Noodles War
Maggi Noodles has been in the Indian market for close to three decades and was going from strength to strength till on the fateful day of June 5, 2015 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ordered Nestlé India Ltd. to withdraw all nine variants of the product from the market because it considered the product to be unsafe and hazardous; lead and monosodium glutamate was found to be above permissible limits, hence unsafe for human consumption. Maggi Noodles was not the only product to be banned, other brands in the category also faced the music. I do not wish to go into the details of this case since this blog; Advertising Opinions is only about advertising and communications, so I will restrict myself to commenting only on how Maggi and its competitors communicated with their consumers before, during and after the ban was lifted. Maggi is the leader in the category of instant noodles with about 65% market share as reported in the media; its closest competitor is Sunfeast ...