A super proposition: What can we learn from a magic called 'Coke Studio'

A successful business is a result of well timed product, lucrative packaging, enthusiastic team players and creative selling proposition. Mix these and you deliver the customer value. The same 'customer value' which business books relentlessly mention at each major proponent is that intangible feeling which one gets on being satisfied(ranging from the feeling after testing a delicious dish to  watching a superb movie). One of the best examples of a successful business is 'Coke Studio'.

The Product

Consider for example the above video which is adopted from Coke Studio Season 5. The sound track has the lively punjabi music king Arif Lohar sing out the melody with the Meesha Shaifi.  The video starts with a spotlight on Arif Lohar and darkness around, and slowly unravels the rest of the singers and musicians in the due course of time. Notice carefully the visual transition during 1:08th minute of the video. The lights switch on and introduce the other players. The synergy is apt with the audio, as the chorus comes into play at 1:08 minute. The darkness combined with soft rock beacons a cool music, the bright lights combined with matching colors of costumes and apparels turns out to be the cynosure.

The Team Players

The best asset of Coke Studio are its human talent. From music composer Rohail Hyatt to Asad Ahmed, the program combines best of the talents to produce a quality blended fusion music. The 'behind the scenes' video do give an indication of the amount of efforts that is put in for coming up with the music line for a song.

The Marketing

A visit to the website gives an indication of the product marketing, as the limited series of episodes coupled with a glamorous promo makes it 'exclusive' for users. The whole concept of Coke Studio revolves around the identity of its target customers, which is youth and exuberance with a positive outlook while acknowledging the reality of life. The blended colors of the website integrated with flash loaded videos makes it an attractive proposition for user to explore them.

From Forbes to Wikipedia, Coke Studio has been proliferating across the hearts of people across the globe. And internet media looks to be the best channel of propagating it across the borders. The 1.5 million likes and twenty thousand people engaged in discussions on its Facebook page confirms this belief of internet being the major channel for proliferation.Till date, over seventy four million visitors have watched the videos on Youtube and 138,012 have subscribed to the videos. The above video has got over eleven million visitors and over twenty thousand likes on youtube.

While Pepsi used cricket as the medium in Pakistan to entice the people to consume it, Coke has fought back with a strong reply: music. And with the recent success of the initiative, Coke Studio looks to get bigger and better. If entertainment industry is studied for cues on successful business proposition, no doubt that Coke Studio would continue to be one of the best examples.

Desperate hunger

The world is gaga over the impact of social media, expert commentators join bandwagon in predicting how social media would be the next big thing.  Companies have started leveraging social media in not only understanding customers, anticipating their demand and marketing their product. In this universe where every competition is ready to suck your blood in order to get bigger and better, it is no irony that the feedback have been vocal. In a way this is the price the administrators of the system are paying for a. introducing excessive leeway in the system, b. tightening the screws in customer spending power.

Amid-st of all the hue and cry, we take you to a new world. A world which looks fancy, but is not as green as it appears from outside.

Competition are seen as an opportunity for challenge seekers. The society is in principle with the observation that inequality of chance exists and people still struggle to make it through. Despite all these pessimism the domain of competition is an area which is eyed lustfully by each and every aspirant. Why not? If you win one, you stand a chance to win prize ranging from certificates recognizing your talent, cash valuing the amount of effort you have pitched in or a chance of job. However this prospect of lucrative results has made us morally strip off in public arena.

A classic example of how we morally strip ourselves in a quest of winning something is 'like' competition. Event portals are flooded with competition where user with maximum like wins the event. This primarily serves two purpose for the organizers: a. garner maximum publicity and b. access the cheapest alternative of free labor. Most of us forget while asking our social circles for votes, that we are begging for a third party whom we expect a prize. The unfortunate part is that there is only one winner. That means the efforts of everybody else(who has 'failed' to garner maximum likes) are not worth it.

Interestingly it makes us undergo the ethical test as to how desperate would we be to strip our morals off in public and shamelessly beg for votes. Well, one might argue that there is a management flavor of getting the work done, networking and etc. But deep inside we all know that we do have a choice, a choice of opting. What many people do not realize that the humiliating experience people in their network face and eventually consider the 'please like this entry' post as a spam. It is conspicuous that social media is being overstretched and companies are willing to stretch this rubber band to get their work done at minimal cost.

