Maggi - Marketing Management
Maggi - Marketing Management
1983-2016
By Ayush Bisht
Ratan
Introduction
Ever since its launch in India in 1983, this brand has
become synonymous with noodles. The bright red and
yellow colours of the packet with the brilliant blue “2-
minute Noodles” printed on it has found a place on
every kitchen.
Over the years, Maggi has grown as a brand and
positioned itself as a “Fast to cook! Good to Eat! “ food
product.
The history of this brand traces back to the 19th
century when industrial revolution in Switzerland
created factory jobs for women, who were therefore left
with very little time to prepare meals. Due to this
growing problem Swiss Public Welfare Society asked a
miller named Julius Maggi to create a vegetable food
product that would be quick to prepare and easy to
digest.
However in India (the largest consumer of Maggi
noodles in the world!) it was launched in 1980 by
Nestle group of companies. Maggie had merged with
Nestle family in 1947.
When launched it had to face a stiff competition from
the ready to eat snack segments like biscuits, wafers
etc. Also it had other competitor the so called home
made snacks which are till today considered healthy
and hygienic. Hence to capture the market it was
positioned as a hygienic home made snack, a smart
move.
1983 2016
A logo is a mathematical element (ideogram, symbol,
emblem, icon, sign) that,together with its logotype (a
uniquely set and arranged typeface) forms a trademark
or commercial brand.
Carlo Donati gave the ―Maggi word to the product
range to continue the image of―healthy and fast to
cook food for working women which was introduced by
Julius Maggi (September 2, 1859 – 1925) was a French
painter, poster, artist and printmaker who developed
and designed the logo of Maggi.
Jingles and Taglines
The basic problem the brand faced is the Indian Psyche.
Indian Palate is not too adventurous interms of trying
new tastes. So a new product with a new taste that too
from a different culture had a great deal of difficulty in
appealing to Indian market. Initially Nestle tried to
position the Noodles in the platform ofconvenience
targeting the working women. But it found that the
sales are not picking up despite heavy promotion.
Research then showed that Kids were the largest
consumers of the brand. Realizing this, Nestle
repositioned the brand towards the kids using sales
promotions and smart advertising. Now Maggi is the
number one brand in the noodles.
Maggi was positioned as “2-minute noodles‘” with a
punch line that said “Fast to Cook Good to Eat”. The
jingle ―”Mummy bhook lagi, Bas do minute, Maggi
Maggi Magge” quickly grasped the attention of
consumers all over India. This gave the implied
understanding to the consumer that it was a ‘between
meals’ snack. The company could have easily positioned
the product as a meal, either lunch or dinner. But, it
chose not to do so, because the Indian consumer
mindset did not accept anything other than rice or roti
as a meal. Hence trying to substitute it with noodles
would have been futile. The firm did not position it as a
“ready-to-eay” meal either, as the housewife prefers to
‘make‘ a meal for her kids rather than buy it for them.
And if she can make it in two minutes with very little
effort, then obviously it‘s a hit with her. The kids also
loved the taste, thus the ‘2-minute‘ funda coupled with
the ‘yummy taste‘ worked. NIL‘s promotions positioned
the noodles as “convenience product”, for mothers and
as a “fun” product for children.
The tag lines such as “Fast to Cook Good to Eat”, “2-
minute noodles” and “Taste Bhi, Health Bhi” are the
strong brand elements of Maggi, which have helped in
building brand equity.
EG:- Maggi Cuppa Mania Just add garam paani and
carry on jaaani! Nestle has widened its offering of the
Maggi brand of noodles with the launch of Maggi
Cuppa Mania instant noodles. The company hopes that
its instant noodles will be an instant hit with busy
executives who are short on time, and consequently the
product has been launched with the tag line Just add
garam paani and carry on jaaani! The product,
launched in twovariants “Masala Yo !” and “Chilli Chow
Yo!” has been packaged with a disposable fork to make
it an even easier snacking option.
Brand strategy – IMC
Ad's Ad
Campaigns
TV Ad's
Print Ad's
Billboards
Others
Initial Strategies of Maggi:
Maggi has faced lot of hurdles in its journey in india
The basic problem the brand faced is the Indian
psyche
Initially Nestle tried to position Maggi in the platform
of convenience targeting the working women.
