A Case Study Of Nestle In India

1. Introduction

1.1 History of Nestlé

Nestlé was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland, where their headquarters are still located today. They employ around 2,80,000 people and have factories or operations in almost every country in the world. Most people know the food giant Nestlé through its strong and iconic brands such as Nescafé, KitKat and Maggi to name a few. The firm’s biggest international competitors worldwide include Unilever, PepsiCo, Mars Incorporated and Mondelez.

Nestlé India is a 100 % subsidiary of Nestlé Switzerland. After more than a century-old association with the country, today, Nestlé India has presence across India with 8 manufacturing facilities and 4 branch offices.

1.2 History of Maggi

In 1897

• Lead - Nestlé questioned the reliability of the labs used for testing. Nestlé requested for testing outside India and also requested that the labs used for testing should have proper infrastructure and equipment, the processing method and training and competence of people to perform the test.

The above test results reported that the Maggi noodles are safe. In addition to this in August, tests performed by the US health regulator FDA showed no dangerous lead levels in the products. On 13 August 2015, the nationwide ban was struck down on the sale of Maggi noodles.

Nestlé’s Maggi came back to the shelves in November 2015.

Nestlé’s biggest marketing challenge during relaunch of Maggi would be to rebuild profitable relationships with the consumers and create customer delight. This can be done by complete Market research to understand the current market place & customer needs and wants, design a customer driven market strategy, relook into their marketing

Market Research Analysis

3.1 Consumer buying decision process for Maggi noodles

The following factors would be influenced during the relaunch of Maggi noodles by Nestlé.

Social factors

In urban areas, most couples are working, so Maggi noodles were the best fast to cook food for breakfast in the morning and for children in the evening after the school. The children aged < 16 years were strong in making buying decision for Maggi. In rural areas, it was seen a low cost instant food and so the decision was mostly made by the husband or wife.

Psychological factors

The psychological factors are explained below with the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

The physiological, safety and social needs of the consumers should be main needs to be taken into consideration by Nestle.

Nestlé has to consider the following steps in the buyer decision process during the relaunch of Maggi.

• Need recognition

After the current issue of harmful content in Maggi, many families have moved away from even basic or any noodles as a healthy option and going back to completely homemade snacks like sandwiches etc.

• Information search

Personal sources – Word of Mouth plays a vital role through the family and