About Maggi
When we think about noodles the first product that comes in our mind is Maggi. Famous as a 2-minute, noodles Maggi is an international brand of various products like soups, noodles, seasonings, etc. It first originated in Switzerland and in 1947 was acquired by Nestle. The company started way back in 1885 when Julius Maggi took over the mill his father owned and soon it became the pioneer of industrial food production. Legume meals with high protein content was brought in for the first time by Maggi in the market which was followed by a ready-made soup.One of the famous product Nestle owns is the instant noodles Maggi.
Business Objectives
Nestle first introduced the brand Maggi in India in 1982 when the instant noodles market was not at all popular.The tagline given to Maggi when it was first introduced was “Fast to cook and good to eat”. The main objective was quality food focusing on health and convenience.The demands of consumer changes with time and Maggi has successfully met the demands with continuous innovation in the products and also introducing products that suit the consumers needs.
The promotional Tag line “Taste bhi Health bhi” has connected with the audience.Maggi has recognised it’s customer base well as they are very well aware that their TG would be either children or Women. Maggi is now considered as a healthy product which is easy to prepare and gives a quick relief from hunger.
Online Reputation Management and it’s importance in today’s business
Online Reputation Management abbreviated as ORM is controlling an individual’s or business’s reputation. Nowadays most of the companies engage with their customers via social Mediums so it is very important to manage its reputation online. Internet has evolved in a way that now people can voice out their opinions regarding a product, business, service,etc on various social platforms.
Irrespective of the size of your business, clients,customers,potential clients and almost everyone is talking about your business. They are either tweeting about your product,commenting on your blog,sharing their experience on Facebook and much more. So it is very important to take into account reviews, opinions of people.It is also important for a business to be transparent it must allow its employees to speak about their product publicly, ask for feedback from customers, addressing the issues publicly.A poor online reputation can effect the sales of a company.Good online reputation is not only reacting well to people who are talking about our product but also addressing it in a proactive manner. Most people nowadays read reviews of a product before buying it so the negative reviews of a product must be addressed properly and continuous monitoring of your public reputation is important.
Mistakes Maggi made managing online reputation post MSG controversy
Maggi is one of Nestle’s most popular product but it had come under a scanner when large amount of Monosodium Glutamate(MSG) than permissible were found in the samples. It was really surprising for all the Maggi fans as Nestle took really a long time reacting and giving a proper response to the customers and when Nestle finally came up with a response after around 19000 mentions on social media the response was not at all convincing.
Maggi denied all the reports regarding ban or product recall in their official statement and asked their fans to enjoy Maggi like they did before. They also mentioned that they do not add MSG in Maggi and the glutamate present might have come from natural occurring sources.
These news leave an impact on consumer’s mind and they would not pick up the product thinking of the safety issues.When the aggression grew within the people wanting a convincing answer from Nestle, Nestle was busy promoting the other campaigns of its newly launched products which proved that they were not at all bothered about the opinions from the customers.
Results
Maggi had neglected all the communications happening on social media which let to aggressive replies from consumers wanting to know if their favourite brand is safe to consume. Post the controversy after almost 2 weeks Nestle reacted which led to more speculations.
- Loss of inventory worth 320 crores
- Customer trust was lost
- Stock of Nestle came down to 15-20%
In a press conference Nestle mentioned that their product was safe still they would withdraw it from the shelves due to the confusion in the market and also mentioned that their primary concern is to provide quality and safe products to their consumers. They did not accept the fact that their samples contained traces of MSG. What people mentioned is if it really did not add MSG in its products Maggi would eagerly address the consumer concerns rather than reacting after 2 weeks post the controversy.
Zubin Nalawalla, Co-founder of LIQVD Asia echoed the sentiment and said, “I guess Maggi was denying the situation all-along and did not see the seriousness of this allegation. They should have been prepared for the worst. Their statements and communication until the state-wide ban was extremely positive, thus putting them in a foot-in-mouth syndrome”
Learning
- Online Reputation Management is important for maintaining the brand image.
- Responding to customer queries and complaints is important.
- A better company to customer channel is required for communication,communication over social media should not be ignored.
- If online reputation is not managed properly gaining back the consumer’s trust is difficult.
- A company must be eager to address the consumers and be honest in its approach.
- Nowadays conversation happen within a second over social media channels so speed does matter, Maggi responded to the consumers after 2 weeks post MSG controversy which added to more speculations.
- It is also important for a business to be transparent it must allow its employees to speak about their product publicly.
- Good online reputation is not only reacting well to people who are talking about our product but also addressing it in a proactive manner.
- Most people nowadays read reviews of a product before buying it so the negative reviews of a product must be addressed properly.
- Continuous monitoring of your public reputation is important.
- A company must ask for feedback from customers, online feedback can be used.
- A company must address the issues publicly,not hiding from criticism.
- A poor online reputation can effect the sales of a company.
- Building a relevant content is also important as i helps in engaging with the customers.
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