However, the sales of maggi was not picking up
despite of heavy media advertising. To overcome this
Nestle conducted a research. Nestle promotion
positioning the maggi product as a ‘convenience
produc’ for mother and as a ‘fun’ product for
children. The maggi tagline, “Fast To Cook Good To
Eat” was also in keeping with its positioning. They
promoted the product further by distributing free
samples. Giving gifts on return of empty packets, etc.
Effective Tagline Communication.
Different communication media used by Maggi
TV Ads:
Initially maggi was targeted at the workingwomen and
later the upper-middle class kids. Maggi was a sponsor
for Hum Log, a popular television show on
Doordarshan, India‘s sole channel in 1984. Maggi is
now targeting its products at the entire family and not
only kids. Maggi has recently launched ―Main Aur Meri
Maggi campaign in commensurate of 25yrs of maggi in
India.
Print Ads:
Maggi does not focus heavily on print media. During its
launch since its initial target audience was mother and
kids. Some adv in the print media were used to
highlight the convenience factor of maggi. ‘Recently
maggi came out with advertisements in some weekly
magazines for its new atta noodles and rice noodles
varients. Maggi rice noodles mania had the highest
column centimeter in print among the istant food
category. Growth in noodles/pasta print advertisement
grew by 42% share in 2010. Maggi‘s expenditure on
print media is much lower compared to other media.
Sales Promotion:
To introduce new products
To attract new customer and retain the existing ones
To maintain sales of seasonal products
To meet challenge of competition tools
Exchange schemes
Price –Off offer
Scratch and win offer
Display:
Large pack sizes at the top with decreasing pack sizes
as going downward.This is because that for a retail
outlet the more value is generated largepack thus they
try to project big size at convenience place.
Public Relation:
The Maggi Club – the children under 14 were invited by
press adv and distribution of leaflets to become a
member of maggi club by sending logos cut from 5
empty maggi wrappers. Maggi projected it as ―maggi
clubbers are fun lovers and intended to use it as
reference group. Benefit offered to maggi- clubbers are
various games like snap safari game, Cap and mask
sets, travel india game, Disney today comic. To obtain
each gift the member has to send 5 wrappers as
purchase proof. Some special privileges were given to
regular members time to time like, discounting tickets
of Appughar. Organisation maggi school quizzes and
sketching.
Result of PR Activity:
Getting closer to regular customer boosted the sales.
Making valuabledirect marketing database. Recently,
again, they have started maggi fanclub. This time it is
operating online and they are provided user name and
password.
Maggi Advertisements
over the years
Since the 1980s, Maggi ads featured a mother feeding
her children the noodles, giving the not-so-subtle
message that it is 'fast to cook' for moms and 'good to
eat' for kids.
FAST TO
COOK,
AGE KIDS TASTE
GOOD TO
EAT
EATING 2-MINUTE
YOUTH FLAVOURS
HABITS NOODLES
WORKING
- - -
WOMEN
HEALTH
- CONSCIOUS - -
PEOPLE
Target segment
Maggi 2 Minute Instant Noodles is already associated
with convenience and taste and is currently accepted as
a valid filling snack between meals. Maggi will continue
to leverage its brand equity and target the following
segments forthis product.
Children and Teenagers: This is a large segment
and is Maggi’s stronghold. The age group between
4 and 14 years has largely similar tastes and is
traditionally targeted by Maggi. These segments
perceive Maggi instant noodles as a welcome
change in taste from the regular Indian fare and
they are fascinated by the curly shaped noodles. For
these segments innovative products also have
novelty value, however, certain dominant
preferences emerge. Realizing this early, Maggi
shifted focus from the lady of the house to the end
consumer i.e. children themselves ending up as the
market leader of the instant noodles segment. Early
buy in of this segment will help Maggi to sell in
other segments in future.
Studying Age: The studying age segment though
not traditionally targeted specifically has been
devouring Maggi 2 minute noodles. The proposition
of convenience of cooking as well as that of a tasty
filling snack attracts this segment which due to
erratic schedules keeps missing their regular meals.