Showing posts with label Marketing Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing Research. Show all posts

This is how NIVEA reached the top using marketing research.


Nivea skin care products are part of the German company Beiersdorf. The company’s line of skin care products is marketed in about 100 countries. The product line has been around for about nine decades, originating with a scientific breakthrough with the first skin cream that did not separate into water and oil.  That coupled with intelligent marketing led to a strong positive brand image, which accounts for much of their success. 

The company’s continual success is due to the marriage of marketing and research and development within the company. Research and development is continual and the latest findings in dermatology, products technology, and raw materials are applied to existing products. The goal of improved product performance and quality is central to the Nivea product line. They help ensure this quality through constant testing and consumer feedback obtained via marketing research.

Nivea began marketing in the 1920's when they changed their logo and began selling their product around the world.
Early on they established their brand identity as a pure and gentle product on which families could rely. They advertised with a picture of the Nivea Girl. In 1924, they broke from tradition and began advertising with the Nivea Boys. This helped them convey the message that Nivea was made for the entire family. Their brand image has transcended decades with the help of a foundation built upon advertising that stresses family relationships and values.

In the 70's, Nivea had to defend itself against true competition for the first time. They relied heavily on marketing research, which helped them formulate a two-pronged strategy. The first part was the defense of their core business through a new advertising campaign "Crème de la Crème". The second part was the introduction of new products, which helped keep the brand fresh and introduced new sources of sales.

In the 80's, when marketing research indicated brand differentiation was becoming increasingly important, Nivea began branding with sub-brands. These sub-brands included skin care, bath products, sun protection, baby care, facial care, hair care, and care for men. They used an umbrella strategy with the sub-brands, which means that they were using their core brand to encompass all of the sub-brands. The goal was to establish individual images that were distinct but consistent with the core image of Nivea and were focused on not diluting the brand name and wanted to link the new sub-brands with the traditional values of the core brand. 
The result was an explosion in sales.
Nivea was able to continue their success in the 90's as their sales grew rapidly throughout the decade. The growth was due in large part to the introduction of new products, each based on extensive marketing research. The most successful products were their anti-wrinkle cream and an entire line of cosmetics.

Nivea entered the new millennium as the number one skincare and Cosmetics Company in the world with $2.7 billion in revenues. However, they still face challenges and their greatest challenge is in U.S. market, where their brand is not as strong as it is in other parts of the world. The U.S. market poses many obstacles because it is the largest and most dynamic market in the world. Nivea hopes to overcome these obstacles through the use of extensive marketing research. This research will lead Nivea to conduct more product launches and to develop focused marketing strategies.

Nivea focuses on consistency in their marketing, which is another difficulty because it can be troublesome for them to communicate the same message across various cultures. 

However, Nivea will do whatever it takes to maintain this consistency because they believe it gives them an edge over competitors. It helps consumers relate all their products to their core brand and identity. Nivea will continue to rely on marketing research to retain and refine the consistency in their marketing across global markets.

How Nike became more recognizable outside the United States more than inside?



Nike Inc. is the number one U.S athletic footwear company and one of the most recognized American brands among foreign consumers. The high degree of recognition is one of the main reasons Nike has been so successful. At the end of 2006, the company operated 23 distribution centers in Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Africa and Canada.

However, Nike’s success could be attributed to its concept based advertising campaigns. The company uses a strategy that is often called “image transfer”. Nike traditionally does not place a specific product or mention the brand name but it creates a mood or atmosphere and then the brand is associated with that mood. Nike says “We don’t set out to make ads, the ultimate goal is to make a connection.”

Nike uses much of the celebrity endorsement to create the desired atmospheres. Many popular athletes participated in Nike ads such as Michael Jordan and Jon McEnroe. They aim to infer that real athletes prefer Nike and that perhaps if the potential customers buys the brand, they will play better.

