The blue team needs to step it up.
Nivea is one of the world’s best-known skin care brands. The blue tin symbolizes trust, reliability, and care for everyone. Now, of all brands, this core brand has become Beiersdorf’s biggest challenge: In the first half of the year, Nivea’s organic sales fell by 6.8 percent, and the brand has lost market share over the past two years. Beiersdorf is therefore lowering its annual forecast and launching an 18-month turnaround plan.
The reasons: a challenging skincare market, weak consumer sentiment, greater price sensitivity, and intensified competition. Customers are increasingly turning to more affordable alternatives. At the same time, new brands, active ingredients, technologies, and personalized routines are constantly entering the market. In this environment, trust remains an important advantage—but it is no longer automatically enough to drive a purchase.
Beiersdorf plans to turn things around: with more innovation, more affordable and locally relevant products, and an additional 100 million euros for media. Nivea is expected to return to growth in 2027, and the group is projected to be profitable at a rate exceeding the market average starting in 2028. That’s an ambitious goal. After all, more advertising can generate attention in the short term, and a lower price can boost sales. In the long term, however, Nivea must once again provide a compelling reason why people should choose its products.
My personal impression: Nivea hasn’t become too obscure, but rather too taken for granted. The brand inspires trust—whereas new competitors offer the appeal of novelty, a clear area of specialization, or the impression of being more attuned to current needs. The crucial question, therefore, is: Can Nivea translate its familiarity into new relevance before the next generation comes to know it only as the blue tin from their parents’ bathroom?
Or what do you think?
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