Maggi, a popular brand of
noodles, was recently found to contain high
content of lead and other harmful chemicals. Maggi is a Nestle product; the
company is headquartered in Switzerland. If you compare this fiasco with
anything else in the past, we can remember two other cases easily - when
Cadbury chocolates were found to contain "worms" (year 2003) and Coca
Cola and Pepsi soft drinks were found to contain high levels of
"pesticides" (year 2006)! Guess what is similar between Nestle,
Cadbury and Coke? All are foreign companies selling in India. And during the
current controversy over Maggi, what do you think Nestle management must be
planning? If I see history, I guess that would be - a new PR campaign!
I think what must be giving
comfort to Nestle is the fact that others like it have been able to
successfully rehabilitate themselves after their life-threatening fiascos.
Indians, who pride themselves of keeping highest standards of hygiene and
purity in matters of food, it seems, don't mind keep eating chocolates with
worms and soft drinks with pesticides; so why will they behave differently with
noodles?
Amitabh Bachchan must be quick
in denying anything fishy in campaigning for lead-infested Maggi noodles, but do
you know how he played a pivotal role in “rehabilitating” Cadbury after the
"worm controversy"? Yes, that is correct - when Cadbury launched a PR
campaign to win back customers incensed over worms, Amitabh was a pivotal part
of the advertising campaign. Till date, people remember the biggest cine star
of India dancing on TV to sell some chocolates. "Kuchh meetha ho jaye?" It seems we have forgotten about worms
as if those never happened… Celebrities may not have direct role in promoting ‘bad’
products, after all they also promote so many other ‘good’ products, but we
can't deny how clever marketers use them to win back their lost market share -
which in the long term sets a bad precedence.
I know there is an undercurrent
prevalent in Indian society, though it gets weaker day-by-day. According to it,
the foreign companies and MNCs keep double standards - one for the developed
countries and another for the so called "third world". We can't deny
there are reasons behind such thinking - till a few years ago, a lot of items
like toothpastes by foreign companies did not carry an "expiry date" exclusively
when selling in India (and perhaps countries like India). Things have certainly
improved over time, but now there is another popular theory, especially among
the young educated population – due to which people keep supporting foreign
brands even though serious violations are done by those. The basic ideology is
that a foreign company from a developed country can "never" do
something wrong! Both approaches are extreme and I think the truth lies
somewhere in between.
If Maggi wins back its market share
even after compromising its product quality, will it be only by a repeat of
Cadbury or Cola-Pepsi like clever marketing campaigns, or will it be by
rediscovering quality control and by firing people responsible for the lowdown?
Only time would tell. But the bottom line is clear - Indian consumers are being
taken for a ride and the earlier we wake up, the better for us.
