Maggi Noodles

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.

But still this didn’t work, as it was targeted towards the

wrong target group, the working women. After
conducting an extensive research, the firm found that
the children were the biggest consumers of Maggi
noodles.

Quickly a strategy was developed to capture the kids

segment with various tools of sales promotion like
pencils, fun books, Maggi clubs which worked wonders
for it. No doubt the ads of Maggi have shown a hungry
kid saying “Mummy bhookh lagi hai” to which his mom
replies “Bas do minute!” and soon he is happily eating
Maggie noodles. Further the MAGGI 2-MINUTE
Noodles had been renovated to provide 20% of the
RDA1 of Calcium and Protein for the core target group
building on the nutrition proposition “Taste bhi health
bhi”.
The company could have easily positioned the product
as a meal, but did not, as a study had shown that Indian
mentality did not accept anything other than rice or roti
as meal. They made it a easy to cook snack that could
be prepared in just two minutes. The formula clicked
well and Maggi became a brand name.
 Brand name
Brand name is a Promise. It says you know the name,
you can trust the promise. As all promises, it is trusted
only as far as those promises are met. Trust is a critical
first step and brands aim to accelerate that step
leveraging the implied promise of the brand. The
brands most valuable asset is— its name.

"Creating a superb taste needs a vision of adding value

to food habits ofpeople, it is just more than satisfying
crave". ―MAGGI is the name that serves it impeccably.
Maggi is the name, which showed the power of
marketing. This brand made noodles a household
product. When many foreign food brands are trying to
change Indian consumers taste, Maggi bought in a
silent revolution. To mark its silver jubilee, Maggi ran a
campaign " Me & Meri Maggi". The name slowly ―
attached itself to the sentiments of Indian consumers
need without disruption. Maggi personifies the basic
principles of understanding consumers, innovating and
investing in the brand.
 Brand Logo

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

Integrated Mass Communication

Advertising Public Sales Interactive

Relations Promotion Marketing

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

Discount offered to retailers:

7% discount on 6-piece pack (56MRP), 5 rupee discount
on 8-piece pack(78MRP). These are promotional
schemes given to retailers. Maggi is coming up with
schemes like giving one soup pack with 8-piece pack. In
past company had promotional schemes like 4 piece
pack with that ofRs.36 instead of Rs.40.

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.

There were also a group of kids singing aloud and

dancing in typical 1990s style because they have to wait
for only 2 minutes when they are hungry or when they
are with friends because that's how long it takes to
make Maggi noodles.
And if mothers and children did not convince you, there
was superstar Amitabh Bachchan narrating heart-
warming stories of how Maggi has touched the lives of
ordinary Indians and telling youngsters that the best
way to combat their big hunger after a big day is to eat
a big pack of Maggi noodles.

Or Madhuri Dixit being the 'perfect' mom by dancing

and playing football with her children to assure both
them and the viewer that 'health can be enjoyable'
because Maggi noodles are now made of oats and
therefore it is the best breakfast for kids.
A Maggi mom also tried to assure families all over that
one bowl of the noodles = 3 rotis + vegetables. Now
who wouldn't want to believe that there is a better
tasting alternative to the boring roti-sabzi routine!

'Maggi-mom' seems to be recurring trend because the

brand also tried to convince all mothers that if they
want to make their child feel special and make them
happy, all they have to do is rustle up a bowl of Maggi
in '2 minutes' because it is 'khushion ki reciepe' (recipe
for happiness) after all.
That's not all, even young women can convince their
protective moms that they are old enough to live
independently if they pass the Maggi test - cook the
noodles just like her. Because Maggi-making abilities is
all the proof your mom needs to let you live alone
 Advertising Agency

Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising

and public relations company, and is one of the largest
marketing and communications company in the world.
It is now one of the "Big Four" agency companies,
alongside WPP, Interpublic and Omnicom.

India has hired McCann World Group (Prasoon Joshi) to

manage the new project as the noodle brand tries to
make a reentry into the market after the MSG and Lead
crisis.
 Market segmentation,
targeting & positioning
Segmentation is the process of grouping people or
organizations within a market according to similar
needs, characteristics, or behaviours.

Targeting is the actual selection of the segment you

want to serve the target market is the group of people
or organizations whose needs a product is specifically
designed to satisfy.

