Building up MAGGI’s presence in East Malaysia

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Understanding that consumers today seek high quality foods and beverages that are also more nutritious, MAGGI Malaysia remains committed to being on the forefront of delivering exciting new innovations that are relevant and aim to continuously excite consumers in East Malaysia.

And this growth can be seen here in Sabah and Sarawak as well.

Throughout the year, MAGGI Malaysia said it continued to invest in its brands not only to drive their short-term growth and also to further nurture them for the longer term.

“By keeping ourselves relevant in this fast-changing world, we can deliver industry-leading growth. As such, our successful product innovations and renovations were fundamental to our solid business performance in 2018,” the group said.

“This was led by our MAGGI noodles range, contributed by the launch of the MAGGI Pedas Giler variants, which catered to Malaysians’ love of spicy food, earning recognition as ‘Malaysia’s Favourite Spicy Noodle’.

“As a trusted household brand in Malaysia, MAGGI understands that cooking goes beyond merely satiating one’s appetite. Through its various products, MAGGI strives to empower Malaysians in their culinary journeys, supporting consumers, especially mothers in creating good food moments with their loved ones.

“This latest addition proved to be a resounding success gaining strong market share and penetration, which led to MAGGI Pedas Giler assuming the number one position in the extra spicy segment.”

Underlining MAGGI’s strong belief that goodness starts with homemade cooking, the group’s MAGGI 2-Minute noodle campaign entitled ‘Saat Bersama, Saat Bermakna’ encouraged mothers and their children to bond through cooking and enjoying a meal of MAGGI noodles together.

“Mothers are encouraged to customise their MAGGI noodle dishes by adding fresh ingredients for a tastier and healthier meal fit for the whole family.”

“This campaign helped us to build strong affinity with our consumers and deliver solid sales growth and strengthen market leadership in 2018.”

On top of this, 2018 also saw the unveiling of a fresh new look for our all-in-one seasoning, MAGGI CukupRasa, with the spotlight on the freshness of its ingredients while maintaining its signature taste that has made it an essential product in Malaysian households.

 

MAGGI’s relationship with Sabah and Sarawak

MAGGI, a brand considered a staple in many households in Malaysia, is popularly known for its instant noodles and signature seasoning.

With its wide range of products, MAGGI aims to “empower Malaysians in their culinary journeys, supporting consumers, especially mothers in creating good food moments with their loved ones.”

Currently, MAGGI has a factory in Kuching, Sarawak which caters to its East Malaysian consumers.

“This is also part of our commitment to East Malaysia to support the local economy and employment rate,” MAGGI Malaysia’s Consumer Marketing Manager Ivy Tan said in an exclusive email interview with The BizHive Weekly.

“In the MAGGI noodles business, we have a wide range of format offerings – bags, bowls and cups respectively. Each of these formats cater to the different and specific needs of our consumers.”

Bag noodles are targeted for families, as MAGGI encourages the mother and child to bond through their moment of togetherness during cooking. Meanwhile, bowl noodles are a convenient solution for young adults, as a meal replacement.

Similarly, cup noodles is an in-between meal option for a quick yet satisfying hot and savory light meal, for that instant energy booster.

“Besides noodles, we also have offerings from our culinary business pillar, with products ranging from sauces and seasonings, to bouillon stock cubes.

“The MAGGI sauces business in East Malaysia is sizeable and continues to grow year-on-year. Not to forget, our star product MAGGI CukupRasa, which aims to encourage home cooking.”

MAGGI’s appeal to consumers is no different down here in the Bornean part of the country where according to Tan, East Malaysia is essentially a noodles market with high noodles consumption.

“Hence, MAGGI being the number one player in the Malaysian noodles market plays an important role in East Malaysia,” Tan explained.

On the products favoured in Sabah and Sarawak, Tan replied that MAGGI 2-Minute Kari and MAGGI 2-Minute Asam Laksa are the most popular.

“MAGGI 2-Minute Kari – a favourite and most loved among Malaysians – including Sabah and Sarawak – is made with real chillies and a secret blend of 12 spices, coupled together with our springy noodles made from Australian wheat grains that promises satisfaction with every slurp.

“Not only that, to achieve the signature Kari taste, quality spices are sourced from different parts of the world, such as chillies from India and star anise from Turkey.

“Using a timeless recipe created by MAGGI’s in-house chefs, a total of 12 secret spices are ground and then slow cooked until ‘pecah minyak’ to release the flavours. Once cooked, the curry is then kept cool to dry naturally.”

As for MAGGI 2-Minute Asam Laksa, Tan explained that this product is also highly preferred by East Malaysians due to its unique sourish and tangy flavour with an appetising taste profile.

“With East Malaysia’s wide base of consumers, comprising locals with different ethnicities and taste profiles, MAGGI offers a wide range of taste and flavors to cater to all our consumers’ needs.

“In MAGGI, our commitment is to continue to delight our local consumers with new product innovations and offerings.”

On a side note, MAGGI Pedas Giler was recently launched in East Malaysia. Being one of MAGGI’s top innovation products, MAGGI Pedas Giler was introduced to the consumers here who love extra spicy flavours.

Available in local favourite flavours of Roast Chicken, Tom Yam and Seafood, this latest addition proved to be a resounding success with strong market share and penetration.

This led to MAGGI Pedas Giler assuming the number one position, beating its primary competition in the extra spicy segment and registering strong sales within the first three months.

