COMPETITORS OF MAGGI

Maggi has certainly been the leading brand in the noodle industry for decades .But there are other brands as well which have given close competition to Maggi in the past and in the present as well.

MAGGI VS TOP RAMEN

Top Ramen is the second largest Noodles brand in India trying hard for the past 18 years to beat Maggi Noodles. Top Ramen is a global brand from Nissin. Launched in 1991, Top Ramen has been trying all possible marketing tools to dethrone Maggi. First occasion was when the brand was launched, the brand quickly went into limelight with its famous positioning as Smoodles. But after the initial trying, people again went back to Maggi noodles. The next occasion was when Maggi changed the taste. That was an occasion where, as a brand loyalist , people dumped Maggi .For a while people consumed Top Ramen. When Maggi reversed the taste, many people again switched back. Top Ramen at that point of time was one of the heavy advertisers in the media. And since the taste was also comparable, many Maggi users may have switched to this brand. But it could not retain all the customers . One factor is the price. Top Ramen was always perceived as a premium brand compared to the affordable Maggi. The high price may have prompted many Maggi users to switch back. Another factor was the promotion. Top Ramen could not sustain the share of mind it generated during the formative years. Maggi was able to bring in lot of noise because it had become an umbrella brand and was advertising for various other products. Top Ramen had an interesting distribution strategy. For the past 10 years, the brand has been distributed by Marico. It is a case of marketing alliance where Top Ramen was utilizing the distribution strength of Marico. In 2008, the alliance was mutually called-off. Now Nissin is building its own distribution network. It is puzzling to see that a global brand with lot of support from its parent could not put up a big fight with Maggi .The major issue faced by Top Ramen was the differentiation. Top Ramen could not offer any serious differentiation to Maggi either in terms of the product or brand. Since there was no serious differentiation, Maggi was able to gain back 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.

Top Ramen had its share of innovations. This brand is credited with innovating a new category of cup-noodles in Indian market. The difference between cup noodles and instant noodles is that cup-noodles need not be cooked, it is ready to eat just after adding hot water into it. Top Ramen currently holds more than 90 % share in the cup-noodles market. Maggi has recently entered the cup-noodles market with its brand Cuppa- Mania. It is expected that the entry of new players will expand the category. Unlike instant noodles where the brands are targeting kids, Cup-Noodles is targeting adults. The segment aimed by Top-Ramen is 16-35 . Top Ramen is also credited with the launch of curry-noodles in India. While ordinary noodles are dry, curry noodles have both gravy. Top Ramen to many people is heavily associated with Curry Noodles and that is one of the reasons why many people did not buy the brand. So the brand has not been remaining dormant. It has been doing the right things in the market but somehow the brand is not able to manage the perception among the consumers. It is in the promotion front that Top Ramen has failed to make an impact. When Maggi repositioned itself as a healthy food, Top Ramen should have followed suit since the market was moving towards healthy foods. When Maggi launched its rice noodles, Top Ramen should have followed since it could have added value to the brand. Except for the first phase of brand promotion, Top Ramen did not have any worthwhile campaign in its 18 years of existence. Hence as a customer, the brand is not giving enough reasons to change the addiction to Maggi brand. Even it is not giving enough reasons for kids to buy this brand.

MAGGI VS YIPPEE NOODLES

ITC has always taken a very aggressive approach from the day it entered the FMCG sector and has been giving a very tough fight to the already established players because of the financial muscle that it has and the wider and deeper reach that ITC has got even in the rural markets because of its tobacco business. This always provides it an edge even over the established players in the market as not many players in India have got such a deep and a wider reach for making the products available to customers in almost every nook and corner in India.

And ITC has taken the same approach for the newly launched noodles brand Sunfeast Yippee in the Indian market, which is dominated by Maggi from decades. Recently, this product category has also seen a lot of activity with the launch of many new brands like Horlicks Foodles by Glaxo Smithkline India, Knorr from HUL, Chings secret by Capital Foods Ltd, Tasty Treat by Future Group, etc. These players have been fighting out the competitive battles to get the most of the instant noodles market of the around Rs. 1300 crore and which is growing continuously at around 17-20 percent growth rate. All these players are giving Maggi a tough fight and are eating out into the almost 70 percent market share that Maggi has got in this market (Source Business Standard).

And one interesting thing is that all the players in this product category are coming with a completely different positioning in the market, with GSK focusing on projecting the noodles as a healthy snack option and even HUL focusing on the soupy noodles as a positioning for their brands. And ITC has also taken the same approach by focusing its noodles brand Sunfeast Yippee as a brand using the benefit positioning concept in which they tried to position the product as a better alternative to Maggi on the basis of following three differentiating criteria :-

1 - The first point used by Yippee to position itself as a better alternative over Maggi was that it was telling the customers that they should have the choice of variety of masala with two variants in their product portfolio Classic and Magic. The stress was made upon the point that we want choices in each and everything in life so why not have a choice while having instant noodles. 2 The second point focused on the shape of the contents within the pack. The contents in other options available are in rectangular shape which have to be broken which leads to short pieces of noodles, whereas in Yippee noodle pack the cake is in round shape which keeps the noodles intact and long and smooth. 3 Then third thing that it focuses upon is the fact that Maggi must be had immediately after it is cooked as after sometime the taste deteriorates and you cannot have it, whereas Yippee noodles promises that they can even be had after some time. Thus it has tried to give itself a totally different positioning from the other competitors present in the market and it is the only competitor to Maggi which has decided to take it head on while competing with it. The biggest advantages available with the Sunfeast Yippee noodles brand are as follows: 1 The deeper penetration provided by the already well-established and penetrative distribution channel provided to ITC by its channel member in the tobacco business which provides it the most penetrative distribution network both in rural and urban India. 2 Then it used the Sunfeast brand, thereby using the Umbrella branding strategy, which had already become a well-known name in the Indian households because of the equity that the brand had gained in the minds of the consumers. 3 The financial muscle of the ITC conglomerate to back the company to tackle all the competitive moves in an efficient manner.

The Marketing Mix for Sunfeast Yippee Brand: 1 Product It is a product that is different in terms of package (red and yellow contents), contents (which was round cake instead of the rectangular cakes as used by other brands), labeling, 90 gram pack (where as the biggest competitor Maggi is offering 85 gm pack), with two variants available and many more lined up for launch in the coming months. 2 Price- available at the price tag of Rs. 10 to match the competitive prices that the other competitors are offering. 3 - Place The distribution reach is the biggest asset that ITC has got and Yippee is also using this biggest advantage of ITC to penetrate especially into the rural market at a rapid pace. 4 - Promotion The company is focusing very heavily on the benefit positioning concept in their ads focusing on the benefits or the advantages it has over Maggi as a competitor.

Thus all in all ITC has come up with an alternative which seems to be a bit different from all the options that have tried to compete with Maggi and the only alternative that has decided to take the market leader head on through its television commercials which are making direct comparisons with Maggi thought without naming it and showing how Sunfeast Yippee Noodles is a better option than Maggi.