Whenever there was no food or no will to cook food, there was Maggi - at the highest Indian altitudes, 3 AM snack, India's favourite comfort food.
In the last 40 years, Nestle's Maggi has managed to transcend all age and economic divides.
Other than giving India its favourite go-to snack, Maggi has also given livelihood to many small cart owners sprouting across every nook and corner in India.
In fact, there are a plethora of Maggi points across popular sunset and sunrises tourist destination.
But our favourite maggi is not homegrown or Indian in any way.
With the rise of industrialization in the 1800s in the west, many women who were responsible for providing meals for their families began working longer hours in factories and spending less time in the kitchen.
As a result, demand for healthy products that could be cooked quickly rose.
Julius Maggi, an entrepreneur, saw the potential market & began experimenting with flours & veggies to create an instant nutritional product centered around women's convenience.
After 2 yrs in '82, he launched Maggi Instant Soup, which customers well received.
With substantial local success, Julius decided to expand the scope of the product & began hiring copywriters & painters to widen Maggi's reach.
He used public transports as billboards to promote Maggi.
This word-of-mouth marketing helped Julius expand in Germany, France, the US, the UK in no time.
He even invented the first instant soup in the world & the lip-smacking Maggi seasoning that won the world. But soon, Julius was unable to meet the growing demand.
In 1947, Nestle acquired Maggi, and that's when the real magic began in India.
The rest is history.
Through the years, Maggi as a product has fought numerous battles to stay afloat - from launching and failing miserably in its naset days to pivoting its communication completely to 'taste bhi, health bhi.
It has now stood the test of time by maintaining a whopping 70% market share year after year amid competition from brands like Patanjali, WaiWai, & Yippee.
Despite it being incredibly hard to find home in a nation that loved ghar ka khanna, Maggi sustained & how!
Interested in reading how Maggi's used color psychology to grab your attention? Read the full article here: