Maggi “Do Minute mein khushiyan (Happiness in Two minutes)”

In today’s struggling and competitive world one just cannot imagine happiness, in-fact you don’t have time to think about it. So how it is possible to get happiness in two minutes? An outstanding work by the brand team of Maggi in last 27 years on building the brand, sustaining the brand connect & market share and laddering up the brand positioning. It’s a classic example for all marketers with a brand vision.

Maggi, Nestle India’s flagship brand launched in 1984 enjoys whopping 86% market share in the instant noodles category. Consistent product innovation, addressing ever changing consumer desire (especially Indian mothers and kids) has helped Maggi to dominate instant noodles category  in spite of growing competition from GlaxoSmithKline's Horlicks Foodles, Hindustan Unilever's Knorr Soupy Noodles, or ITC's Sunfeast Yippee and private labels (in the organised retail environment).  Maggi has surpassed all the challenges and have understood the Indian consumer palate. For all the brand custodians, it’s very interesting to analyse that how this brand cruised the journey from introduction phase to current phase of emotional connect after it established the functional benefits. If the brand strategy follows the brand road map the outcome is phenomenal.

It is very difficult to change the eating habits of consumers, especially Indian consumers because of varied food culture and taste preferences. I’m sure Maggi during the launch phase must be contemplating that how to position it for the defined TG. After researching the product format & taste Maggi was able to arrive at the positioning based on convenience platform i.e. “2 minutes” recipe. Bingo! It clicked with Indian consumers, especially mothers. It’s very difficult and confusing for the Indian mothers to fulfil two desires simultaneously for their children ‘hunger and taste’. Maggi’s taste and filling character helped addressing the same.

With the growing health consciousness, Maggi anticipated it much in advance launched Vegetable Atta Noodles. It shifted the positioning or I’d rather say it added health platform to the brand without losing convenience part of it.  Interestingly the new product brought new consumer franchisee, the adults. I personally didn’t enjoy eating masala variant but with the launch of Atta Noodles I relished it very much. I still remember one of the promises made on the on-pack communication “Goodness of roties” which is enough to shift the consumer mind-set wherein you are giving their staple food in a different format.

With the recent campaign “2 Minutes mein khushiyan” endorsed by Big-B Maggi is been successful to create a brand connect from “Convenience” (Functional) to “Source of Happiness” (Emotional) with the same promise of two minutes. The brand enjoys leadership if it moves up from functional to emotional connect. Maggi has successfully done it.  

Maggi has been very active to create consumer connect at various touch points, whether in communication or otherwise. Maggi’s Quick Service Kiosk at Chennai Airport is one such example.
It attracts each and every hungry customer (Including Myself). The same Maggi Noodles you eat at home you get it here, Isn’t it amazing. Maggi should aggressively expand this format to expand the business. I’m certain that the financial results will bring “Quick Happiness” to Nestlé’s Management and shareholders for more than two minutes.   

 

Marketing the Addiction by Rajesh Korani

Cheers!!! And that's the exciting expression of addiction. Phew! You may be wondering why this guy is promoting addiction. Well, I personally do not favour promoting alcohol, but the amazing strategy and the cues involved in the alcohol branding and business evoked me to share some thoughts.

Although the exact date when alcohol was produced remains elusive, the discovery of late ‘Stone Age Beer Jugs’ has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed as early as the Neolithic period.

Wine has appeared in Egyptian pictographs around 4000 B.C. The Babylonians considered beer as one of their key beverages. The Sumerians have engraved the art of making beer pictorially. The art of wine making reached the Hellenic peninsula around 2000 B.C.

Alcoholic drinks were an intricate part of most civilization ranging from China, India, Western Asia and Europe. In India alcoholic beverages appeared during the Indus Valley Civilization (We’re old timers…LOL), In Hindu Ayurvedic texts both the beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol have been outlined Distilled spirits originated in India and China around 800 B.C. the distillation process emerged in Europe around the eleventh century. The Greeks worshipped the God Bacchus - the god of wine and the Romans worshipped the same god under a different name Dionysus. Around 55 B.C. the Romans introduced beer to the Europeans.

Wine became part of rituals with the rise of Christianity. During the middle Ages, wine was the preferred beverage and the consumption of alcohol began to spread to all parts of the world. Today alcohol is widely consumed by people all over the world. Consumption is in multiple formats, multiple tastes and multiple mixes. Isn’t it amazing! Hold on …..I’m not going to get into the chemistry of alcohol preparation. Since I follow brands thus I will talk about branding and marketing involved in alcohol products.

These are my personal views, some of your thoughts may differ. I’d segment alcohol branding in two main clusters. Cluster 1 would be “Authenticity” and Cluster 2 would be “Aspirational or Marketing”. Scotch, Whisky, Champagne and Wine would fall in cluster 1. Beer, vodka, rum and gin would fall in cluster 2.

Cluster 2: In a blind taste research one cannot differentiate one beer from other or vodka from other (unless you are a professional). In absence of product differentiation the strategy requires lots of creativity, branding ideas and communication to achieve the desired results. I really love one brand which has been consistent in establishing the brand through the shape of the bottle. Yes, you are right! Absolut, it’s a brilliant work from the ad agency. Lot of creativity with local connect being established under the same concept. Not sure how this line of communication was started by Absolut, but I guess it is related to the old saline bottle (This is my wild guess from the shape of the bottle. Please do share if you know about it)

I remember my research in some of the rural markets in India. While working for two of the beer brands I was completely surprised with the insights I mined from the consumers. At-least it gave me the cues that what positioning my brand should take so that the brand is in the consideration set in most of the drinking moments. Consumers whom I interacted had defined four keys with which they connect with alcohol brands 

• Key1: Aspiration (Success, happiness and feeling special)
• Key2: Larger than Life (Freedom, elegant & stylish life and dream) 
• Key3: Fantasy (youthfulness, relaxation, chilled out, my own world)
• Key4: Unsolved Problems (career, stress, failure and sorrows)

But majority of consumers would define their moment of consumption in the first and the last key. Such insights have helped various brands to take differentiated positioning and create their own set of loyal consumers. However, every time when I analyse or work on alcohol brands, I feel it easy as well as very difficult to create a proposition on “Marketing the addiction”