Page 177 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

Making Your Pitch: Marketing to GCC Buyers 161

FOUR DEGREES OF ADAPTATION

Multinationals have approached the GCC market with varying
degrees of planning and preparation. Some firms, such as oil and
gas companies, have long operated in the GCC countries through
linkages with Gulf governments and their foreign allies. Others
have been introduced to the region through enterprising local dis-
tributors or agents, and with little or no attention paid to their entry
by the global head office. Another set—like Gap and IKEA—have
been more deliberate about their market entry and their local mar-
ket strategy, negotiating terms carefully and monitoring the per-
formance of local franchisees with rigor. Some companies have
made the GCC a strategic priority and have entered the market
directly or in joint ventures with local partners. To say, therefore,
that firms’ marketing approaches have always been deliberate
would not be entirely accurate.
Nonetheless, there are patterns to the ways multinationals
have approached the region. When one looks at the range of cus-
tomization strategies, four distinct stages can be identified, as illus-
trated in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1 Four Degrees of Adaptation

The first degree of adaptation—noncustomization—is the
simplest. Under this model, global firms use the marketing and
branding approaches they use everywhere and apply those to