When God asked for Munch and Nestlé chose restraint

Finger chocolate Nestlé Munch could not have asked for a more noble endorser than ‘Munch Murugan’ from Kerala’s Alappuzha city. The child form of the god of war, victory, and wisdom, and the son of Shiv, he accepts prayers and the FMCG giant’s chocolates over the usual sweets devotees offer to the gods.

Kunal Mehta, a global leader for brand, marketing and communicaton at  dsm-firmenich, a Dutch multinational corporation (then a brand manager at Nestlé Munch between 2011 and 2014), wrote about Nestlé’s approach to this divine endorsement.

We had a lot of discussions and debates around this opportunity:
• Should we talk about this fascinating development on our social media?
• Should we use this in our brand communication?
• How about doing a press release on this interesting piece?
Finally, all of us decided that we as a company (Nestlé India) and a brand will feel extremely proud and honoured about this accomplishment, but will not talk about it and not do any marketing around it.

His post on LinkedIn was a response to communications consultant Karthik Srinivasan’s post detailing how Murugan’s association with Nestlé Munch came to be.

It was a small Muslim boy who once rang the temple bell while playing and was scolded by his parents. That night, he fell sick and kept murmuring Murugan’s name. The next day, his parents took him to the temple and offered oil and flowers after the priest asked them to present something to Balamurugan. The boy offered Nestlé Munch.

The boy was cured, and word spread about how a little boy managed to change the taste of God. Now, devotees always ensure they bring Nestlé Munch with them and offer it to Balamurugan.