When somebody says ‘Noodles’, what comes to your mind first? The answer is ‘Maggi’. That is the power of the Maggi brand. Maggi is synonymous with noodles. What Dalda is for Vegetable oils, Surf is for detergent powder, Maggi is for noodles in India. Maggi is the most eating noodles brand in India.
Maggi Beginning Story
Julius Michael Johannes Maggi invented a food formula for better taste. It happened in 1863. Based on his surname, Maggi’s food formula was registered with the name ‘Maggi’. At that time, Women’s work was only limited to the kitchen.
After 20 years, an industrial revolution came into the world. It changed everything. Women joined different industries. Now, they had limited time for the kitchen.
Swiss Public Welfare Society approved Maggi vegetable food products in the year 1882. Since the product supported instant easy cooking, it became popular. Women liked the product a lot. Later Maggi created two varieties of soups to cash the noodles’ popularity.
In 1897, Maggi started its operations in Germany. In the year of 1912, it was introduced in the US and France. Nestle acquired Maggi in 1947. Nestle is a swiss company.
Maggi’s Journey to Indian Market
1983 was a special year for India. India won the cricket world cup against Mighty West Indies. 1983 became more special because Maggi was launched in India. Initially, Maggi did not get popular in India. Indians preferred rice and chapati over Maggi. Nestle India invested 100 crores over advertisement without any major success.
Nestle understood that it is difficult to change centuries-old food habits. The company presented Maggi Noodles as evening snake time food.
Children come back home in the evening time from school and are hungry. They want to eat something. Women choose Maggi Noodles and it made children happy. Over the years, it became an unavoidable habit. Slowly, Maggi found a place in Indian Kitchens. Urban Indians started liking the product because of its 2 minutes of readiness.
Maggi also got the first-mover advantage. There was no competition for the noodles brand. Maggi focussed moreover consumer behaviour. After identifying the popularity of Maggi in children, Nestle focussed on attracting children instead of targeting women. Other than evening snacks, Maggi was also advertised as an ‘in-between food’ product.
One of the tv commercials where Child says, “Mom, I am Hungry”, and the mother replies,” Bas 2 Minute”, became very popular. Distribution of trail packs in schools and sponsoring one of the popular tv show, “Hum Log”, made Maggi popular among the masses.
Since 1999, Maggi has found its permanent place in Indian Kitchens.
Growth of Maggi Brand
In 2015, Maggi was banned temporarily after finding excess lead in initial lab reports. The fan following of Maggi is so strong that people were unhappy with that government decision. Such a strong sentiment with a foreign brand is commendable. Nestle India has launched a PAN India campaign for Maggi to restore the trust of millions of Indians after Maggi landed in controversy for having lead in it.
Nestle has also launched other products under the Maggi brand. Maggi masala, ketchup, soups are a few of them. As per the DNA India report, The Maggi brand has grown by nearly 25 percent of Nestle group’s total profits in India and the annual figure has reached over Rs 1000 crore.
Today, Maggi noodles is a popular instant food among children, hostel boys, bachelors, and married couples.
In FY 2019, Maggi earned a total revenue of around Rs 1200 crore. In the year 2019, it sold around 264000 tonnes of Maggi products.
