Maggi, which over the years has become generic for instant noodles from the house of Nestle India, is set to go missing from the Indian supermarket shelves for now.
It took just about a fortnight for the country’s favourite comfort food brand built carefully over 30 years, to see complete erosion of trust among consumers.
If social media networks are any reflection of consumer perception, buyers are more sad than happy.
They say it is a bit of a shocker, for Maggi is not just any packaged food brand.
It is, perhaps, the most popular product that cuts across all ages, gender, regions, languages and socio-economic groups. Introduced in 1982, the brand was targeted at working mothers.
Advertising never tired of calling it the mother’s best friend, something she could rustle up in two minutes.
The fast-food also won the heart of the bachelor boy, the teenage hosteller and working couples.
But it had to yet make Nestle’s cash registers ringing. Strategically, the company shifted the marketing pitch to the fun food platform and unleashed itself on kids with its “Fast to Cook and Good to Eat” tagline.
Making another quick switch, Nestle swiftly moved the brand to the health and wellness plank and Indians who were growing more health conscious lapped it up.
Now it championed “Taste Bhi Health Bhi” adding new variants such as Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles enriched with proteins, calcium and ‘real’ vegetables.
More recently, Nestle had brought Maggi to the breakfast table with the launch of its Maggi Oats Noodles.
Experts called this its boldest move as it tried to replace well marketed cereals from the slot.
But now that it is going off the shelves, there is a question mark over the next phase of its existence.
It remains to be seen what will be the fate of Nestle’s cash cow in India.