Positioning is the use of marketing to enable people to

form a mental image of your product in their minds
(relative to other products)
Segmentation Targeting Positioning Differentiation

FAST TO
COOK,
AGE KIDS TASTE
GOOD TO
EAT

EATING 2-MINUTE
YOUTH FLAVOURS
HABITS NOODLES

LIFESTYLE OF TASTE BHI

OFFICE
URBAN HEALTH PACKAGING
GOERS
FAMILIES BHI

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.

 Office Goers and working women: The Company

also targeted this segment people because they
were the one who needs refreshment time to time
because of hectic schedule and with would take
their minimal time. So by keeping this aspect into
consideration, the company introduce the Cuppa
mania, which is a type of noodle which takes less
time to cook and satisfy the hunger as well.

 Health Conscious People: The Company is also

focusing on the heath aspect. They introduce Veg
atta noodle for health conscious people. So they
also launch Health Awareness campaign to educate
consumers about the benefits of health food. They
also sponsor health camps, publish health
information and build awareness among the
masses.
 Positioning
Maggi 2 Minute Noodles will continue with its current
positioning ofconvenience and as a “fast to cook, good
to eat” snack as this seems to beworking well.To
prevent Yippee, the main competitor, from eating into
its market sharesome product innovation is required as
otherwise Maggi may get stereotyped asan unexciting
product. Yippee is following a cost differentiation and
product improvement technique.To deal with this
Maggi has to position itself as a differentiated product.

The market is very sensitive to taste and rejects any

flavour it dislikes with Maggi having learnt it the hard
way, thus the product cannot be greatly differentiated
with on basis of taste. On the other hand Maggi has to
deal with the negative perception of Maggi has of
being unhealthy in an increasingly health conscious
market, a major threat in the current scenario. Both
these problems can be tackled by positioning Maggi as
a snack with nutritional value. The recent launch of
“Veg Atta Noodles” , “Dal AttaNoodles” and “Oats
Noodles” with the promise of good nutritional value
ventures in this area.
Product Positioning

 Stand out in the Crowd

 Intially Maggi was positioned as a hygienic home
made snack, a smart move
 Over the years, Maggi has grown as a brand and
positioned itself as a ’Fast to cook! Good to Eat!’ food
product
 The company could have easily positioned the
product as a meal
 NIL's promotions positioned the noodles as a
'convenience product', for mothers and as a 'fun'
product for children “ Mummy Bhook lagi hai” “Bus 2
min” “2 minute noodles”,
 Maggi has managed to position itself in the food and
snacks market in the country, wonderfully fitting into
the breakfast-lunch-dinner-in-between snacking slot.
 Conclusion
The food processing business in India is at a nascent
stage. Currently, only about 10% of the output is
processed and consumed in packaged form thus
highlighting huge potential for expansion and growth.
Traditionally, Indians believe in consuming fresh stuff
rather then packaged or frozen, but the trend is
changing and the new fast food generation is slowly
changing. Riding on the success of noodles, Nestle
India, tried to make extensions of the Maggi brand to a
number of products like, sauces, ketchups, pickles,
soups, tastemakers and macaroni in the mid-1990s.
Unfortunately, the macaroni and pickles didn‘t pick up
as expected. The soups and sauces did somewhat fine,
gathering considerable sales volumes and have a
satisfactory presence even today. `Maggi Noodles‘ itself
faced a bit of difficulty with respect to `taste‘, and
nearly lost its position in the minds of Indianconsumers
in the late 1990s. When Nestle changed the
formulation of its tastemaker, the ominous packet that
came alongwith Maggi Noodles, a major chunk of
consumers were put-off and sales started dropping.
Also, Maggi‘s competitor `TopRamen‘ took advantage
of the situationand started a parallel aggressive
campaign to eat into Maggi‘s market share. But the
company quickly realised this and went back into
making the original formula coupled with a free
sampling campaign. This helped Maggi to win back its
lostconsumers and pushed up its sales volumes again!
The year 2008 saw India leading in worldwide Maggi
sales. Thebrand has grown to an estimated value of Rs
160-170 crore and contributes at least8–9% to Nestle
India‘s top line. All the same, some FMCG analysts feel
that the brand has not done much to expand the
noodles category. Even after 25 years of its launch, the
size of the instant noodles market is yet quite small at
Rs 300 crore, leaving much to be desired.