The Maggi Brand in India: Brand Extension and Repositioning

By

K. Shyamal Kumar (09BS0001088)

Advertising Strategies adopted by NIL to promote Maggi’s Instant Noodles, sauces and Ketchups

MAGGI INSTANT NOODLES

 Initially NIL targeted working women and advertised heavily but it couldn’t succeed.
 It later targeted children since their market research revealed that children preferred it more.
So, it positioned itself as a “convenience product” for mothers and “fun product” for
children.
 Advertising Maggi instant noodles as a “fun” food with taglines such as “Bas 2-minute” and
“Fast to cook, good to eat” paved way initially in the market since it was a new concept in
instant food segment. NIL advertised Maggi instant noodles keeping in mind the convenience
part.
 In 1997, NIL changed the formulation of Maggi instant Noodles in a bid to win the market
share from Nissin’s Top Ramen, calling it new improved noodles. But the new Maggi Instant
Noodles failed and the company re-launched the old Maggi. NIL spent $200 million and
heavy advertised to re-launch the old Maggi Noodles to communicate to the customers that
Maggi was back with the same taste.
 Until 2004, Maggi Instant noodles were advertised without any celebrities, but in 2004,
Preity Zinta, a famous Indian Actress was roped in to strengthen the brand ‘Maggi’ and also
to promote the small packs of Maggi noodles. Mr. Carlo Donati, Chairman and Managing
Director, NIL stated that, the celebrity was featured to increase awareness about Maggi
smaller packs. But in my opinion, Maggi wanted to strengthen its brand image and in a
FMCG segment this could be done only by the use of strong messages either by use of
celebrities or by acquisitions. Preity Zinta was a very popular actress/ youth icon in 2004 and
Maggi must have wanted to attract the youth. Also when NIL introduced Maggi to India
initially, children were their primary focus and to retain them in 2004, they must have
featured Preity Zinta in their ads.
 In 2005 when Maggi brand took the Health route by introducing its “Vegetable Atta
Noodles”, it banked extensively on the advertisements which featured a mother giving her
children the new vegetable atta noodles instead of the traditional roti and sabzi, later she
explains the benefits of the new atta noodles. This time Maggi intelligently used a tagline
“Taste Bhi, Health Bhi” meaning tasty as well as healthy. This move of Maggi to introduce
the local flavors was to ensure the parents that their children consumed a healthy product.
 NIL’s heavy advertisements on Maggi Vegetable atta noodles constituted a major part of
advertising spent on noodles/pastas in India during the first half of 2005.
 The new ad of Maggi Vegetable Atta noodles focused on the routine mother and child, and
also the rest of the family members since Maggi was getting accepted as a fun food for all
ages.
 Maggi in 2006 again introduced a new variant in the instant noodles ‘Vegetable Dal Atta
Noodles’ which comprised of both wheat and pulses in its health segment.

SAUCES AND KETCHUPS

 NIL extended it products under the same brand name ‘Maggi’ into sauces and ketchups in the
early 1990s and soon became the leader in the sauces and ketchups segment mainly due to
the advertisement featuring actors like Javed Jaffrey and Pankaj Kapoor. The ad similar to
Maggi’s Instant noodles had a catchy tagline, “It’s Different!”. The huge success of Maggi’s
Sauces and ketchups were attributed mainly due to its catchy and humorous ads.
 When Heinz cut down their premium prices by 30% to capture the sauces and ketchups
market, Maggi resorted to heavy advertising rather than cutting down its prices too. It bought
back its famous ‘different’ concept, this time in 2004, through another advertisement
featuring Ranvir and Vijay, two famous television actors. This time though it used another
famous tagline “Enjoy the difference”. Maggi retained the ‘difference’ notion to recreate its
old magic. But the ads very not as humorous as the previous ones.
 The sauces and ketchups market of Maggi had a wide variety as of 2005, Maggi featured a
series of advertisements in 2005 where the characters debated whether the product was a
sauce or chutney and finally the protagonist tastes the product and exclaims “Its different!”
and at the end it flashes the tagline “Enjoy the difference”. The Maggi sauces and ketchups
were always advertised aggressively, retaining the ‘difference’ idea.