In 1998, Nike shifted to a new phase in its marketing strategy and emphasized more of its product, innovation skills than the jokey, edgy attitude that it displayed in previous years. They realized that their ads need to tell consumers more about Nike’s products innovation and not just athletes and exposure. They also wanted to prove to consumer that they are not just slapping the company trademark to make money. With the launch of the “I Can” campaign, Nike showed fewer of the celebrity athletes who previously adorned its marketing output and showed more product usage than in the previous “Just do it” campaign.

At the same time, competitors Reebok and Adidas recently featured more product-focused ads and were met with a great deal of success. Despite this rearranged strategy, Nike did not back away from innovative marketing. On September 2003, Nike acquired converse Inc. and as a response on August 2005, Adidas confirmed that it had agreed to acquire Reebok.

In 2005, the CEO of Nike stated that developing markets such as India, Brazil, China, Russia and the development of converse presented a big growth opportunity. Nike started to introduce women’s fitness wears and became the number one of the world’s leading on-field performance brands. They have been able to leverage that success by creating an entirely new category of soccer-inspired street footwear.

However, Nike future strategy is the international arena which represents the hardest challenge Nike could undertake. Reaching 2016, it seems Nike became more recognizable outside the United States more than inside as they established this goal in 2010.

One year ago, Nike introduced “the last game” campaign which achieved high success globally with over than 94 million views on YouTube and enhanced its innovation strategies in creating the desired atmosphere through their ads even if they are celebrity endorsing and associating the products to that atmosphere.
Nike and Adidas battle with both companies having huge resources, budgets, creative minds and great managements is one of the fiercest brand competitions globally that is worth following up with the updates.

So stay tuned, we will deliver the latest updates to you as soon as they happens. 

How Coca-Cola used marketing research to solve diet cherry coke declining sales issue.




Marketing research is one of the most important attributes that every marketer should master. Despite in Egypt, few only knows a little about marketing research. Marketing research are classified to either problem-identification research or problem solving research. when companies gets to define a problem or develop an approach, the marketers has some tasks involved in this process that include discussion with decision makers and industry experts to understand more about the problem origin and nature. Moreover, analyzing secondary data analysis which are other data collected for some purpose other than the problem in hand. let's get to demonstrate this knowledge.

As of 2006, Coca-Cola is still the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverages to over 200 countries, with over 400 beverage brands.  Sales of Diet Cherry coke had been languishing however, down from more than 8 million cases sold in the peak years. Coke system bottlers had begun to cut back distribution of Diet Cherry Coke.

Faced with this issue, Coca-Cola had to determine the cause of such a decline in sales. When industry experts were consulted, the real problem was identified: Diet Cherry Coke was not positioned correctly. These experts emphasized that brand image was a key factor influencing soft drink sales and Diet Cherry Coke was perceived as conventional and old-fashioned, an image inconsistent with that of Cherry Coke. Hence, the marketing research problem was identified as measuring the image and positioning of Diet Cherry Coke. 

The research undertaken confirmed the diagnosis of the industry experts and provided several useful insights.
Based on the research results, the product was re-positioned to align it more closely to the image of Cherry Coke. The aim was to target younger drinkers. The packaging was remade to also be more consistent with the Cherry Coke packaging. Bolder, edgy graphics were used to appeal to the youth segment. 

Finally, Diet Cherry Coke was placed with Cherry Coke in a teen-targeted promotional giveaway. Positioning Diet Cherry Coke as a youthful soft drink and targeting the teenage segment led to a turnaround and increased sales 2005. Sales have shown an upward trajectory since, thanks to the industry experts who helped identify the real problem.


The Diet Cherry Coke example points to the key role of industry experts. However, information obtained from the decision makers and the industry experts should be supplemented with the available second data. 

Reasons to why Coca-Cola Egypt strategy in Ramadan 2016 is hard to anticipate?








