The head of foods business at Nestlé Maggi talks about maintaining relevance with Gen Z, content creators calling out big companies and transparency being a critical point for the company
As per Rajat Jain, head of foods business and category head, Maggi noodles, at Nestlé India, "I believe AI is already making an impact, particularly from the perspective of marketers utilising it."
Maggi, the 40-year-old legacy brand from Nestlé India, is redefining itself at a time when technology and consumer dynamics are rapidly evolving, navigating the landscape of brand marketing that has taken on new dimensions. From creating Metaverse-led campaigns to curating meaningful recipes online, the brand is trying to stay meaningful for its target consumer base.
In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18, Rajat Jain, head of foods business and category head, Maggi noodles, at Nestlé India, talks about how transparency is critical in the company’s culture, the transformational impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on brand marketing, the changing dynamics of client-agency relationships and the strategies needed to keep a legacy brand like Maggi relevant among younger audiences.
Edited excerpts:
Q. How do you maintain the relevance of a legacy brand like Maggi among young consumers and meet their expectations?
The Maggi brand has consistently reinvented itself. Whenever external factors or changing trends have emerged, the brand has actively engaged in those discussions. Whether it's about evolving food preferences, changes in consumption habits, adapting cooking methods or embracing technological advancements, Maggi has always been part of these conversations. With reinvention ingrained in its DNA, relevance naturally ensues, as the brand stays aligned with the evolving lives of consumers. For younger consumers, who hold significant importance for our brand, this remains especially crucial. In a market like India, where over a third of the population is young and more than 40 percent of urban India falls into this category, our approach has relied on authenticity and an empathetic tone of voice, particularly in the last five years. It's about not attempting to portray ourselves as something we're not. Unlike brands that emerged just a few years ago, we can't feign a persona that doesn't align with our longstanding identity.