reputable global brand

Threats

• Other skincare brands are almost seeking similar popularity
• The competitors are continuously engaging in fierce marketing, whereas Nivea continues to lie on lazier front

Table 1, Source:

2.3.2 Body Care Market Size from 2004 – 2013

Body care

2004

2009

2013

2004 - 2009

2009 – 2013

Europe

3646

4792

5781

5.6%

4.8%

Asia Pacific

3000

3656

4174

4.0%

3.4%

US

1612

1808

1905

2.5%

1.3%

Global

9398

11689

13547

4.5%

3.8%

Table 2, Source: (Perrey, Freundt, & Spillecke, 2015)

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 The Design

The report uses a descriptive design, which is the approach, used to describe the phenomenon as it is (Baxter & Jack, 2008).

3.2 Data Instruments

The report’s compilation utilised the secondary data sources such as the Nivea client histories, the company records and the earlier research concerning the business. Secondary data refers to those that other studies had collected.

3.3 The Significance of the Report

The article is relevant as it enables the understanding of the insights on the strategies that organisations may use to market their products at the global, local and glocal levels. Therefore, it assists the concerned persons like the consultants and company marketing personnel, with Nivea as an example of an international company that uses promotions on the three platforms.

Chapter 4: Findings

4.1 Product Strategies

The product becomes the main concept of any marketing programme because, in its absence, there is nothing to promote, price and distribute (Halman, Hofer, & Vuuren, 2003). The product features of Nivea collection of cosmetics comprises vibrant colours, for instance, the various shades of eye shadows and lipsticks, observing its international marketing strategies (Bilgram, Bartl, & Biel, 2011). Nivea has the overall impression of the high product quality that it has globally, making it different compared to other cosmetic brands, therefore proving its global marketing strategy (The Times 100, 2016). In the recent past, it launched the milk lotion, which has considerably demonstrated its commitment to quality improvement (Douglas, Craig, & Nijssen, 2001). When customers aired a complaint on the sticky nature of the lotion, Nivea responded by producing a less sticky one, proving their commitment to quality, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction, ensuring adherence to multinational marketing strategies (Business Case Studies, 2016).

4.2 Promotion Strategies

Advertising is vital in the marketing mix of organisations, as it serves to inform and also persuade the clients, concerning the institution’s products (Fisk, Grove, & John, 2008). Through making constant promotions, Nivea ensures that their customers have information about the products that are useful to them. For instance, promoting Nivea Visage Young, the company uses the FYI magazine, meaning Fun, Young, and Independent, therefore providing teenagers with the confidence of becoming independent (Nivea Men, 2016). In this way, it is practicing the communications adaptation approach to reach the localisation strategy. In its application of a globalised approach, Nivea Visage Young also makes Facebook, Twitter and MySpace advertisements, which ensures the access of the information in several countries, besides the local environment, therefore also making it a glocalised strategy (Eromosele, 2016).

4.3 Nivea’s Target Market

The geographical segmentation of Nivea products implies that the cosmetic usage depends on the different climatic conditions of the users who have various skin types (Marketing Tango, 2013). For instance, the company targets people with rough skins and carry out more advertisements in these geographical areas than the other regions. On the other hand, the demographic segmentation divides the target population of Nivea into men, women, adults and children. Therefore, when Nivea conducts its marketing, it ensures that it covers all the aspects of promotions to include all demographic targets, meeting its global strategies. The usage also determines Nivea’s target customers (Business Case Studies, 2016).

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Whereas businesses which operate internationally have the tendency to make more of global marketing, it is necessary also to ensure that they maintain a local marketing strategy so as to keep the communities aware of the features of the product and to posture it according to their culture. A measure of ensuring that there is both local and global strategy of marketing brings about the glocalisation aspect, which enables a firm to accurately identify its strengths and opportunities, using them against the weaknesses and threats.

Chapter 6: Recommendations

The first suggestion entails the scope of strategies for global and local marketing. Ensuring that the products meet the needs of the clients require that Nivea identifies what the global customers need and what the locals in certain areas require (Ritter, 2014). Understanding of the brands that the locals need and those that are acceptable globally is, therefore, necessary for properly marketing the cosmetics in acceptable manners. Hence, just as Nivea uses glocalised strategies in marketing its products, businesses should adopt both local and global approaches while selling its commodities.

Anther recommendation is the need to understand the local markets, their needs and coming up with a collaborative approach. Currently, it is impractical to apply global marketing strategies to envelop the local needs. Due to the different cultures, products’ acceptance depends on the marketing done at the local levels (Ritter, 2014). Therefore, Nivea needs to understand the local cultures in every environment, and then provide the branding as per the need of the locals.