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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this study is to investigate Nivea's ability to enhance its competitiveness by managing its brand portfolio. The authors also investigate the most important drivers of brand deletion propensity (Varadarajan, DeFanti, & Busch, 2005). The analysis suggests that in order to best manage Nivea as a global skin care brand focused on quality, care, mildness, reliability, and cost reasonability, Nivea Hair Care should be deleted from the brand portfolio, as it deviates too far from the skin care segment of other more strongly represented Nivea brands, such as Nivea Creme, Nivea Deodorant, and others. The extension of the Nivea name to consumer hair care products serves to dilute the excellent standing the brand name holds for exceeding quality in skin care by extending into a market that is too far from the core value proposition of skin care products.
Keywords: Competitiveness, Brand Portfolio
BACKGROUND
Nivea is consistently viewed as one of the best skin care brands in the world. It is a top cosmetics brand with its foundation in Germany but has since expanded into markets all over the world. Nivea is a skin care and personal care brand consisting of distinct sub-brands under the Nivea name, which are made up of various product extensions such as Nivea Sun, Nivea for Men, and Nivea Hair Care. Based on the long-running success of Nivea Creme, consumers have been introduced to new product lines from Nivea, creating brand associations including: care, mildness, reliability, gentleness, protection, quality, good feeling, and reasonable price. This image varies slightly for differing categories and sub-brands, such as the Nivea Beauté line, which was launched in 1997 to enter the high-end beauty products market. The Beauté line focused more on reliability, quality, and good feelings than other sub-brands such as Nivea for Men, which has associations with popularity and coolness more than other, more established skin care and beauty brands. The Nivea image has evolved since the introduction of Nivea Creme in the early 20th century, as Nivea transitioned from a skin creme brand to a skin care brand consisting of various sub-categories.
According to Keller (1993), consumer-based brand equity is derived from the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand, for example, when certain outcomes result from...