Nivea repositions male grooming category to grab larger market share

In a bid to capture a larger share of the growing male grooming category pie, Nivea India has announced the repositioning of its male grooming range with the launch of a new brand mission ‘It starts with you’. The new tagline is designed to be a call of action that aims to help men fulfil their everyday potential, with Nivea Men brand championing the role played by daily grooming in building confidence in men.

The campaign that kicks off on May 16 has Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal as the face of the brand. It will have a robust television presence supplemented by digital and a selective presence in print media.

The new television commercial with Arjum Rampal is slated to go on air this week during IPL. Aiming to catch the last ten days of heightened IPL viewing, the new TVC will replace the brand’s existing spots on IPL. This will be supplemented with a new digital campaign, as well as activations in modern trade. The brand is  creating special men’s zones with exclusive counter advisors who are the equivalent of beauty experts since they have now have a complete range of men’s products including Face Wash, Face Moisturizer, Shaving, After Shave, Deodorant and Shower Gels.

The brand campaign will be a sustained initiative aiming to create awareness on the men’s range over a period of time. The brand’s media agency is MEC India, the creative conceptualisation and execution is done by Draft FCB’s Interface.

“For Nivea Men, the key task for us is to establish ourselves as a one-stop-shop for end-to-end grooming for men. Our communication will be multi-pronged with Nivea Men as the over arching theme. Our focus is on making consumers aware of our line-up of products,” said Sunil Gadgil, Director – Marketing, Nivea India.

Challenging norms
The brand has introduced an aftershave sans alcohol, which does not have a stinging after effect with an emulsion base that can also be used as a moisturiser, and the positioning for deodorants is about freshness, unlike getting women as portrayed by some of its competition. The brand’s face wash does not promote the concept of fairer skin; instead focuses on the removal of pigmentation and dark spots. The brand aims to position Nivea Men as a challenger brand – that will challenge current category norms through such innovations within product categories and positioning. 

The brand currently enjoys a 28 per cent market share globally and hopes to increase its existing 6 – 7 per cent market share in Men’s care in India within the moisturiser and facewash category through this repositioning initiative.

When it comes to men’s grooming category in India, it is the deodorants that have the biggest market share, which is not strictly grooming but about masking body odour. In skin care, which is currently a Rs 800 crore market and growing at around 25 per cent, it is the moisturisers that have the biggest chunk, with fairness creams being the biggest, led by mass creams such as Emami’s  Fair and Handsome. The third emerging category is face washes, which is catching up in a big way on the face care side.

“The face wash category has grown so much because a man, however clumsy or dirty he maybe, will wash his face once a day. The habit to wash is already there, it is just a format change to use face wash instead of soap. It is easily adaptable; after years of experimenting and using women’s products, men have realised the benefits of face wash. The face being the most important part of your body, it gives you a feeling of confidence,” shared Rakshit Hargave, Managing Director, Nivea India.

Interestingly, in India, the pre-shave category is much bigger than the post-shave category, whereas the shower gel category at the moment is not clearly defined as men or women.

The brand feels that a masculine personality like Arjun Rampal will further legitimise the need for grooming in the men’s category. 

It starts with you
“The men’s grooming category also faces the challenge of the easy surrogacy of women’s products. You need a strong reason for men to say they need something for themselves. The category is evolving; we need to create specificity of demand. It is category creation instead of upgradation. Nivea Men’s brand positioning of ‘It starts with you’ understands that men want to climb the ladder, get the benefits of the growing economy, and encourages men to take things in their own hands. Unlike the women’s category, grooming is not the end result; it is the tool to what men want to do in life and where can grooming can add to this,” added Gadgil. 

A recent global study showed that 84 per cent men are not using products made for men; instead they are borrowing products from women in their life.

“2013 is a year of consolidation for us. We want to move ahead on the good work done on deodorants, where we gained market share last year. We want to strengthen our skin care portfolio, body lotions and all purpose creams, build the face wash category and then build Nivea Men as a holistic overall male brand. These are the four key marketing pillars,” added Hargave.

The brand is also going to launch a new film on body care with Anushka Sharma, going on air from June 1 and has introduced new smaller stock keep units to drive distribution.

Creams and lotions remain the biggest volume driver for Nivea, which peaks around winters – October to February, whereas deodorants remain a big business consistently through the year.

Will the brand successfully leverage the 100-year heritage of its mother brand and increase market share for the men’s grooming category in a fast growing market with competition from Garnier, Emami Fair and Handsome, etc. remains to be seen.
 

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