From year to year, Egyptians wait for the most important month of the year “Ramadan”. Since Ramadan is knocking the door and few days are left in the countdown and with an increased purchasing power throughout this month. Brands compete fiercely in the market during this month especially the production companies.
However, the marketing battle that takes the Egyptian society sights away, is the battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi during Ramadan.
Throughout the previous years, both companies designed and executed wonderful campaigns and strategies to benefit the most from this special occasion. Our concentration will be on Coca-Cola Company analyzing their strategies in previous Ramadans.

As most of us concluded, Coca-Cola’s main target segment are the youth segment. Actually during Ramadan, Coca-Cola did not follow just one marketing strategy but they designed their strategy based upon situations. Yet, it seems that Coca-Cola intentions and concentration was to increase their sales volume during Ramadan every year.

Coca-Cola introduced the campaign “Nerga3 tany wahed” in 2013, which included a song by famous youth band “Cairokee” that aimed to remind people they are all Egyptians after having many political disputes between them. The youth loved the ad, loved the song and was emotionally touched by the idea.

In 2014, Coca-Cola had plans of conquering the market and introduced “Coca-Cola ahla ma3” by putting a huge variety of Egyptian names on cans and a variety of activity names on the family bottles along with an energetic ad. Egyptian society went crazy and they really enjoyed searching for their names. The campaign made a huge success and Coca-Cola achieved high sales volume that Ramadan.

Previous Ramadan, they did not introduce any TV ads. Coca-Cola marketing research was rewarding in satisfying their youth customers whom asked not to spend money on ads but yet, spend the money on charity works and so did Coca-Cola. With Coca-Cola spending on developing poor villages, it only introduced the ad “Thanya wahda tefreq” on Facebook and YouTube. Coca-Cola did benefit as they satisfied their customers and that is the most important aspect in marketing.

Coca-Cola knows exactly how to reach the desired target segment “The Youth” and what makes Coca-Cola effective in reaching them, is the operation excellence in executing the strategies designed. Moreover, every year the company designs different strategies in Ramadan which makes it unpredictable.


How do you think Pepsi reacted to Coca-Cola’s campaigns? What is Coca-Cola up to in Ramadan 2016?

Marketing research role in the milk industry


Ever wondered the importance of marketing research? Here is why marketers should be aware of conducting surveys, focus groups and be able to analyze situations.

In the 1980's and early 1990's, milk sales had declined and the milk industry needed to find a way to increase sales. An advertising company was hired by the California Milk Processor Board, which in turn hired M/A/R/C Research to conduct a telephone tracking survey of Californians over age 11. To identify the cause of low milk sales, the research company sought to understand the underlying behavior of consumers toward milk.

Through extensive focus groups, household observations, and telephone surveys, M/A/R/C was able to understand consumer behavior underlying milk consumption. This research revealed that 88 percent of milk is consumed at home and that milk was not the central drink of the average person, but it was used in combination with certain foods such as cereal, cakes, pastries, and so forth.

However, milk was strongly missed when there was none around, so they then developed an ad campaign around consumer behavior with respect to milk and launched the well-known “milk mustache” campaign with the “Got Milk?” tag line.
This creative advertising was really effective, showing celebrities sporting the famous white mustache. Continuing through marketing research and the advertising campaign, milk sales increased and continued to be stable through 2006.


Marketing research is often classified into either problem solving or problem identification. The magnificent use of marketing research above led to gain advantage of the 2 purposes combined and yet taught us the importance of carrying marketing research throughout every marketing job.
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Marketing Hub aims to replace the wrong marketing concepts in the Egyptian society with the right concepts and knowledge through our articles. We share experience with our audience through articles and we are wide open to communicate with everyone in any field who aims to understand more about marketing or wants to discuss and analyze any market update. We offer consultation in developing your brand, designing brand strategies, designing marketing strategies, generating advertising campaign ideas and developing business plan. Remember, marketing is an art not a job. We are wide open to communicate with creative individuals and join our business community.

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