Our Approach:

Market Penetration. 

Beiersdorf has a global presence with more than 150 affiliates. With NIVEA we have captured over 130 market leader positions in different categories in various countries. We aim to increase our world market share in the area of skin and beauty care to 5.5% by 2010.

Successful in Europe and Throughout the World

Our success is due to our focus on strong brands and regions with above-average growth potential. These primarily consist of Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and in particular of China, Brazil, Russia, and India. We have generated strong growth in Eastern Europe in recent years: Our NIVEA and Labello brands hold numerous leading positions in the body and lip care categories in a large number of Eastern Europe countries and our medical skin care brand Eucerin on its own recorded sales growth of 33% in this region. Western Europe and our German domestic market are also particularly important to Beiersdorf. We are optimally positioned to further expand our number 1 position here in the future: NIVEA and Eucerin are leading brands in the German cosmetics market.

Exploiting Growth Potential in China

We acquired a majority stake in the successful Chinese company C-BONS Hair Care Group at the end of 2007, expanding our hair and beauty care portfolio to include the extremely popular Chinese hair care brands SLEK, S-Dew, and Hair Song and the market leader among the styling brands, Maestro. By doing so, we strengthened our commitment in one of the most important key markets. With a population of 1.3 billion people, the fourth largest cosmetic market worldwide, and an average annual growth rate of the gross domestic product of 10%, China offers outstanding potential. As with all other markets, we see our role here as to act from a local perspective. In the process, we benefit from our affiliates’ expertise. They use their knowledge of local conditions and the people – what we call “Consumer Insights” – to provide ideas for new products.

Successful Strategy Change in the USA 

The USA is another important market for Beiersdorf. We have reorganized our business here on the basis of the local strategy, and are concentrating on our core competencies in skin care with NIVEA body, NIVEA FOR MEN, Eucerin, and Aquaphor. This has laid the foundation for us to win over consumers in the land of opportunities and the world’s most important skin and beauty care market. The figures prove this: Our American affiliate, Beiersdorf Inc., recorded double-digit sales growth for the second year in a row in 2008 in the important body care segment. Our change of strategy was accompanied by an emotional advertising campaign with the slogan “Touch and Be Touched”, which sensitized American consumers for the NIVEA brand in an unusually personal way.