'Maggi ads consistently spoke of rational elements like hunger, convenience & versatility'

The exchange4media group hosted the Delhi edition of its flagship property Pitch CMO Summit, 2021 on Friday at 2 pm. The summit saw the participation of industry stalwarts in the brand community with the theme of the conference centred on brand love as an effective marketing strategy during an economic downturn.

One of the speakers at the virtual gathering was Nikhil Chand, Director, Foods & Confectionery, Nestle India who spoke about the work Nestle has done on Maggi and Munch.

Chand commenced his presentation by saying that there has never been a more exciting time than now to be a marketer.

 “It is exciting but exhausting sometimes because the demands are quite high. We wish to have a toolkit like a Google Search Engine through which we can understand how to do marketing and build brand love.”

He said that consumer choices on what they are looking for are very different. “The world out there is challenging and understanding which one to go after becomes difficult.”

Chand revealed that one of the biggest challenges is marketers having to do more with less. “The expectation from the board, consumers and shareholders is that we can do more and we can maximize the potential. We have to face conversations concerning words like efficiency and ROI.”

He explained that marketers are competing for attention internally to get their share of voice and externallyto get consumers’ share of heart. “We are also being watched and judged for everything we do as brands and marketers. It is an interesting dichotomy of looking for attention and being judged for what we do.”

Chand said that marketers look for that magic mojo where the brand wants to be perceived differently. “We are trying to find the hidden truth amid complexity and exhaustion to find nuggets which make us valuable to consumers.”

What is a brand?

Chand said that he does not like to use the word consumer when talking about brands because it gives a sense that this human being is only born to consume products and uni-dimensional. “Brands are a promise of a product and a service in context of real human beings living in a culture.”

He shared a concept called lovemarks by Kevin Roberts. “It is a valuable and simple concept. It talks about that great brands have high respect and high love.”

He then proceeded to share some learnings from two brands in Nestle’s portfolio— Maggi and Munch.

He spoke about not looking at people as consumers and culture as a product. “One should look at building long-lasting relationships between the brands and people which we serve. It is built on something tangible like a delightful and differentiating product.” He added that it was about storytelling and one must have an element of creativity to build brand love.

He said that the meaningful communication has to be done consistently over time as much as adapting yourself to the changing reality. “Lovemarks are built by generations of passionate brand builders.”

He said that the endeavour is to look for loyalty beyond reason. “In some way, it is the definition of love when you look for loyalty beyond reason. Another way to define it is to have an irrational emotion built on a strong foundation of rational differentiation.”

Consistency of Maggi

He then went on to talk about three different ads of Maggi in three different decades. Chand said that the ad from 1980 is still relevant despite a change in so many things. “It talks about rational elements like hunger, convenience and versatility of mother to add vegetables.”

He said that marketers get bored of the same communication sometimes but consistency is a must to build lovemarks.

He went on to add that with the passage of time, the concept of stereotypes takes root. “We must not look at cooking from the same conventional lens.” 

He said that Maggi is about convenient cooking and there are two kinds of humans who interact with Maggi. “The mother who is an experimental cook and she really understands the kitchen and what is needed. A lot of young people are coming into the kitchen for the first time due to COVID.”

He said that the brand revamped its website to leverage this traction for parents, elders, homemakers, and youngsters to remain contemporary.

He said that once a brand becomes a lovemark, there are expectations from people who follow the brand to walk the talk.

“Given the reality in 2020 and 2021, it is our role to go beyond a product and a service to support society.” He said that the brand launched the concept of 2 minutes, which was bigger in thought: ‘Desh ke liye do minute, ek choti si yeh koshish’

He added: “It is a year-long campaign which inspires all Indians that all it takes a small step to change the country. We chose three platforms health, support, and cleanliness to unlock the potential of the brand. We endeavour to make a difference in the lives of Indians with small and relevant initiatives.”

He said that the brand empowered women to start their own food business in a six-month-long initiative partnering with the best in the industry by mentoring them. It also made youngsters aware of the agricultural reality of India by reaching out to top colleges across the country.

“This journey creates Ideas where things like spices we use in our noodles, we can now have sustainable better farming practices for some of our key spices. We now have responsible sourcing across 1270 farmers in 36 villages which allows us to make a meaningful difference.”

Learnings from Munch

He said that one must make brave decisions at times to stand out from the crowd in order to be a lovemark. Chand went back in time to 2004 when the chocolate category was targeting the rich and urban audiences giving rise to a perception that chocolate was for urban India. 

“It is not something for the Indian consumer. Munch decided to address not the conventional market to be unique by addressing the consumer in the heartland of India.” 

In order to earn respect, he said that Munch decided to talk to the teenager at home who is having their own stresses. He said that the idea was to give them hope to overcome current challenges. “It was the first campaign to go live during the lockdown. The perception was that people are not going to buy treats but we decided that it was not about selling Munch but building a relationship.”

He concluded the presentation by stating that in order to receive love, a brand has to be unique. “You have to talk in the voice of your consumer. Love is difficult to decipher and building a lovemark is a science and an art.”