The new flagship bottle is the primary packaging for NIVEA’s premier skin care product, the number one body lotion in the world. It is a consumers’ primary touch point with the brand and the physical expression of NIVEA’s new commitment to a new global design language and brand strategy that places design in a centrally important role.

NIVEA is a global brand that carries deep, emotional resonance with many consumers, with the smell and visual impression being early childhood memories for participants in the company’s research. NIVEA’s product line has modernized with formula innovations and expanded, but with no guiding strategy or design language for the primary packaging of NIVEA products, the resulting collection has diluted this strong brand impression and given the consumer a confusing and distinctly un-unified impression of the brand. Research shows consumer confusion, both in communications and at the vital point of purchase decision at the shelf. The packaging is at odds with the brands key messages of trust, human approachability and care. Fuseproject’s challenge was to create a product that could not only convey these key values more clearly at the shelf, but also serve as a unifying foundation for a design language. The design needed to fulfill sales channel challenges such as maximizing the product’s impression on the shelf, as well as a supply chain mandate to work with NIVEA’s established network.

As well-designed products are the ultimate message and messenger to the consumer, we set out to shift the design sensibilities of NIVEA back to its heritage to bring it forward into the future. Design makes the brand, product and packaging distinctive enough to cut through the clutter so consumers can more easily identify and pick what they prefer, and when they get the product home, design helps create an effective and enjoyable experience. To compete in a growing global market, NIVEA expanded into new product categories with over 1,600 offerings, aiming to satisfy changing consumer needs and lifestyles. But the design of old and new products and categories wasn’t uniform. Over time, the simplicity of the original circular tin and blue-and-white lettering morphed into multiple forms, featuring various logo representations. As a result, consumers began to find it difficult to recognize NIVEA products and categories on a crowded and cluttered store shelf. Instead of a consistent design strategy, most of the original story and great design intent of NIVEA was lost. This resulted in falling sales for NIVEA and the threat of losing their leading spot in the industry. Given the intense competition in the global skin-care industry, the new design language aims to bolster NIVEA’s status as an iconic brand that is strongly recognizable. The goal is to speak to consumers in a clear, contemporary and understandable way to renew emotional connections and forge new ones with potential customers.

MARKET RESEARCH: NIVEA is a nearly ubiquitous global brand, familiar to people across the world. Not surprisingly, surveys indicate that brand awareness reaches almost 100% in Western Europe and is also extremely high in the U.S. and in countries as diverse as Thailand, Brazil and Australia. Extensive market research was used to test and understand consumer reactions. It was crucial to know if the new design language was a winning visual experience, conveyed the NIVEA brand values and achieved the goal of easy recognition. That information helped the team devise a smooth timetable for the introduction and transition into the new design language in each category and region around the world. BRAND HISTORY AUDIT: We took a considered look back through the NIVEA brand archive to track how the design of the brand has evolved, identifying those elements which were the most essential and definitive in creating the brand people know and love. From packaging, to POS, to advertising, we researched and synthesized essential design elements to help us better reflect the character of the brand. MAPPING BRAND VALUES TO DESIGN PRINCIPLES To make sure that product and brand speak the same language, we created principles derived from the NIVEA brand values. The brand values are the essential qualities of the NIVEA personality. The design principles give form and expression to these values. They create actionable creative guidelines for design, to be executed consistently across communications, products and retail experiences. INTEGRATION: For design to be truly effective, it must be deeply integrated into all levels of the development process. To accomplish this, we collaborated closely with an internal Design Management Team to outline a comprehensive design strategy and a cohesive design language that would define NIVEA. With more than 200 people involved, the Design Management Team included all departments - from marketing to sales, packaging development and procurement and supply chain.

The flagship bottle is the consumers’ first experience of a larger design strategy that covers the bottle, along with the logo and future design development; it distills the brand’s message and expresses a new approach focused on the essentials of NIVEA. The new form was optimized for structural stability and efficient shipping; small changes that multiply across NIVEA’s global presence. The bottle is 15% thinner, saving over 350 tons of plastic annually, and requiring 12,000 fewer shipping palettes, saving 585 tons of Co2 emissions per year. The bottle begins with the iconic circle of the new NIVEA logo and makes it one with the product itself. The circular cap is angled forward, allowing the brand to face towards the consumer with a human, conversational tone. The cap floats above the neck of the bottle, creating a clear and functional detail that invites interaction. The shoulders create an ideal point for holding the bottle, fitting softly into the palm; the tapering form frames the logo on the label and flows around it into the wider bottle. Creating consumer connection at the shelf is critical for truly mass-market products. The design makes the most of its graphic real estate, framing and elevating the logo. By doing this the design realizes more material savings, reducing the label by 25%, while enhancing NIVEA’s strong shelf recognition: tests indicate that shoppers now recognize the NIVEA bottle 20% percent faster, a powerful example of design driving business and potential growth.