Thread by @tycoonmindset05

From being an unknown brand to becoming the most Favored snack of India.

The Indian story of Maggi
@dmuthuk @Gautam__Baid @Prashanth_Krish @FI_InvestIndia @neerajarora91 @RajarshitaS

A thread🧵👇

1/ In the early 1880s, Julius Maggi had a vision of creating a product which was nutritious, quick to prepare and available at an affordable price.

2/ During the industrial revolution, Women were dedicating a good amount of their time at the factories. So, they had less time for preparing a meal for the family.

3/ Julius Maggi in partnership with a Dr. Schuler, launched a range of ready to use soups and food flavours.

The Swiss Government supported these innovative products which gave a huge push to the brand. These products helped women to quickly prepare a wholesome meal.

4/ From the beginning, Julius Maggi was keen on marketing. He invested heavily in advertising.
He also hired Leonetto Cappiello who would later be known as the father of modern advertising.

5/ Julius Maggi even realised the potential of running the advertising campaigns on trams and railways. Maggi vans gave out free samples of hot soups.

6/ In 1947, Nestle acquired Maggi. In 1983-84, Maggi was launched in India. First Maggi factory was established in Moga, Punjab.

7/ At that time, Indian consumer behaviour was more automated towards “Dal Chawal Roti” culture. Nestle believed that Maggi had a high utility factor and could replace the traditional dal roti but unfortunately it faced a lot of difficulties in selling.

8/ Maggi was not competing against its competitor but against the traditional behaviours of Indian consumers.

9/ Maggi conducted a market research and realized that the 'Snack Segment' was the market where habits of people were weak. The existing evening snacks like Kachori and Samosa, had a prominent problem that it took too time to prepare.

10/ The children were generally hungry in the evening. Their mother had to cook something fast and feed them. Indian consumers generally preferred to cook at home over ready-made biscuits and snacks.

11/ Maggi promoted itself as an “in-between” meal product. Thus, children became the target consumer and mother’s belief in the product was critical to the Maggi’s success. Hence, mothers played an important role in Maggi’s ads.

12/ Maggi used various promotional tools such as free gifts, sketch pens, fun books and carried out its promotional activities in schools, parks and places where children would visit frequently.

13/ In 1997, Nestle tried changing the taste of Maggi noodles but it turned out to be a failure. In 1999, Maggi noodles were reintroduced with old flavour and by next year it became the leader in the noodles space.

14/ India, the land of spices, consumes a combination of herbs in every meal. Maggi saw this as an opportunity and released flavors especially tailored to Indian market. This masala flavor played an instrumental role in the success of the brand.

15/ Maggi was the first brand to be displayed using Hanging Baskets in the retail stores. Hanging baskets made sure that Maggi was displayed without taking any shelf space and it was visible to every visitor.

16/ Focusing its tagline to 2-minute noodles added a huge convenience factor and acted as an internal trigger. Maggi’s ads, “Mom I’m hungry” and mom replying “Bas 2 minutes” acted as a huge external trigger.

17/ The real credit goes to Maggi’s campaign team for pushing all the right buttons and ensuring its presence in every household.

18/ Until 2009, Maggi did not engage celebrities to endorse the brand. To mark the completion of 25 years of Maggi, the company started a ‘Me and Meri Maggi’ campaign with celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, to uplift the brand’s existing homely image.

19/ In 2015, Maggi came under the scanner of FSSAI due to presence of lead more than permissible limit. Company also mislabeled the product, ‘No added MSG’ but during the testing MSG was found in the product. This resulted in a nationwide ban on Maggi in June 2015.

20/ Maggi had to withdraw its product from the shelfs. Nestle lost more than Rs.500 crore over the ban. It forced them to recall more than 37,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles from millions of retail shelves, destroy them, tackle regulators and to establish that Maggi was safe.

21/ Brand built over three decades and loved by everyone, from hikers to students, had taken a huge hit. The brand was “Clinically Dead” for the coming months.

22/ After the fiasco of the Maggi ban, its parent company Nestle, decided to increase its spending on television commercials. In 2015, the company spent Rs. 525.21 crore, or 6.42% of its total sales, on advertising and promotions.

23/ Before the Maggi crisis, the people at Nestle were rigid about their business terms but after the crisis, Maggi became aggressive yet flexible in its distributor’s relationship. It had become a lot easier to do business with Maggi after the crisis.

24/ In order to reposition itself back in the market, Maggi played a smart strategy. It came up with three ad campaign

“I miss you yaar”

“Kabh wapas aayega yaar? Miss you”

“Abh aa bhi jao, miss you yaar”

25/ These ads were run on all the social media platforms 2 months before the relaunch. The objective was to recreate the trust with a dash of nostalgia.

26/ Maggi decided to sell its noodles exclusively via Snapdeal before it officially made its comeback to the shelves. This created a scarcity premium in the brand and the demand of the product went through the roof. This led to setting up a stage for an official comeback.

27/ From trying to create space for itself in the traditionally rich country to becoming everyone's favourite, the company has seen it all.

28/ During the current pandemic, sales of Maggi has gone up by almost 25% as compared to pre- Covid levels. People stocked up instant noodles. For some time Maggi noodles were even out of supply.

@dmuthuk

https://twitter.com/dmuthuk/status/1242084456229302272?s=20

29/ This is the love Indians have shown to this foreign company. The company has adapted itself with the Indian culture and people have accepted it as its own.

30/ Today, Maggi is available in every corner of the country be it Himalayan ranges, the Indian Ghats, the Indian sea shores and any remote location. It has become a staple food of bachelors, college kids and young professionals.

31/ Maggi has created its magic on the citizens and it is here to stay in our hearts.

Ref:
drive.google.com/file/d/1nPLugQ…

Stay tuned for another threads and blogs.😃