Whose product is Maggi? Nestle
Nestle:
-Swiss Company founded in 1866 by Henri Nestle
-Main focus: Great taste + Health, nutrition and wellness
Maggi:
-Nestlé unleashed Maggi in India in 1982
-First Maggi (2-minute noodles) variants in India: Masala,
tomato and chicken flavors
-Nestle’s iconic brand
-Flagship culinary brand in India as well as globally
Nestlé India Ltd. (NIL), the Indian subsidiary of the global
FMCG major, Nestlé SA, introduced the Maggi brand in India
in 1982, with its launch of Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, an instant noodles
product.Maggi launched in India
at a time when the instant noodles market was not a popular one. Nestle
launched Maggi in India
with the tagline: ‘Fast to cook and good to eat’ i.e. they focused on
Convenience and Health.
Indian Consumer: The Indian consumer was on a
lookout for a product that would provide quality food and was also convenient
at the same time. Maggi recognised this need and thought of a ‘fast relief from
hunger’ product.
In a fast growing India, where women were no more
just home makers but professionals helping their spouses to run their
households, cooking food was an important issue. Therefore, initially maggi
2-minute noodles targetting the women. But the sales was not picking up despite
heavy Media Advertising. Indian consumers were rather conservative in their
food habits, preferring to eat traditional Indian dishes rather than canned or
packaged food. They realised that the Indian consumer was still orthodox and
believed in traditional home made Indian food, they conducted market surverys.
They found that it was the chidren who enjoyed the taste of maggi more than
women. They shifted their focus on children and their mothers.
Maggi realised that children love eating fast food and by
associating Maggi with ‘fast relief from hunger’ they created an impression of
‘fast food’ and targetted the children.
With the launch of Maggi noodles, Nestle India Ltd. Created an entirely new
food category: instant noodles. NIL had the first-mover advantage which helped
it retain leadership in the instant noodles category for a long time.
In the early 80s Maggi was positioned as a quick to cook
noodles. The tagline used was “Fast to Cook. Good to Eat”. The same theme continued
in the 90s as well, but the communication was a little different. In the 90s
the communication changed from the kids coming home hungry and asking their
mother for something, to the kids saying that they were hungry and they wanted
Maggi quickly. This emphasized the brand’s popularity, and also reflected on
the role children played in influencing buying decisions (subtly). In the year
2006, Nestle began rebranding itself as a Health and Wellness company. In line
with this, Maggi products were promoted with the tagline “Taste bhi, Health
bhi”.
Positioning: Maggi positioned itself as ‘the
2-minute noodles.’ Consumers still associate maggi with ‘Easy to cook and good
to eat.’
Problems maggi faced: The biggest problem faced
by maggi in India was the Indian
psyche: Traditional Indian food was still a pscyhological barriers in India.
The idea of instant food or fast food was not acceptable as much as it is
today.
Strategies: ‘taste bhi health bhi’: reinforcing
their focus on health and getting in a new angle to 2-mintue maggi: taste!!
In its branding campaign, the company promoted their
brand by sponsoring many kids’ events. Also it spent huge amount on electronic
and print media advertising. Consumers have an emotional bond with the product.
On several occasions company does aggressive marketing by providing free
samples of the product.
Promotions:
They promoted the product by:
-Distributing free samples
-Various sizes of maggi: 50 gms, 100 gms, 200 gms, etc.
-Giving gifts on return on empty packets
-Dry sampling (distributing maggi packets) and wet sampling
(distributing cooked maggi)
-Effective tagline communication
Taglines:
After realising its TG (Target Group) was young children and
their mothers, maggi came up with the tagline:
a. Mummy bhook lagi hai
b. Bas 2 minute
c. Fast to cook, good to eat
Convenient product-> Mothers (fast to cook)
Fun product-> Children (good to eat)
That’s how they came up with their tag line: ‘Fast to
cook, good to eat’
d. Health bhi taste bhi
Maggi Aata Noodles: In an effort to maintain its
growth in Indian market, Maggi has launched many products like Maggi Vegetable
Atta Noodles, Maggi Vegetable Multigrainz Noodles. It recently added Maggi Dal
Atta Noodles in its product portfolio targeting health conscious people. This
was recently followed with the Rice Noodles.
Brand Extensions: Over the years, NIL extended
the Maggi brand to a variety of culinary products like soups, sauces and
ketchups, and cooking aids among others. Later Nestle also forayed into other
food segments like pickles, using the Maggi brand, but it was unsuccessful
and the products were dumped. Maggi also introduced a range of pastas in the
year 2009 to complement the consumers need for variety in snack foods.
Currently following are the products which are being
marketed by NIL, under the Maggi Noodles brand:
-Maggi Vegetable Multigrain Noodles
-Maggi 2 Minute Noodles
-Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles
-Maggi Cuppa Mania
What worked for Maggi:
1. First-mover advantage: the introduction of instant
noodles as a food segment
2. Timely recognition of their TG (Target Group) and
correction of the same
3. Continuous persuasion through adds/campaigns to their TG
(children and their mothers)
4. Consumer connect and loyalty
5. Newer and more relevant contacts (taglines/adds) with the
consumer
6. Customized products to suit the consumer changing demands
Source-: ideas make market
