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Project Scope
This is a global marketing insight analysis project, collaborated with Monash University to assist some of the multinational businesses in Asia, the Middle East and Europe to utilise local marketing insights to build international brand equity locally.
Dubai
Dubai was a particularly exciting city to discuss culture in brand equity. Especially, when we consider the place is ultramodern landscape mix with Emiratis custom. Where traditional values and ways of living are being put on the edge, westernised lifestyle is being amplified into the local life. There was no space for blending in or taking baby steps of slowly mixing westernised brands into the local Arabic culture.
The city in a sense was losing its authenticity all at once, where local cultures are put into the corner for tourists to get slight tastes of.
This phenomenon has put international brands in great challenges. How much would a brand leverage their "globalness"? How much can we embrace the Emiratis culture in delivering the brand messages? How do we plan to understand its people when entering a relatively reserved culture? And how to get the locals to openly talk about their expectations on foreign products ( what's their needs and wants? or are they just simply happy with the westernised products and cultural influences.
I carried all these questions in mind, entered in to the world of mysterious, ancient, and religious middle east society and tried to absorb all that I can to understand the middle eastern imitation of the "Americanised" way of living. I also wanted to find out whether if the locals are just overly excited about the " western" experience they can experience through these international brands.
For the business case:
We visited Emirates Airline to discover the world of the airline business in the middle east.
Insights on Strategy
The marketing and brand VP talked about why did the airline decide to set their headquarters in Dubai. It was because from a geographic point of view, Dubai is 7 to 8 hours to Europe, and about the same to Asia.
Therefore, it has made it perfect for travellers to transit at the same time make shortstops visit the city.
The airline itself also leverages this geographical advantage to have short tour +ticket packages to attract travellers from and to Europe to book their tickets and make stops at Dubai.
Pricing Strategy
Their pricing strategy for the flight ticket was never to be the cheapest fare.
They consider that let the customers have a taste of "luxury" by paying a little bit extra; Their aim is to have their then customers to come back for more of that experience.
A "not cheap fare" was also introduced in the e-commerce site. It lets the customers know that their basic fare does not cover everything when they board the flight. Then the strategy was to introduce the package with higher than single fare price but covers all. Their data shows that after a while, most of the people that buying tickets online would choose the package deal over the single fare ticket.
Reflection on Company Marketing Strategy
Bait the customers in taking smaller steps in buying the " experience " that the Airline created is relatively easy to get hooked rather than hard selling of premium options that leaving customers with limited budget cold hearted.
In the " light luxury" strategy, consumers would be much happier to spend a little more for the comfortable experience that they would consider definitely value for money!
Although, I am not 100% sure the customer experience with the "not cheap fare" on the e-commerce website would do the same trick. As it gives me a sense of pushing the customers to take the package options. What if I might just want to have a relatively simple purchase experience with less of a hassle of trying to understand what package covers what services when my attention span is limited while travelling or planning to travel, and may have another millions of things to be taken care of while I am on the go. Not sure introducing these price deal tricks at this point would result in positive or increasingly negative experience of the airline.
I think, to this point, they might need to have further market research on understanding customer expectations on e-commerce website, products offering package deals. The overall liking of the current offerings.
Insights on culture - Background research on brands enter the Dubai market.
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The power/influence of Emiratis exceed that of other demographics, however, they only make a small percentile of the overall population. (As seen by governments trying to keep their culture)
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Expats and immigrants are bringing in a new and completely different culture to DubaiTherefore, as marketers, we need to be aware of the differences in culture, even though demographically they are of the same place. The best way to market retail products is to engage with the local Emirati culture (e.g. language in both Arabic and English; being aware of customs like Ramadan) but adding on international appeal (e.g. not shying away from the original brand; keeping the authenticity of the brand) in order to generate the unique brand identity and competitive advantage in the Dubai market.
Available Soon
Reflection on culture and society
The trip to Dubai was a rare opportunity to visit businesses in the context of culture. What strikes me the most in Dubai were the struggles of how the Emiratis wanting to preserve the essence of their culture and at the same time embracing the modern lifestyle.
They are witnessing the diminishing balance with foreign culture taking bold steps breaking into the relatively reserved culture. The conflicts in adapting the life in an emerging multicultural society is not to be dismissed but to get recognised.
We were lucky enough to have an interesting conversation with a female Emirati working professional to share her personal experience with the culture influences. Where she openly talked about her personal life and struggles of juggling between her career and family. Having a job for her was a source of happiness and a booster of her sense of self-worth. However, at the same time, she felt conflicted that she wanted to respect her traditions as an Emirati woman. She also worried about her husband's attitude towards her being a working woman. Giving the fact that her husband is legally to be able to more than one wife.
I was tempted to ask whether with her being a working woman, would jeopardise her relationship with her husband and her husband would visited the other wife more often. But considering that is a question way over the line, she might get uncomfortable, I didn't have the gut to do so.
I mean wouldn't you wonder how might her husband manage his time between two families? He must have an open schedule that share his availabilities with these two wives.
She talked about the marriage as much as she can from a culture point of view, that she and the other wife is not like the best girlfriends that they do their shoppings together or share their moments anything like that. They are to stay as seperate households. And if everything goes right, she will never meet the other wife in her entire lifetime.
I was mind blown by that piece of information, can you imagine living your entire life without knowing the other person that shares your husband? She could be anyone you encounter on the street. I couldn't help but wonder if the movement of modern society has any influence on this tradition? What's her true thoughts on this? And now she is in searching for her happiness in the working life. What does that mean with her traditional values of the marriage?
I guess, everywhere women in the workplace are facing the similar issue of balancing career and family life. And how does society define women's role? How do women contemplating their roles? These issues are particularly sensitive in the culture where women were considered as the primary caretakers of the family. From these working Emirati women's perspective, I see it as the bumpy road of liberation in searching for the strength to be one's own self.
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