Steve Job 2.0

Too soon? Oh well, shutup.

Via

Exploding Houses

“At first glance, these houses looks like they could have been the victim of a dramatic gas explosion. But the beat-up homes in Houston, Texas, are in fact an elaborate traffic-stopping work of art using the homes’ own wood siding. Artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck smashed the interior walls of the homes, before nailing the wooden planking at strange angles to complete their project. Featuring

How to Make a Ramen Noodle Sandwich

How to make a Ramen noodle sandwich. Yes, I just typed those words, strange. Anywho, if you don't have much self respect, or bread, then try making a Ramen noodle sandwich: Instructions here.
Wait! Thought! What about a Ramen noodle BLT sandwich? Mmmm.

Source

3 Necklace and Earring Sets Giveaway!

Shy of Perfect was nice enough to offer Now That's Nifty readers a chance to win one of three necklace and earing sets of your choice. And for all those who aren't lucky enough to win, don't cry, promo code NOWTHATSNIFTY will give you 30% off your purchase from Shy of Perfect!

About Shy of Perfect:

Modern designs that are meant to be affordable, fun, and easy to wear.

If you wonder why I keep

Brand Update : Scooty becomes Sinful

Last year saw a dramatic change in the brand personality of Scooty- the Scooterette brand from TVS.The brand is attempting a makeover to woo the young Indian consumer. In that process, the brand changed its entire persona to cater to the new target segment.

The change in the brand personality of Scooty also reflects its change in its targeting strategy. The brand is now targeting a much younger consumers. Earlier, Scooty was targeting lady consumers who were looking for a personal transport to office/college. The brand's initial communication was catered to young women who just started going to office. The message of a successful independent women was the positioning platform adopted by the brand.The brand also tried to ladder up using " Empowerment " as the core value. 

Last year, the brand went in for a complete makeover. The brand has become much younger, colorful and naughty. This was a drastic change from the earlier positioning based on style and power. The brand also rationalized its portfolio  to three sub-brands - Scooty Pep, Scooty Teenz and Scooty Streak. 

For Scooty Pep, the brand has made it more youthful and colorful by changing the advertising strategy. The brand has adopted the new tagline " Go Babelicious ". The brand campaign features the new age girl with the so-called bold attitude. The brand message is " Do your own thing, girls ". To support the new positioning, the brand has launched more colorful variants. 

Watch the campaign here :Go Babelicious

The brand is now running another brand campaign for its Streak  sub-brand. Scooty Streak was launched in 2009. The brand was aimed at young girls with more styling and colors. The brand also introduced additional features for the Streak . Scooty Streak used the ( then ) tennis sensation Sania Mirza as the brand ambassador.The styling was the key differentiator for Streak at that time. 

This year, Scooty became more bold for its sub-brand. The brand is currently running a campaign for Streak called " Sinfully Black ".

Watch the ad here : Sinfully Black 

The new campaign is a big shift in the overall brand personality of Scooty. From a positioning based more on rational aspects like features and style, the brand moved to a kind of hedonistic form of advertising. In the Sinfully Black campaign, the brand is featuring seven sins -

Lust

Greed

Pride

Envy

Gluttony

Sloth

Rage.

The brand is running ads for each of these sins. The brand is clearly targeting the new urban youth and is following the clichéd  image of the young urban Indian consumer. Most of the brands are now using a kind of a rebel, indulgent, sexy, naughty, independent image to portray the Indian youngsters. Scooty Streak is no different. So from a " empowered, rational " personality, the brand has moved to a naughty, indulgent, personality. For the campaign , the brand uses foreign models which again is to position itself as an aspirational brand. 

What I liked about the campaign is the use of seven sins in the campaign which makes the ads different and interesting. The use of positioning statement " Sinfully Black " is also different and I think the brand has done away with other color choices for Streak and is now focusing on black Streak with colorful graphics. This also is something that is not seen in campaigns targeting ladies. Earlier Bajaj Pulsar had launched a campaign for Black Pulsar 180cc. 

Another reason for the Sinfully Black campaign is to make the sub-brand relevant and different from Scooty Pep. Since Scooty Pep has also changed its targeting towards younger consumers, the Streak sub-brand will be occupying the same mental space with Scooty Pep. So by relaunching Scooty Streak with focus on black color + new personality, the company has effectively differentiated the two sub-brands from each other ( atleast in image).

The new campaigns of Scooty marks another interesting change for this brand. Scooty has been a market leader in this category for long . The brand is careful in making itself interesting to the TG. This time, the brand smartly uses promotional strategies to keep the interest alive in the market. 

Related Brand

TVS Scooty

NEW CHRISTMAS SOAPS - PREVIEW

Yes, busy, busy, busy little Soapchick has been making like crazy.  I have some lovely new ideas for Christmas soaps, some already made and some in the making.  I want to share them with you today, some are on the curing racks already and will be ready for order really soon.