As for MAGGI products designed to cater specifically to the Sabahan and Sarawakian market, Tan told the BizHive Weekly that MAGGI is reaching out to the current East Malaysian population, with continuous efforts to delight its loyal consumers with its targeted communications.

Tan highlighted that it has always been the core mission for MAGGI, a recognised global brand and an established household name in Malaysia, to create good-food moments that bring families closer together.

“With strong heritage in noodles and culinary solutions, MAGGI has continuously responded to the ever evolving needs of meal providers by putting the consumers at the heart of everything we do.

“Through its wide range of products, MAGGI helps mothers prepare tasty homemade meals for their families every day.”

 

Building up tradition with local communities

In its Annual Report 2018, Nestle Malaysia said it rolled out the ‘Pesta Hebat Rasa MAGGI CukupRasa’ roadshow in five districts in Sabah and Sarawak, reaching over 30,000 households.

With the success of its previous campaigns, MAGGI Malaysia does not plan to slow down its pace in creating stronger brand awareness and gaining market share in Sabah and Sarawak, particularly with its Gawai Ka’amatan contest campaigns.

“Year-on-year, MAGGI has been very involved in local East Malaysian communities – with our MAGGI Gawai Ka’amatan contest campaign which is held annually, being one of our commitments to the local communities.

“In East Malaysia, we recorded strong achievement in sales for both noodles and all-in-one seasoning category. MAGGI aims to encourage consumers to celebrate the festive season with their families by creating good quality homemade meals together with MAGGI.”

“Since 2015, MAGGI has been celebrating Gawai and Kaamatan with the East Malaysian community through the festive campaign ‘Masak dan Menang’, which includes a two-month contest along with roadshows and in-store activations throughout the period.”

Tan went on highlight that throughout these years, MAGGI has successfully dominated the festive period, by being the biggest and only brand leveraging during this festive season to celebrate and reward its consumers.

“Hence, MAGGI aims to continue owning this festive season for years to come to establish MAGGI as the brand of choice and a cooking aid partner to celebrate family togetherness during Gawai and Ka’amatan.”

Tan stressed that East Malaysia is the heart of MAGGI and as such, it is important for the brand to be in the center of the local East Malaysian celebrations during their harvest festival.

“The Gawai Ka’amatan harvest festival fosters a sense of community togetherness, which echoes MAGGI’s values; there is no better Malaysian way to bring families and communities together than to simply start with good home-cooked food.”

“For the MAGGI Gawai Ka’amatan contest campaign, our objective is to grow 15 per cent contest entries year-on-year.”

She noted that this ambition is supported by incremental in investment via roadshows, prizes and dropboxes coverage.

“For our roadshow activations in 2019, we place more focus on local community outskirt areas, instead of only main cities – so that we are also able to reach out to our sub-urban consumers.”

Apart from its Gawai Ka’amatan contest campaign, MAGGI also provides support and actively participates in locally organised events and community activities.

These include MAGGI Pesta Hebat Rasa (initiated in 2018) which aims to cultivate the goodness of home cooking and MAGGI Bubur Lambuk – with nationwide distribution of Bubur Lambuk during Ramadhan.

Additionally, there is also the new MAGGI 2 Cara Campaign, which strengthens its core business with MAGGI 2-Minute Kari via communications customised to East Malaysia to raise educational awareness on different ways to cook MAGGI 2-Minute noodles amongst consumers.

This is done through the introduction of MAGGI noodles recipes, with locally-catered recipe preferences such as MAGGI Goreng Basah.

 

MAGGI 2 Cara Campaign

The MAGGI 2 Cara campaign emphasises on the fact that MAGGI 2-Minute Noodles Soup is not just superior in taste and aroma, its springy noodles texture can be cooked as a soup or goreng (fried) dish that caters to everyone’s taste for any time of the day.

One of the local favourites is MAGGI Goreng Mamak, the Fried MAGGI Noodle cooked with MAGGI Noodle Soup.

According to Tan, MAGGI 2-Minute Noodles is the best light meal option available for mothers due to its taste and aroma whereby there are 12 spices and “pecah minyak” cooking process to capture goodness of homemade.

It is also a product which provides balance as consumers can add fresh ingredients like vegetables, egg and chicken.

Generally, everyone can be creative when using M2MN as they can customise the noodles by choosing to add their own fresh ingredients to further enhance the flavour.

“In addition to that, we also run a customised campaign with East Malaysia partnership with the local Sabah and Sarawak media, driving the Dua Cara Campaign tailoring its messages with local context as well as using recipes that are more appealing to East Malaysians such as MAGGI Goreng Basah.”

 

Encouraging family bonding through MAGGI

Overall, with MAGGI’s products, one of the aims is to bring together a family and encourage them to bond while cooking together.

“Through MAGGI’s key communications, our ambition is to encourage family bonding moments and create the moment of togetherness through cooking.

“On top of that, we wish to educate our Malaysian consumers to cook healthier and in a more convenient way.”

Pertaining to that, MAGGI aspires to be a cooking aid and partner to mothers, who lead a busy lifestyle and face daily challenges in cooking for their families, as they have to juggle multiple responsibilities at the same time.

“Hence, we wish to inspire mothers to learn and connect better with her child through cooking with them.

“For the child, she or he gets to play and explore with food creating fun, magical moments with their mother.

“Proving that no matter how little time a mother has, there can be big special moments in the kitchen.”

“Our aim in MAGGI is also to provide more ideas for consumers to cook via its MAGGI Recipe Hub, offering more than 200 recipes on its website.

“This is also part of our commitment to encourage our consumers to prepare homemade meals at home.”