Some of us may be happy to pursue such initiatives. But isn't it time when we should think deep inside our heart "wait, what is happening?" Isn't it the time to question the system? Or do we need to wait further for a 'momentum' to convey our concerns to the systems?

An affair to remember forever

Every passing moment taught me lessons of life. Music, memories and masti.These three have consistently fed me regardless of good, bad, ugly or joy. Taking a leaf out of the book, I look back to the days when I developed romance with one of my childhood crush. 

I remember the sweet night when I was tired of listening to the cassette in walkman again and again. Welcome to the world of early 2000s. Internet was a rising star, but not strong enough to de-addict us from listening to walkman. While my grandmother was skeptical of earphone usage(often citing cases of hearing impairment due to excessive hearing of walkman), we(me and my sister) were completely submerged in a river called 'nonchalant attitude'. 

Coming back to track. Out of boredom of listening a single cassette over and again, I decided to tinker with the AM/FM meter in the walkman. One could excuse you for not being able to connect to AM channels, first if you are in a lush green colony in a deep jungle and second if technology hasn't been kind to nearby city. However, fate smiled and I was somehow able to connect to AM. 

AM channels are boring, isn't it? I mean they are full of regional broadcasts and AIR and thus must be monotonous. Wrong! Contrary to this poor notion of mine, I suddenly hooked up to the instrumental track of movie 'Swades'. 2 AM, chilling winter and a soft tune in ear. Life couldn't have had asked for a better treat. Yes friends, I was in love with radio.

The AM/ FM noise wasn't sufficient to deter me from listening to radio. The more noise disturbed the radio signal, the harder I tried to align the antenna in correct position. Finding the correct antenna position of a radio is playing a blind dart game. You need to keep on shooting until you find the 'aha' moment. But trust me, once you make the proper alignment you continue to reap innumerable enjoyable moments.

Luckily for me, I was able to spot the correct alignment position(besides my pillow). Soon came morning and it was news time. I wasn't happy to part with the music section(it replicates Chitrahaar of old era). Contrary to my expectations, the news segment was refreshing. The diction of the news broadcaster made me realized that I could learn a lot of things from listening the news. Days passed on and I became an avid fan of AIR Rainbow.

The affair finally ended when I got into professional world as I struggled to find radio signal during my training days. Days passed by and I gave up the pursuit. 

Today I am still hopeful that someday I would relive this romance again. Time passes by and all I hear on tuning radio is the glamorous radio channels. 

The airport experience...

Super tight(I mean it) accessories, protruding bellies, super-cool rowdies and sharp glnces. Welcome to Banglore..i mean Bengaluru Airport. It goes without saying that the airport boasts of having one of the finest infrastructure of the nation. Add to it, the sleek outlets that promise to sway you. The result is a perfect modern infrastructure which caters to the need of travelers. But how stylish are the travelers?

Some ailing, some trailing, some laggards and some lizards(going by the super slim size); the pool of travelers provides a variety of samples to choose from. Make any permutation and combination, you would get every kind of sample specimen of homosapien residing in this holy earth.

As I continue to key in views of mine in the mobile, a lady seated opposite to me continues to drop items while picking from her purse.

“Bahut hai chahne waale duniya mein, tumhe dekhun toh kyun dekhun”…

A beautiful(according to me) girl marches aside with face focused like a solder parading in front of president on republic day. Neither am I president nor maverick. Surely, the song in the radio gives the answer as to why didn’t I receive any glances(I usually am at the receiving end of not so good glances infact).

How can I dare to continue this blog without writing about our so proclaimed ‘cool’ guys? Ironically they do not appear cool when they show up.  Half tucked shirts, ill creased jeans, grisly appearance and a goggle(this further worsens their fashion quotient) mares the appearance of these super-cool dudes.

Next, we come to the business supermen and superwomen. Yes, the professionals donning the business suits and engrossed with their palmtops, laptops and tablets respectively. Outlook express seems to be their oxygen throughout the journey, as any moment of separation(i.e. logging off from OL/ switching off the device) seems to be the “fish without water” moment.

As I was about to settle down in another waiting arena, I suddenly discovered one more species. A family sat beside me and the lady told to her husband “wait here, me(she and her son) are coming from there’ pointing her fingers towards shoppers stop outlet.

I was quite lucky to discover these categories during my stint in airport. I am sure than with the increase in air journeys I would continue to explore more such species. In case you fall into any of these categories, just chill!