The Story of Maggi: How it became Iconic brand in India

When Maggi instant noodles arrived in India in 1983 - the year when India lifted the cricket World Cup for the first time - they instantly caught the nation's imagination

Nestle introduced maggi in Switzerland,mainly to serve working women, who were left with little time to cook food due to the ‘Industrial Revolution’. Maggi Noodles were launched in India, targeting the same segment of working women. Their positioning was a “Convenience Product” and an alternative for Meals and Dinner.

Nestle taught to capture the Indian market as the women population is high among the other countries. But it failed miserably as the people had a strong routine to rice and roti and hard to break.

Maggi was not competing against any competitor products, but against consumer’s traditional behaviors

Nestle understood that spending huge money on advertisements would not change the consumer’s mind. They decided to do detailed research to understand Indian consumers.

Nestle found that it's hard to break the daily routine food habits for lunch and dinner of Indian consumers and the company started looking for occasions, where habits would be weak as this process of change might be relatively easy to initiate

They also observed that when children came home in the evening after school, they were generally hungry and women had to cook something fast and give them. (Evening Snacks). The mothers were facing a problem here and it was a major pain point

Nestle after User research and Market research, figured out that “Maggi” has to be promoted as “in-between” meals product and an alternative to “Evening Snacks”

Nestle also identified that Children liked the taste of Maggi Noodles. So, Nestle changed the target segment from Working Women to “ Children”. They were the ones who were ready to accept tasty food(Their behaviours are not strong yet like adults), compared to older people who were still reluctant and attached to their habits.

Maggi’s advertisements of “Mom, I’m Hungry and Mom says “Bas 2 minute” on TV acted as a huge trigger among the children and mothers.

2 minutes cooking” added a huge selling factor, mothers felt easy to cook in less time for their children to serve as snacks without much effort.

Nestle leveraged its existing distribution channels and made maggi noodles available in all nearby stores. Company distributed free maggi samples in schools to habituate the habit among children’s.

Maggi created emotional connect among childrens in meeting their hunger and happiness in eating maggi.

After understanding the Indians love towards masala,it even launched the different masala flavours to come close to the consumers.

Maggi has not only became household snack item, it has become a business and created maggiprenuers whos sell maggi in different ways and make their livelihood. I think Nestle might have not done that many experiments in inventing maggi. Now we will get the maggi in each and every corner of the country right from the kanyakumari to the highest heights of Himalayas.Maggi is the best noodle brand in India as it is loved by people of age groups. When I observed what makes Maggi to connect is Happiness and Memories we get as many of us having a hot maggi after school and late night maggi trying adding our own masalas as we dont get tasty food in hostels. The ease with which Maggi can be made is amazing with friendsMAGGI Marketplace was created with the same vision Julius Maggi had in 1884– to revolutionize the kitchen. Today, food lovers desire fresh ingredients prepared authentically with simple flavors from around the world. That’s why MAGGI Marketplace products are GLocal– global flavors made with local market inspired ingredients. Cooking with MAGGI Marketplace not only provides a robust burst of delicious flavor, but also a refreshing solution that simplifies meal time for novice and experienced home cooks alike.