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Top - Ramen Marketing Analysis
Top - Ramen Marketing Analysis
It was established in Japan on September 4, 1948 by Momofuku Ando as Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. of Japan and ten years later introduced the first instant ramen noodle product, Chikin Ramen (Chicken Ramen).
They established a US subsidiary Nissin Foods in 1970 and sold instant
Momofuku Ando.
Nissin Foods has its headquarters in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka.The company
moved to its current headquarters in 1977, when the construction of the building was completed.
Introduction
Top Ramen is one of the noodles brand in India launched by Indo Nissin
and egg.
Since its launch the brand has been constantly changing its sales pitch
years to dethrone Maggi Noodles which had become a benchmark in the category.
The Struggle
Entry Level
When Top Ramen was launched in India, Maggi was an established
which left no water in a dish and on the contrary Top Ramen was watery which didnt find too many takers.
Pricing
It was costlier as compared to other brands. A 400 gm pack of Top Ramen was priced at Rs 34.
Re-launch
Top Ramen was relaunched as Quick Chow-Chow Noodles in 1992 as an
consumers young (below seven), Top Ramen wanted to watch them grow under its franchise.
To this end, a new campaign broke, with the adline Dont be a noodle.
Be a smoodle . The initial results were heartening: market share climbed from 13 % in 1996 to 24 % in 1998.
Meanwhile, Maggi tried its hand at a change in product formulation in
1997 from oil-fried noodles to sun-dried ones which didnt go down well with consumers. It was forced to backtrack in a years time.
Indo-Nissin ran into a tangle. Brooke Bond, which had a 26 % stake in Indo-Nissin and looked after the distribution of Top Ramen, was merged with Hindustan Lever Limited.
Indo-Nissin managed to finalise an alternate distribution arrangement
Lacking Innovation
The major issue faced by Top Ramen was the differentiation.
Top Ramen could not offer any serious differentiation to Maggi either in
the lost ground because it was the pioneer brand who built the category.
Top Ramen also lost out when Maggi repositioned itself in the health
platform.
Production Failure
In 1997 Nestles Maggi dominated the market with a market share of over
volumes but because it has not been able to grow along with the category which increased from 14,000 tonnes in 1998 to 17,000 tonnes in 2002.
stages. They were proudly boasting a funky English tag line "Don't be a noodle, be a smoodle". This does not connect with an average Indian who speaks native Hindi.
One major factor for Maggi's success was its quick localization. Never did
Maggi put any fancy English tag lines nor did it endorse its product as a foreign brand though it could have.
Maggi easily connected with its consumers with its tagline
Maggi 2-minute noodles . Except for the first phase of brand promotion, Top Ramen did not have any worthwhile campaign in its 18 years of existence.
Maggi was able to bring in lot of noise because it had become an
New Positioning
Now, in a bid to refurbish its image and hike its market share in the
Rs. 200-crore Indian noodle market, Indo Nissin Foods has re-launched its Top Ramen Noodles and Cup Noodles in a new bright international packaging.
It has also offered price-off schemes, launched new advertising
with vitamins and calcium which give consumers 25 per cent of their daily requirement of calcium vitamin B1 and B2.
Target the 11 to19 years age group. This segment is the largest consumers
New Promotions
Top Ramen Noodles is being re-launched with a fresh campaign that seeks to
make Top Ramen a part of every Indian family as the little strands of happiness . A new TVC, conceptualised by Hakuhodo Percept, broke on all news and entertainment channels.
The TVC features part animation and part live action. Character design,
background design, computer graphics and animation have been executed by MFX Malaysia, while Shantanu Bagchi of Illusion Films has directed the film. Illusion Films is the production house. The objective is to position Top Ramen as smooth and tasty noodles,
targeting primarily kids, and secondarily, mothers, and to hold a differentiated brand identity as compared to other brands in the category and, therefore, be in the consideration of a potential instant noodle buyer
12% per annum, it surely can capture a major part of market share in the Rs 200-crore Indian noodle market.