Corporate Lecture by Mr. Kai Bendix – Managing Director, NIVEA India
Mr. Kai Bendix, Managing Director of NIVEA India Pvt. Ltd., is one of the most eminent speakers to have addressed the IGTC students on “The Passage to India – Taking NIVEA from Tradition to Modernity”. As stated by Mr. Bendix “Skin and beauty care is our passion. NIVEA represents a state-of-the-art skin and beauty care, combining systematic consumer orientation, reliable quality, and a tangible brand personality”.
As an international branded consumer goods company, NIVEA is growing throughout the world. Their key focus regions include Western Europe, the USA, China, Russia, Brazil, and India. In 2008, Beiersdorf globally generated sales of €5.97 billion and has approximately 22,000 employees worldwide who strongly feel committed to the company’s goals.
NIVEA has been awarded the Most Trusted Brand 2009 by Reader’s Digest in Europe for the tenth consecutive year. NIVEA in India is 89 years young and was launched in 1920. For NIVEA innovation is the norm of the day. They believe in thinking about tomorrow and hence their research & development expense amounts to €149 million. There are about 100 newly developed products in 2008 and 87 patent applications.
Mr. Bendix made the students aware of the vast product portfolio of NIVEA which includes Skin Care, Hair Care, Color Cosmetics etc. According to him the brand NIVEA has various attributes like trust, identity, quality and desire which are the key driving forces to retain existing customers and attract new ones. The students were given an insight into the concept of brand equity and its relevance to NIVEA. It encompasses availability, preference, loyalty, awareness, familiarity, image and association which are of paramount importance to the company.
For Mr. Bendix, his constant focus is to implement global concepts on local level in India which will enable him to maintain uniformity with the brand globally. NIVEA uses various brand building tools to promote and market its products, encompassing classical Above-the-line communication, Below-the-line-activations and Public relations. Their ATL activities include print, online and television commercials. Their BTL activities comprise of sampling and sponsoring events like the NIVEA Princesses @ Femina Miss India 2009 and also the IPL- Chennai Super Kings Association.
The brand architecture for NIVEA includes its various sub-brands with distinct brand strategies and innovative product launches & re-launches. Mr. Bendix was instrumental in reinforcing the various branding, advertising, marketing concepts which the students had learned in their classroom sessions at the training centre with his first hand experience of handling a big brand like NIVEA.
At the end of the session each student was handed a goody bag containing various NIVEA products as the Managing Director believes that it is important to experience the brand “skin-deep” to enjoy its numerous offerings. The students were all charged up and in high spirits. It was a truly enlightening and informative session for the IGTC students.
