Page 186 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

170 Dubai & Co.

Local advertising agencies—whether they are local offices of global
firms or independent local companies—certainly appreciate this
phenomenon and can guide multinationals accordingly. From a
global headquarters perspective, however, it is imperative that
marketers understand that genuine adaptation for the Gulf will
often require changing much more than just language.
In a seminal study published in the International Journal of
6
Advertising, Kiran Karande, Khalid Al-Murshidee, and Fahad Al-
Olayan analyzed advertising in the UAE and recorded some highly
noteworthy findings, a few of which follow:
● Of the UAE ads analyzed, 24 percent were for cosmetics
and 28 percent were for jewelry. In other words, over half
the ads analyzed were for largely feminine luxury or
specialist products.
● Eighty-one percent of the ads featured women in long
clothing. In a 2000 study, Al-Olayan and Karande had
found that only 29 percent of US ads featured women in
long clothing. 7
● An overwhelming majority of the ads—90 percent—
showed women with the relevant product. Remember,
though, that only about 50 percent of the ads analyzed
were for cosmetics and jewelry.
● Only 6 percent of ads were comparative in nature
(showing two or more products), whereas the 2000 study
showed that 26 percent of US ads were comparative.
● Only 8 percent of the ads had five or more informational
cues; in the United States, 32 percent of ads did. The US ads
were therefore more information-heavy than the UAE ones.
The findings above are highly instructive for global marketers
who wish to know how to adapt their messages for the GCC mar-
kets. One clear lesson relates to showing women in long clothing:
the norm in the GCC countries is for women to dress more conser-
vatively than they do in the United States and other Western coun-
tries, and the ads reflect this. Besides any concerns about censorship
or public rebuke (much more of a concern in Saudi Arabia than in
the UAE, where the study took place), there is a more basic point:
the audience can apparently relate better to women in long clothing
because they, too, wear long clothing. Savvy global firms are