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Archive for August, 2009

Suvir Saran’s

Author: Nirvana Style Editor Sun Dec 30, 2007

Suvir Saran’s “American Masala” and the return of Devi

“There are no second acts in American lives,” goes the much-disproved F. Scott Fitzgerald observation, and it’s been disproved yet again. This time by an Indian-born chef in New York City.

Suvir Saran has pulled off a couple of amazing feats in Manhattan’s cut-throat world of high-end restaurants. First, he and fellow chef Hemant Mathur created Devi in 2004, a restaurant that would become the only Indian restaurant to earn a star in the Michelin Guide New York City 2007. The restaurant was owned by Rakesh Aggarwal, and not the chefs, and that came to, well, bite them. In August of this year, Devi was closed in response to a lawsuit against Aggarwal by workers.

“Devi opened in late 2004 and earned admiring reviews, it intended to be — and arguably was — the most ambitious and refined Indian restaurant in New York, where Indian restaurants haven’t taken root or soared to glory to the extent they have in London.”

Then on October 22, Saran and Mathur returned as owners of Devi, reopening the restaurant at the samelocation and with most of the original staff. Many of its signature dishes returned, too, but so did a range of “new classics,” such as Masala Fried Chicken and Spicy Mushroom Toasts. Those “new classics” are from Saran’s new book, “American Masala: 125 New Classics from My Home Kitchen” (written with Raquel Pelzel).

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Masala is a catchall phrase that means spice mixture — not just the actual seasonings — but also the spice that enlivens our lives. This is the concept that Suvir Saran explores in his brilliant new cookbook, AMERICAN MASALA (Clarkson Potter/ Publishers, October 11, 2007), a delicious blend of Indian and American cooking that combines the best the two have to offer, yielding dishes that are both and new.

“I have cooked Suvir’s recipes probably fifty times, never without delightful, fresh, inspiring results. When it comes to contemporary and traditional food, I trust him implicitly. American Masala is a gem.” — Mark Bittman, Author, How to Cook Everything and The Best Recipes in the World (and “The Minimalist” columnist in the New York Times)

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http://www.nirvanastyle.com/html/fashion_articles.php?id=219

There doesn’t seem to be very many scenarios where a business has become successful without implementing a marketing and localization strategy first.

 

Where certain companies seem to speak every language, they didn’t get successful overnight. The Swedish company, IKEA for example is known throughout America and Europe and now slowly through Asia by using several marketing schemes. Even though the company is still advertising the same types of products, even IKEA, where it’s products are fundamentally simple- pieces of furniture, the catalogs it advertises localized to each country specifically depending on the country. Depending on how people are raised and what they are accustomed to will depend on how they will approach furniture. Furniture is very personal. It must be presented in a way that is welcoming to people with their political, cultural and ethical in mind. Or it needs to grab attention- like what IKEA does.

 

One thing IKEA has done to blur boundaries is advertising through public transportation, create a “complete” shopping experience and keep costs low. IKEA could not have sent out more than 190 million catalogues to the global households without 56 editions and in 27 languages without the help of a translation and localization company working full time for them.

 

Blurring The Lines Using Transportation Methods

Since transportation to some of the large IKEA stores involves a trek way outside of people’s normal 20 mile radius close to home, IKEA has developed some ingenious ways to get people to there store for free, optional incentive to buy “of course.” In Brooklyn, New York IKEA provided a free ferry that runs from Wall Street to Brooklyn everyday from June 9 th to June 30 th as well as constructing models of New York City landmarks of the Empire States Building and the Brooklyn Bridge out of IKEA boxes. In Japan, IKEA’s guerilla marketing team took over a Kobe Portliner Monorail train, that made one of it’s stops near an IKEA and coated the seats and walls in decorative IKEA fabric, similar to a room design in one of their catalogs.

 

The Complete Shopping Experience

Assuming that you will be shopping awhile at IKEA, they have provided a Swedish style restaurant inside each IKEA store that has created one reason to go to an IKEA store for some where there perhaps wasn’t a reason before. Smelling Swedish meatballs while shopping would make anyone want to stop into the restaurant, conveniently located at the checkout counter. Food will always be a universal selling point.

 

Keeping Costs Low Speak to Everyone

Of course if it’s a good product and it’s affordable or down right cheap, people will buy it. When it comes to similar designs, Japanese designs and Swedish designs are fairly similar, clean lines and simplicity. So IKEA wasn’t worried about that aspect of selling the products to Japan. If the products were made from high quality designs or would last, that is where IKEA could have trouble selling their brand.

 

When thinking about launching your product into the global market, think about ways you can appeal to people as individuals and their basic needs. Then, hire a localization and translation company to get the details across. When you speak the basics, you speak their language.