Webwatch Article
March 21, 2005
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_webwatch.asp?ww_id=219

Nivea — radiant

The legacy skincare brand Nivea can be easily found in 150 countries around the world. Approaching its 100th birthday, "Nivea" derives from the Latin word "nivius," meaning "snow-white." The first brand to bring skincare products from the privileged elite to the mass market, its initial product offering, Nivea Crème, was created by a team of dermatologists in 1911 who claimed it was "the world's first long-lasting skin cream." By 1924, Nivea initiated the use of its blue and white tins, still in use today.

A brand born of dermatological expertise, consumers continue to associate Nivea with trust, reliability and accessibility. Owned by Beiersdorf AG, an international branded goods company in Germany, Nivea has grown from one signature product to over 300, encompassing fourteen product categories, which include a vast expanse of sub-brands such as Body, Visage, Beauté, Sun, For Men, Hair Care, and Baby. Through the years, Nivea has found success with new product rollouts by maintaining a rock solid consistency in its brand messaging, both visually and verbally. We recently visited Nivea.com to see if the user experience was as consistent and smooth as the products.

Branded as "The Care Site," Nivea.com is right in line with Nivea's general positioning, maintaining a steady focus on not only the wellness of skin, but wellness in general. Addressing each market region, the site is available in as many continents as the products. Users can choose to view the site by language or continent, or visit an International page if their country isn't listed.

The US home page is functionally designed in Nivea's signature blue and white, complete with tinted photos, clickable labels of each product line and an easy-to-use top bar navigation. Browsing product information is easy, with a pull-down menu bringing users from line to line. Specific products are broken down according to application, e.g., Essential Care, Performance, and Night Time, with links that lead to each individual product description when clicked.

Like the advertising, Nivea.com is gentle yet thorough, covering all bases to ensure the marketing message gets across one way or the other without bludgeoning users over the head. There is a good amount of value-added content designed to keep visitors engaged in the brand experience. "The Face Reading Game" is a fun feature that allows users to analyze the personality traits of face shapes. While the game computes the results, a brief animated product ad appears in the window—an effective use of load time and web space. If your computer doesn't enable pop-ups, a link will appear to open the window.

Your Skin is another effective sales tool masked as value-added content. Users can choose a topic describing their skin problems and learn relevant trends in current technology (by Nivea of course). The Skin Analyzer asks users to complete a questionnaire to receive advice and Nivea product recommendations that will work specifically for them.

Live Right is an area focused more on general wellness than generating sales, containing advice on various quality-of-life issues like stress management techniques, exercise and diet. Again, it is in line with Nivea's promotion of overall wellness. Only one area of this section is devoted to promoting an ingredient contained in Nivea products. Nivea's Club Blue area offers coupons and savings in return for a completed questionnaire about user skin-care needs. The questions show that Nivea wants to understand specifically what visitors are looking for. In return, Nivea gets to build a targeted mailing list.

Overall, Nivea.com is pretty smooth. With plenty of enriched value-added content, reward-based incentives and engaging activities enhanced by effective product placement tactics, users can expect to be engaged in an online experience on par with Nivea's products—a good value for time and money.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel is a freelance writer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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