When History Repeats Itself

BUSINESS & MARKETS

ANDREAS TANK When history repeats itself Tradition of beauty lives on Hamburg and China look back on a long history of trade relations and there is no doubt they were always taken particularly seriously. After all, one of the most important players has always been Hamburg- based Beiersdorf Group with its world-famous Nivea body care brand. For almost a century, Nivea has been setting new standards for cosmetics in China.

Hamburg‘s openness to foreign mar- name into Chinese. kets and their local characteristics A highly successful may have been the decisive factor. A equivalent was com- look back in history shows how this posed that combined consistently translated into success phonetic and seman- in China. tic aspects and promp- Beiersdorf entered the market in ted the desired asso- 1914 and was represented by business ciations in customers: houses located in Hong Kong, Shang- 能维雅, pronounced hai and Beijing. But it was only in the neng-wei-ya, could 1930s that the company intensifi ed preserve beauty. In or- its commitment to and involvement der to stress the pho- in the Chinese market. To promote netic aspect more, the business with China, Beiersdorf sent company now uses its own representative, consolidated the signs 妮维雅 (ni the representations into one business wei ya), but beauty house and set up what they called the and Nivea remain syn- “Beiersdorf propaganda department” onyms. in Shanghai in 1935. This step, which When the brand may have been crucial for later suc- was introduced, Bei- cess, was fi nanced by the Hamburg ersdorf had to consi- headquarters and aimed at harmoni- der not only the distri- zing local market knowledge with the bution channels but uniform international brand. All costs above all the fact that for newspaper advertisements, samp- the market was char- les and testers, distribution of printed acterized by a high or promotional material specifi cally proportion of fi rst- imported from Germany were borne time buyers. In order by the German head offi ce. to reach out to these buyers successfully, A clever product launch. The fi rst step the company mainly was to translate the “Nivea” brand used visual communi-

Andreas Tank is head of marketing at Viessmann China, The ability to preserve Beijing. beauty: Nivea advertise- [email protected] ments from the 1930s.

32 CHINACONTACT Hamburg Summit Special Edition 2010

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cation. Picture stories with little text priority, body care and the wish for argument to convince potential mar- vividly showed how the all-purpose recognition are very important, too. keters to join the constantly growing and all-weather Nivea cream could be Slogans such as “Women with an ideal sales network. Beiersdorf wanted them used and how it worked. Mentioning of beauty should use NIVEA” (爱美仕 to include the “Top skincare product that the product was made in Germany 女硬搽能维雅) or “Everyone will (护肤珍品)” that was so popular in the generated a high level of confi dence admire healthy and beautiful skin” western world into their range of pro- in customers, but the campaign also (肌肤健美人人羡爱) convey an idea ducts. On top of that, the inevitably stressed that the positive characteris- of how people thought back then. attractive dealer selling price made the tics of the product were recognized by Ladies with an extravagant hairstyle, product even more interesting. chemists from all over the world and either in stylish dress, in provocative History is repeating. The Beiersdorf that the product was the result of many bathing suits on a diving board by headquarters in Hamburg has been years of research. With samples at rea- a swimming pool or in tennis gear, committed to the Chinese market and sonable prices that were frequently along with gentlemen wearing ties invested into launching local market- advertised in striking campaigns, fi rst- embodied the ideal of those times in ing activities. In doing so, Beiersdorf time buyers had the possibility to try Nivea advertisements. successfully established the brand the cream themselves. The investments made in these among customers and made it equal- campaigns that could be found in well- ly attractive for Chinese marketers. Admired beauty. But the key element known daily newspapers in Shanghai, What is more, it gained a lead over was the campaign‘s emotional appeal Tianjin or Qingdao were not only its Chinese competitors and in the that could not have fi t in better with successful because they familiarized fi ght against the counterfeits readily the golden age of Shanghai in the customers with the brand but also be- available on the market. A look at the 1920s and 1930s – looking back in cause they boosted sales at the various business press leads to the impression 1957, the Zürcher Weltwoche news- Nivea outlets in the country such as that Beiersdorf‘s current advertising paper referred to it as “Shanghai, the pharmacies, department stores or campaigns in China are aiming for no virtuous Babylon”. When individ- shops for products from abroad. The less than a renaissance of a successful

Photo: BeiersdorfPhoto: Archiv uality and self-fulfilment have top advertisements were also an important past.

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