Understanding Kolaveri Di

Whenever the beats of the so called "Kolaveri Di" fall in my ears, the only question comes to my mind is that why is it such a huge hit? I mean seriously, the song does not have any lyrics or any comprehensible tune, which I as a purist when it comes to music, am able to relate to. It does not even have a semi nude dance by an 'item girl' nor does it have any star value. Still, subverting and henceforth surpassing all the cliched must-haves, the song is an instant hit, and has already broken so many records as far as revenue-generation-via-songs-marketing history is concerned. Come on! it does not even qualify to be called a song! It's more of a farfetched attempt of mixing some syllables from 2-3 different languages and conglomerating them with some nonsensically disheveled beats! Still it is rampantly obliterating all the musical records. In 2 months, it has garnered more than 36 million hits on YouTube along with extensive downloads of the songs in audio format. Along with that, all the parties and club numbers are pumping up varied versions of the songs and crowd is going mad at each and every different versions!

Personally, as I am biased to the kind of music I like, it's a pathetically stupid attempt. I wonder what Sonu Nigam or A.R Rehman would have opined after they would have heard it playing around them. However as a budding marketeer, I am bound to think beyond my personal biases and analyse the market brandishes being created by different variables, latest in picture to be the 'Kolaveri Di'.

So yes the song is creating waves. Some say, that they love the song for it is stupid. Others think that they like the song for it's catchy beats and unstructured lyrics. However, there are many others who like it "just aise hi!"!They don't know why but still they 'enjoy' it! Strange is not it!! It probably was being shared by everyone on their facebook wall. Since everyone else was sharing, it forced them too to share it (the mirror neurons effect! or in my terms "the aping effect"). And since everyone else was enjoying it, they too developed a hypothetical admiration for the song (you know, to blend in the social groups). However the hypothetical admiration soon subverted their rationality, as it does almost always in Indian Consumers context, they forgot that the admiration was hypothetical and since then they started 'enjoying' the song! And why I am so sure that it happened like this? Well ask your own selves...Is the so called 'song' actually a song to be admired and promoted! if yes then why do we encourage young people to come and participate in music talent hunts considering that songs like these become popular and earn money..and not the Sonu Nigam's songs that after sometime are lost in the oblivion and at max are able to occupy a mere 5 Mb space on our ipod's playlist.

Ultimately it proves that anything and anything can be popularised today, if marketed ingeniously. Viral marketing is definitely a boon for marketing, especially for online marketers who know the concept of exploiting the so called social networking!

Quality was never important in Indian context. How many goods do we actually see that are being promoted and advertised on Rational Appeal?? We are emotional people, and we are extremely susceptible to people's behavior around us as whatever they do, more often or not we too have the tendency to emulate the same to be admired and liked by the community. Or as the Dexter would say .. "Blending In the Social World"..!!

Anyway, the good news is that "Kolaveri Di" certainly has proved that my understanding of Indian Consumer is absolutely right. Anything or everything can be promoted or popularised today by smart marketing and powered by the (so popular!) Viral Marketing today for people fall for anything that they see happening repeatedly around them. Poor content will definitely not sell but definitely can be popularised. And yes..Kolaveri Di is not a poor content.. It is an insanely stupid content and stupid content can not only be popularised but even be sold tremendously by adept marketing as is already being done over here!