Re-vamped Christmas Spice Cake for 2011
Christmas Spice Cake is an annual favourite, each year I redesign it and try to make it better and better.  This year I have gone for the holly and berry look on top, swirls of lovely creamy soap laden with cinamon, nutmeg, cranberry and clove scents.  It is a real winner and I think that this years version is the best ever!

Christmas Berry cupcakes
Now these really are lovely, the base is scented with a mixture of wild berry and tangy cranberry, very Christmassy, the tops are decorated with mixed berries, and lovely indigo glitter. Another one that I don't have a name for yet, so if you can help I would love to know what you think?

Gingerbread Cupcakes
I recently fell in love with a new, tiny gingerbread man cutter and I had to get it.  So..... naturally this means a new cupcake is born!  this one has a fantastic ginger cake fragrance, so spicy and lovely.  Some of the cupcakes have a candy cane on the opposite side, some a gold star, everything made out of soap of course! I need a name for this little beauty, can you help?

"Follow The Star" Limited edition
I am so excited by this soap, the idea came while I was sleeping - I know it sounds crazy but I dreamed this soap!

I wanted to make a real scene in soap, my interpretation of the Christmas message.  The fragrance started me off, frankincense and Myrrh, a beautiful, warm, rich scent, and what else did the wise men bring?  Gold of course, I wanted a star and glitter too.  This is the result, a desert night (it will get darker, the sky I mean, as the fragrance ages to a much darker colour), the sand dunes peeling off into the distance, a wild, glittery, magical sky and a huge, pure white star to follow.  The soap looks equally good straight out of the mold or cut up into bars (as above) I think, I really wanted the scene to show up well and tell the story of Christmas in soap, I think it does and I hope you do too, please let me know.

Before the final cut, straight out of the mold as an extra large bar and before the gold 'chunks' were coloured up.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes
and finally, another re-vamp of a favorite from last year.  I have make these cupcakes again as I have already had lots of orders in, but, as always, I have made them slightly different this year.  I hope you wont be disappointed.  The scent is the same lovely mixture of Christmas spices as the cake at the top of this blog, cinnamon, clove, cranberry and nutmeg.

Remember you will always see and hear about my new soaps first on this blog and by following my facebook page, Please do let me know what you think, I love comments!!!

Tata Grande : Size Matters

Brand : Grande
Company : Tata Motors

Brand Analysis Count : 501

Another Indian brand has moved from a sub-brand status to an Independent brand. Tata Motors has upgraded the Grande brand to an independent brand status delinking it from Sumo Brand. Tata Sumo Grande was launched in 2008. the brand was expected to raise the sagging fortune of Tata Sumo.

Tata Sumo which was launched in 1994 was a poster boy in the Multi-Utility Vehicle segment. The brand became hugely popular in the Taxi segment .

 But the launch of Innova, Scorpio, Xylo etc soon began to eat into the share of Sumo. Soon the brand began to be perceived as dated. Coupled with the bad PR and image about Tata Cars, the consumer interest began to shift to new MUVs and SUVs.

Tata Sumo Grande was launched as an attempt to shift the consumer's interest back to Tata MUVs. The Grande design was very different from Sumo and the positioning of Sumo grande was also different from the Sumo's positioning. Tata Sumo Grande had the tagline " More than Meets the Eye " focusing on the personality of the brand owner. 

In 2011, Tata Motors decided to make Grande brand independent. The new brand was soft launched and the brand is currently running the launch campaign in various channels.

Watch the campaign here : Tata Grande

The new brand has the tagline " Size Matters ". From the tagline itself it can be assumed that the brand is 

positioning itself as the most spacious MUV ( common sense !). Grande is also hoping to be perceived as a family car , rather than a commercial vehicle. The brand is priced at Rs 7.5 lakh +.

In one of my posts, I had criticized the Tata Motor's strategy of launching Grande under the Sumo brand. Now that that error was rectified, it needs to be seen whether consumers will perceive Grande as different from Sumo. My judgement is that it will be difficult since that association is already being made. So the task for Tata Motors is to put Grande out of the Sumo association as quickly as possible. Interestingly Grande is focusing on the USP - Size which is also the same USP of Sumo.  The brand has been priced competitively but Tata Safari is also priced in the same range so it has to be seen whether these two brands will compete with each other .

The launch of Grande is a move to strengthen the MUV portfolio of Tata Motors which suffered heavily because of sophisticated competing products. Sumo although was a well accepted product was rather getting old in terms of product and image. Tata Motors was not aggressive in making radical product innovations on Sumo or its image to counter competitors like Mahindra and Toyota. Tata Grande is expected to complement Sumo Victa in its fight against the sophisticated competitors. 

Image wise, Grande's launch campaign has done nothing. The ad is very basic and rational and will appeal more to the taxi segment rather than family segment. How ever the pricing and the spruced up interiors will definitely put Grande in advantage over its competitors. The brand could have burned the market if it had priced it less than Rs 7 Lakh. Tata Grande should have aimed at disruption and not incremental value addition since the market is mature and highly competitive. Mahindra is currently doing that with its XUV 500.