Whose noodles?

Nissin Foods is a world-wide company that makes instant ramen noodles.

It was established in Japan on September 4, 1948 by Momofuku Ando as Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. of Japan and ten years later introduced the first instant ramen noodle product, Chikin Ramen (Chicken Ramen).
They established a US subsidiary Nissin Foods in 1970 and sold instant

ramen noodle products under the name Top Ramen.

Instant noodles (1958) and cup noodles (1971) were both invented by

Momofuku Ando.
Nissin Foods has its headquarters in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka.The company

moved to its current headquarters in 1977, when the construction of the building was completed.

Introduction
Top Ramen is one of the noodles brand in India launched by Indo Nissin

Foods Ltd. in 1991 in India.

It was introduced as Japanese soup-type noodles which were watery

and were called Smoodles derived from SMoother nOODLES .

It is available in different flavours like chicken, masala, curry, tomato,

and egg.
Since its launch the brand has been constantly changing its sales pitch

and product composition with little success.

Top Ramen has been trying all possible marketing tools for the past 18

years to dethrone Maggi Noodles which had become a benchmark in the category.

The Struggle
Entry Level
When Top Ramen was launched in India, Maggi was an established

decade-old brand, and had become a benchmark in the category.

Indian consumers were used to the look and taste of Maggi noodles

which left no water in a dish and on the contrary Top Ramen was watery which didnt find too many takers.

Pricing
It was costlier as compared to other brands. A 400 gm pack of Top Ramen was priced at Rs 34.

Re-launch
Top Ramen was relaunched as Quick Chow-Chow Noodles in 1992 as an

easy-to-prepare snack for children.

But since it came in direct conflict with Maggis positioning, was

perceived as a me-too brand and an inferior one at that.

Change in Marketing Strategy

In 1994, Nissin tried targetting pre-teens consumers - if Maggi caught its

consumers young (below seven), Top Ramen wanted to watch them grow under its franchise.
To this end, a new campaign broke, with the adline Dont be a noodle.

Be a smoodle . The initial results were heartening: market share climbed from 13 % in 1996 to 24 % in 1998.
Meanwhile, Maggi tried its hand at a change in product formulation in

1997 from oil-fried noodles to sun-dried ones which didnt go down well with consumers. It was forced to backtrack in a years time.

The Marketing Twist

Maggis gaffe presented a great opportunity for Top Ramen, but then

Indo-Nissin ran into a tangle. Brooke Bond, which had a 26 % stake in Indo-Nissin and looked after the distribution of Top Ramen, was merged with Hindustan Lever Limited.
Indo-Nissin managed to finalise an alternate distribution arrangement

with Marico Industries only in July 1998.

With the distribution network of five lakh outlets, Maggi is miles ahead

of Top Ramens two-lakh outlets.

Lacking Innovation
The major issue faced by Top Ramen was the differentiation.
Top Ramen could not offer any serious differentiation to Maggi either in

terms of the product or brand.

Since there was no serious differentiation, Maggi was able to gain back

the lost ground because it was the pioneer brand who built the category.
Top Ramen also lost out when Maggi repositioned itself in the health

platform.

Production Failure
In 1997 Nestles Maggi dominated the market with a market share of over

80 per cent. Top Ramen had only 17 per cent.

The company said the fall in market share was not because of falling

volumes but because it has not been able to grow along with the category which increased from 14,000 tonnes in 1998 to 17,000 tonnes in 2002.

Promotion Failure Also??

Top Ramen did was they never considered localization in the early

stages. They were proudly boasting a funky English tag line "Don't be a noodle, be a smoodle". This does not connect with an average Indian who speaks native Hindi.
One major factor for Maggi's success was its quick localization. Never did

Maggi put any fancy English tag lines nor did it endorse its product as a foreign brand though it could have.
Maggi easily connected with its consumers with its tagline

Maggi 2-minute noodles . Except for the first phase of brand promotion, Top Ramen did not have any worthwhile campaign in its 18 years of existence.
Maggi was able to bring in lot of noise because it had become an

umbrella brand and was advertising for various other products .

New Positioning
Now, in a bid to refurbish its image and hike its market share in the

Rs. 200-crore Indian noodle market, Indo Nissin Foods has re-launched its Top Ramen Noodles and Cup Noodles in a new bright international packaging.
It has also offered price-off schemes, launched new advertising

campaigns and hiked its advertising budget in the process.

Top Ramen added more food value as the product has been enriched

with vitamins and calcium which give consumers 25 per cent of their daily requirement of calcium vitamin B1 and B2.
Target the 11 to19 years age group. This segment is the largest consumers

of instant noodles, accounting for 35 to 40 per cent of sales.

New Promotions
Top Ramen Noodles is being re-launched with a fresh campaign that seeks to

make Top Ramen a part of every Indian family as the little strands of happiness . A new TVC, conceptualised by Hakuhodo Percept, broke on all news and entertainment channels.
The TVC features part animation and part live action. Character design,

background design, computer graphics and animation have been executed by MFX Malaysia, while Shantanu Bagchi of Illusion Films has directed the film. Illusion Films is the production house. The objective is to position Top Ramen as smooth and tasty noodles,

targeting primarily kids, and secondarily, mothers, and to hold a differentiated brand identity as compared to other brands in the category and, therefore, be in the consideration of a potential instant noodle buyer

New Scope or New Slope?

Now, Indo Nissin Foods has relaunched its Top Ramen Noodles and Cup

Noodles in a new bright international packaging.

It has also offered price-off schemes, launched new advertising

campaigns and hiked its advertising budget in the process.

If this new campaigns works, as the Indian noodle market is growing at

12% per annum, it surely can capture a major part of market share in the Rs 200-crore Indian noodle market.