Can Maggi win back India's confidence?

This morning, Monday, November 9, 2015, news channels flashed the ticker: "Maggi makes a comeback". Nestle India announced that Maggi noodles would be back on shelves and sold on e-commerce giant, Snapdeal, in a BSE filing. This brought a big smile to the faces of Maggi lovers. 

In June, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had banned Maggi, saying it was "unsafe and hazardous" for consumption. It had lead beyond permissible limits. This forced Nestle to withdraw Maggi from the market. According to them, all samples of Maggi Noodles have now been cleared by three National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories - accredited labs as mandated by the Bombay High Court. A company statement said, "Most states do not have a ban on sale of Maggi Noodles. For states, where specific directions are required, we are engaging with them." On Snapdeal, the noodle is being sold at Rs 144 for 12 packs (70 gms). 

In India, brands fight back. The instant noodle from Nestle is not the first food brand in this country to have faced a tough time, though it scores over the previous ones in the attention it has generated. There are several such stories. Let's have a look at some of them. 

Dalda

Dalda is a brand that sells "vanaspati" - partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. It started as a cheap substitute for desi ghee or clarified butter, prepared from cow's milk. In 1937, Hindustan Lever Limited bought the rights to produce Dalda ghee and sell by the name as "Dalda Ghee". Over the years, it became India's most loved vanaspati ghee.

The first controversy Dalda rode over was in the 1950s, which called for a ban on Dalda, because it was a "falsehood" - a product that imitated desi ghee, but was not the real deal. In other words, critics argued that Dalda was an adulterated form of desi ghee, harmful for health.

The then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called for a nationwide opinion poll, which proved inconclusive. A committee was set up by the government to suggest ways to prevent adulteration of ghee. But nothing came of it.

Years later Dalda had to contend with another controversy that said it contained animal fat - this was in the 1990s. By then, Dalda had competition from other brands such as Postman, Saffola, Sundrop and Palmolein, among others. But it came out successfully from this controversy as well. 

Dropsy controversy and mustard oil brands

In 1998, the dropsy controversy damaged mustard oil's brand equity. The adulteration in mustard oil left many users ill, with several thousand litres of were found to be compromised. The Delhi High Court banned its sale. Even high-end brands, such as Kanodia and Dhara, were found to be substandard. The test samples were found to be adulterated with argemone seeds.

Two wholesale dealers of mustard oil were arrested and factories raided in different parts of the capital. Then Union home minister LK Advani ordered CBI investigation into "dropsy" issue. There was such a fear that people stopped eating mustard oil. But mustard oil brands got eventual clearance and bounced back. 

Cadbury Dairy Milk

In October 2003, during the peak festival session, customers in Mumbai complained about finding worms in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates. The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration seized the chocolate stocks manufactured at Cadbury. Cadbury issued a statement that the infestation was not possible at the manufacturing stage and poor storage at the retailers was the most likely cause of the reported case of worms.

After a lot of charge and counter charge, for the first time, Cadbury's advertising went off the air for a about a month and a half after Diwali. In less than two weeks, the company launched a PR campaign for the trade. And three months later, came an ad campaign featuring Big B. The heat of negative publicity melted Cadbury's sales by 30 per cent, at a time when it usually sees a festive spike of 15 per cent. 

Rasna

Rasna is a leader in the soft drink concentrate category. It has had a good image in the minds of its consumers. In the early nineties, it was hit by the "BVO" controversy. BVO is brominated vegetable oil, which is an ingredient in all citrus drinks. The government banned its use after it was discovered to be carcinogenic. This move hit Rasna badly.

The company immediately reformulated the drink, withdrew the old stocks and ran a campaign assuring customers that the brand didn't contain BVO anymore. Consumers' confidence was restored and sales, which had seen a steep fall, began to rise once again. 

Coke and Pepsi

The Coke-Pepsi pesticide row started in 2006 when allegations were made by the Centre for Science and Environment that pesticide residues were found in Coca-Cola and PepsiCo brands. The pesticide content was found to be 24 times higher than safety standards on aerated drinks developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Coca-Cola also issued a statement clarifying their products were safe. Both got clearance and came back. 

In most of these above-mentioned cases, when the brands came back, they returned with more credibility. In the 70s, Nestlé had tried to promote milk formula over breast milk, leading to a massive backlash across the western world. It faced the same crisis of credibility in the Indian market over the recent Maggi controversy. Nestle is expected to advertise aggressively to regain its lost ground and confidence of those consumers' who got swayed by various adverse reports against it. Let's see if it succeeds in getting back space on the kitchen shelves of all those households, where it was enjoying the pride of place before June 2015.