Introduction:

Nestle India Limited(NIL) is the market leader in Indian Noodle

Market with it’s Maggi Brand of Noodles which was pioneer brand
launched in 1983 in the packaged food market of India. It took
the challenge and established Maggi in Indian market, considered
to be conservative and typical about food consumption. Its
appropriate realization of target segment, effective positioning
and effective promotion and sales made Maggi to Noodles in
India as Xerox is to photocopier. NIL had introduced sauces,
ketchups and soups under Maggi brand to reap benefit of brand
popularity and image, and contribute to financial gains by
1990.Maggi also became successful in sauces, ketchups and
soups Market in India. Though NIL tried to extend to other ready
to eat products like pickles, cooking aids and paste, it was
unsuccessful, so dumped those
Over the years maggi has launched several products under its brand name

Competitors:
Maggi is competing with:
• Heinz Sauces and Ketchup
• Knoor Soups
• Kissan Sauces and Ketchup
• Top Ramen
• Sunfeast Pasta Wai Wai in corresponding categories of products and
variants

NIL promotions positioned the noodles as a convenient product for mothers as it takes
only 2 minutes to cook and it’s very easy to cook as well. All that it takes it to boil water
and add Maggi noodles and masala in it which is provided in the packet itself. And it is
positioned as fun for the children as they eat it with fork and sause and those noodles are
very enjoyable while eating. Hence the tagline “fast to cook, good to eat” best suits the
promotional strategies. They promoted the product further distributing free samples
which helped mothers to try cooking once and realizing how convenient it is in cooking.
And whether their children like it or not. And they actually found it amazing. NIL
promotions gave gifts on return of the packets which by default attracted the people
towards it. Hence it led to effective tagline communication for Maggi.

NIL had to give the protection for this product as they saw the success of this product in
the market. Hence they opted to go for the copyrights. The word ‘noodles’ was registered
in the year 1984 by NIL. Hence Maggi became the trademark for the noodles category
products from the year 1984. After this copyright the growth of Maggi product got an
amazing bounce and in 1997 the growth of the product topped the market. It fell a bit in
1999 and gained boomed in 2004.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths

• Market leader in the noodles category. Anytime anyone prefers Maggi as noodles.
• It has a huge brand loyalty.
• It has developed the huge distribution channel network over thousands of
distributors, retailers etc. hence Maggi is available in every shop right from the
supermarket till food malls.
• Innovative products for Indian taste buds such as Maggi, Maggi masala, chicken
Maggi, tomato flavor which helped them grabbing more market as customer
needs variety and they loved those flavors as well.
• The advertising strategy for Maggi was a super hit as their tagline itself was very
effective and grabbed the consumer’s mind.

Weakness
The weakness of the product was it was earlier heavily dependent on only one
flavor which consumers get bored after a time and stops buying the product which hits
the market sales of the product. It contains Maida, so there are some health related issues
for this product such as constipation and it does not give sufficient required proteins and
vitamins to children.

Opportunities
The greatest opportunity for the product Maggi is their
• Unexploited rural markets as so far they have mainly targeted cities and
developed areas.
• Number of youths working nowadays are increasing rapidly, so they can open
new branches and employ these people and increase production and their by sales
and profits by targeting rural markets.
• Increased affinity of Indians towards chinese cuisine creates new opportunity for
Maggi to improve its taste further and capture large market share.

Threat
• Presence of regional competitor’s e.g Top Raman, Ching’s noodles.
• Price war strategies adopted by other brands like Top Raman.

STDP Analysis
Segmentation
It is based on lifestyle and habits of urban families depending on their
consumption per week, type of flavor sold etc.

Targeting
Kids, Office goers are their main targets as it is very easy to cook and less time
consuming office goers prefer it. And kids love its taste.
Positioning
With statements such as 2 min noodles, easy to cook and good to eat, they crate
their own position in the market, and their tagline is the most effective way to get the
positioning done.

Differentiation

Different taste for different flavors and attractive packaging has helped them to
differentiate their product from others.

Michael Porters Five Forces Model

Buyers,
Suppliers
Industrial
New
Substit
consumer
mindset
Distributors
Rivalry
Entrants
utes
Market Penetration Strategies:
Maggi started with promotional campaigns in the school to see the reaction of
children after eating Maggi.
• Started their advertising straight focusing on kids.
• Introduced new products like atta noodles dal atta noodles cuppa mania.
• Products are made available in different packages like 50,100,200,400 Gms.
• Keep on conducting market research to understand changes in market.

Though Maggi has been successful every time, there were times when it faced
challenges. Some of these are:

• Sales saw decline in 1990: The Company saw a decline in the sales in 1990.
When the company tried to find out what the reason was, they came to know that
there was some thing wrong with the formula that spoiled the taste. So the
formula was changed from fried base to oiled dried base

• Competition increased in noodle segment: When Maggi was enjoying being the
only noodle offering by any company Top ramen entered the market as a
competition. This was a big challenge for Maggi. Though Top Ramen couldn’t do
well in India

• New product launched in market but failed- Nestle decided to expand its offerings
by offering Dal atta noodles & Sambhar flavor noodles. But these products were
not welcomed by the people the very special taste of Maggi was still ruling the
consumer

• Maggi launched some new products: Ketchups, Soups, Taste makers etc. but they
were not successful

Current Scenario:
Maggi right now is a leading brand in India as well as world. It has successfully
established itself as a noodle brand that can be made in 2 minutes and can be cooked very
easily. The simple process of making and different taste makes it most loved noodle
brand.

Reasonable competitive price gives it another advantage; packs of every size and pack
are available in the market. Nestle has priced it in such a way that it has always been
affordable to the consumer

The company has a creative interaction blogs for customers where people can discuss
about various topics if any problem is discussed about the product the company gets to
know it. Direct and continuous contact with customers is maintained at .www.maggi-
club.in

Maggi normally focuses mainly on health benefits; it not only wants itself to be tasty but
nutritious as well. This is the reason why it always keeps on adding nutritional value to it.
Maggi turns 25; Nestle comes up with new campaign
Nestle India is out with a new marketing drive to mark the 25th anniversary this year of
its instant Noodles brand, Maggi Called Me & Meri Maggi, the campaign is celebrating
the consumer’s bond with Maggi. The company is doing“360 degree activation” across
television, print and the internet, beside on-ground activities. Nestle has also launched an
interactive website for the consumers, www.meandmeri.in

The packaging has been tweaked to accommodate the pictures of consumers whose
entries the Company chooses. “If a consumer has a story to tell about Maggi will put him
or her on the Packaging, TV or print,”

Suggestions: Promotional Strategies

• Maggi should Focus on creating distinctive image of its own based on
twin benefits of being easily & instantly ready to be made

• It should conduct promotional campaigns at schools in small towns with

population not more than 1000

• It should strengthen the distribution channel of the rural areas within

100km of all the metros.

• It should launch new advertisement campaign (TV, radio, print media

commercials) with a brand ambassador or mascot

So we can see that Maggi has a story of it’s own to tell. A story with success & failures.
A story where Nestle gave the country something to eat, that it had not eaten before and
now the country loves it so much that it has become one of the most well established
brands as well as a part of many household. We can conclude that Maggi as a brand has a
long way to go