Abstract

The case discusses how Germany-based personal care company Beiersdorf AG (Beiersdorf) used open innovation to come out with a new deodorant under its Nivea brand. The deodorant, Nivea Invisible FOR Black & White, went on to become the company’s bestselling deodorant in its 130-year history. Since its inception in 1882, the company had brought out several innovative, path breaking products. It gave high priority to customers’ needs and used several methods to reach them. In 2008, the company planned to launch a new deodorant and sought to make consumers a part of the new creation process. In association with a company that was involved in customer centric innovation, Beiersdorf commenced netnographic studies to understand what customers wanted from a new deodorant and the problems they faced with existing ones. The studies showed that customers were very concerned about the stains that were left behind on clothes by deodorants. The company then started to study the problem of staining in depth and found that it was a problem faced by customers all over the world. The R&D and product development teams of the company came out with about 30 attributes that the new deodorant should have. Again the company went back to the customers to finalize the attributes that they wanted in the new deodorant. The team sent an interactive questionnaire which consisted of ideas for a new deodorant and different attributes for the customers to evaluate. The questionnaire was sent to bloggers who had blogged on this topic, and they were asked to share it with others. It was also sent out to several customers. The participants evaluated the ideas on parameters like innovation, benefits, use, etc. Many participants came out with suggestions for improvement and features to be incorporated in the new product. The responses were summarized and a few ideas were shortlisted, ranked, and indexed. Finally, the research team understood that apart from the deodorant not leaving any stains, the consumers wanted a product that would take care of their skin and clothes. The R&D team then set to work to find out the cause for these stains. It found that the white stains on dark clothes were due to active ingredients in antiperspirants and the yellow stains on light clothes were caused by active agents in deodorants reacting with surfactants in the detergent. The company’s R&D team along with specialty chemicals company, Evonik, and experts at Hohenstein institute, a research center for textile products, came out with patented technology for a product that protected dark fabric from white residues and minimized yellow staining on white textiles. The outcome of the research was Nivea Invisible Black & White, which was launched in February 2011. The product went on to become one of the most successful deodorants under the Nivea brand. Its success encouraged the company to go in for customer participation before launching several other products.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Innovation — in products, processes, and business models
• Using co-creation and innovation in new product development.
• Integrated product development
• Product innovation and business strategy
• Designing products identifying customer requirements

Keywords

Beiersdorf AG, Nivea, Innovation, Product development, innovation strategy, open innovation, co-creation, online communities, netnography, Nivea Invisible for Black & White, deodorant, customer feedback, customer centric innovation, pearlfinder, consumer connectivity,