Maggi.de - Successful repositioning
Maggi GmbH, a subsidiary of Nestlé Deutschland AG headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, is a renowned company in the retail sector. The traditional company, which was founded in 1897, has built up an excellent reputation thanks to its unique “that certain something”.
From recipe portal to digital cooking platform
Maggi.de has long been one of the most visited recipe sites for food manufacturers in Germany. The site has over 12 million users per year. The growing number of similar sites on the Internet has prompted Maggi to reposition itself and offer its customers more than just recipes. What was originally launched as a pure recipe site is now a comprehensive service portal for end consumers.
The Drupal platform in figures
Page views per year 20,000,000+
Users per year 12,000,000+
Recipes offered 2,600+
Local supermarkets 78,000+
The Maggi.de website was originally created as a sub-site for Nestlé Distribution. Working with 1xINTERNET as Drupal specialists, Maggi has enhanced its platform to respond to current challenges such as food waste and growing consumer price sensitivity to engage users and differentiate itself from competitors.
This project demonstrates how Drupal enables sustainable, long-term digital innovation and helps large organizations like Maggi achieve their goals.
Double award for innovation and technology
At the Splash Awards Germany / Austria 2023, the project “Maggi.de - Drupal extensions for repositioning” received two recognitions: The Maggi project is the winner in the Enterprises Nat.category and also received a special award for special innovation and one for outstanding technical realization.
Strategic starting position and objectives
Maggi.de already had a significant market presence as Germany's leading recipe platform among food manufacturers, attracting 12 million annual visitors looking for recipe inspiration. However, maintaining market leadership required more than just sharing recipes. It required strategic innovation and differentiation.
Three pillars of repositioning
In order to offer their target group an exceptional service, the Maggi team formulated three main objectives for the repositioning:
Brand perception
To position Maggi as a future-oriented brand that is not just another recipe site, but also solves real problems.
Customer loyalty
Integrate meaningful features that fulfill specific customer needs and thus build loyalty.
Market differentiation
To offer unique services that cannot be imitated so quickly.
Innovation through customer focus
Maggi.de is constantly evolving to meet the needs of consumers. The goals of its customers flow directly into Maggi's innovation processes. These include the reduction of food waste, awareness of time and costs and convenience through simplicity. Consumers' goals are technically implemented in a timely manner.
This requires a reliable platform that can be further developed without disrupting the live operation of the website. This is possible thanks to Drupal's modular architecture, as extensions do not affect the stability of the platform.
As a partner and Drupal expert, we support Maggi.de with maintenance, revisions and the implementation of new, customer-oriented functions.
From inspiration to the shopping basket
Powerful search and filter functions help families find exactly the recipe inspiration they need without delay. Consumers can be inspired by daily changing recipes or download entire weekly plans. They can search specifically for recipes assigned to certain categories such as “low carb” or “cooking with vegetables” and receive detailed information on each dish. They can also use the magazine to get ideas on food and its preparation.
Maggi's extensive database contains over 2,600 recipes, each supported by a list of ingredients that can be easily ordered directly from local REWE supermarkets. The REWE website is linked directly under the ingredient list of each recipe.
Consumers can save their favorite recipes in a registered area. The recipe collection provides time and difficulty levels, budget references and illustrated step-by-step instructions.
System architecture and implementation
The Drupal application “Action Finder” is connected to the Maggi Microserver, which acts as the central interface for database access. Extensive data records from the Drotax database were implemented, which include price data from more than 78,000 German supermarkets. This information was successfully transferred, allowing current special offers to be dynamically linked to the comprehensive list of ingredients of thousands of recipes.
For a smooth search function and quick access to the desired website content, a React application is used on the user side, while the recipe search is optimized by SOLR integration in the backend. The successful migration impressively demonstrates how third-party data can be integrated.
Innovations with social added value
Sustainability through 'Lecker Retter'
In Germany, around 11 million tons of food are thrown away every year, half of which comes from private households. Maggi.de is tackling this problem with its innovative ‘Lecker Retter’ initiative, which aims to promote sustainable habits in terms of using existing food and throwing away less food.
“It's not just about leftovers waiting to be used in the fridge; it's also about providing new ideas that consumers may not have thought of themselves,” explains Grischa Marky, Product Owner of Maggi.de.
'Lecker Retter' suggests creative, easy-to-follow recipes to transform existing food into delicious meals.
The digital kitchen assistant
The KiM chatbot has been in use on the Maggi website since 2020. The digital kitchen assistant links to over 2,600 recipes and innovative cooking ideas via WhatsApp. Users can ask KiM for tips, search for specific recipes, take part in interactive cooking courses and sign up for weekly plans via push notifications. On request, KiM gives advice on the proper storage of ingredients and how to make the most of leftovers.
Intelligent tool for the price-conscious
Cooking from recipes can be expensive due to the cost of ingredients and constant price increases. Maggi responded to this by introducing the data-driven “Action Finder” feature. This smart integration helps users take advantage of offers from their local supermarket by linking recipe recommendations with real-time supermarket promotions.
By integrating weekly price data from supermarkets across Germany and matching it with recipes, households are helped to prepare tasty meals on a budget.
Success story
Maggi.de is transforming itself from a simple recipe website into Germany's most advanced digital cooking platform. This strategic development has resulted in measurable success: sustainable market leadership with 12 million annual users, social commitment through systematic waste reduction and unique market positioning through innovative service integrations.
The Action Finder's real-time processing system masters enormous complexity by managing continuous data feeds from over 78,000 German supermarkets, matching 1,500 weekly offers with 2,600 recipes and cross-referencing thousands of ingredients, delivering results in under a second.
Maggi's specific requirements for customized search and filter functions formed the foundation for our decoupled search API contribution, which is made available to the Drupal community via drupal.org.
Beyond technical excellence, Maggi.de addresses important social and environmental concerns by systematically reducing food waste and demonstrates that digital innovation can combine both business success and social responsibility.
Watch the video about the case now.
