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Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The top 5 marketing mistakes of Dubai #3: No one at Dubai Inc. knew what was going on
The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.
Too many times in companies, the lack of communication between marketing and sales teams and even the management has led to disastrous results in terms of consumer satisfaction.
Marketing copy saying something entirely different to what sales is offering; or the corporate public image is in stark contrast to internal customer services.
This is the issue that has been the ultimate downfall of Dubai: its PR spin could only last so long.
While claiming to offer the best, the brightest, the most luxurious and the biggest, Dubai long kept hidden from prying journos its dark underbelly of human rights violations, deplorable living conditions and utter lack of employee rights.
In a market built, developed and sustained by a workforce never really advertised to the world, soon the bubble of containment had to burst and the spin doctors could do little to control the news in an era of social media, youtube, twitter and WOM.
Financial Times, The Times of London, BBC, CNN, Bloomberg all featured at some point or the other over '08 and'09 varying footage and news reports of the issues mentioned above, from video evidence of living conditions of the construction labourers who build the glittering skyline of Dubai, to expatriates living in their cars due to being evicted from their apartments by fraudulent or greedy landlords who use the loopholes in a property law already having as many holes as a sponge.
In the end, people - both within and without - began to mock what they called the facade of Dubai, and now despite its many efforts to regain its lost glory, it will take more than a few 'oil discovered' news stories to allow people to trust it again.
Lesson: Don't promise something in your marketing unless your entire organisation has been thoroughly informed and trained about the follow-up process once the promise is finally made. A happy customer tells friends how good you are. An upset customer tells everyone he meets. With the social media world we live in, multiply 'everyone he meets' by a few million.
Solution for Dubai: start telling the truth, albeit smartly. The best brands out there don't sugar coat any ugly truth about their brands, in fact they use that to their advantage with smart marketing. You may not win back all the fans, but you'll start getting new, long term ones.
Too many times in companies, the lack of communication between marketing and sales teams and even the management has led to disastrous results in terms of consumer satisfaction.
Marketing copy saying something entirely different to what sales is offering; or the corporate public image is in stark contrast to internal customer services.
This is the issue that has been the ultimate downfall of Dubai: its PR spin could only last so long.
While claiming to offer the best, the brightest, the most luxurious and the biggest, Dubai long kept hidden from prying journos its dark underbelly of human rights violations, deplorable living conditions and utter lack of employee rights.
In a market built, developed and sustained by a workforce never really advertised to the world, soon the bubble of containment had to burst and the spin doctors could do little to control the news in an era of social media, youtube, twitter and WOM.
Financial Times, The Times of London, BBC, CNN, Bloomberg all featured at some point or the other over '08 and'09 varying footage and news reports of the issues mentioned above, from video evidence of living conditions of the construction labourers who build the glittering skyline of Dubai, to expatriates living in their cars due to being evicted from their apartments by fraudulent or greedy landlords who use the loopholes in a property law already having as many holes as a sponge.
In the end, people - both within and without - began to mock what they called the facade of Dubai, and now despite its many efforts to regain its lost glory, it will take more than a few 'oil discovered' news stories to allow people to trust it again.
Lesson: Don't promise something in your marketing unless your entire organisation has been thoroughly informed and trained about the follow-up process once the promise is finally made. A happy customer tells friends how good you are. An upset customer tells everyone he meets. With the social media world we live in, multiply 'everyone he meets' by a few million.
Solution for Dubai: start telling the truth, albeit smartly. The best brands out there don't sugar coat any ugly truth about their brands, in fact they use that to their advantage with smart marketing. You may not win back all the fans, but you'll start getting new, long term ones.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Saudi in focus for digital marketing - Emirates Business 24|7
Saudi in focus for digital marketing - Emirates Business 24|7
Click 4.0's effects as seen on Emirates Business 24/7 newspaper this morning.
Click 4.0's effects as seen on Emirates Business 24/7 newspaper this morning.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Facebook and Arabic
A few days ago I blogged about my trip to the Facebook Advertising launch with Connect Ads.
I didn't mention one thing which made me wonder if Facebook really is doing its research. I hope Connect Ads corrects Mark Cowan.
During the Q&A session, I asked Mark Cowan and Trevor Johnson if they had any case-studies / research and what their plans are for advertising solutions in Arabic, based on the higher end solutions they're offering.
Mark Cowan's reply made me - and I'm sure many Arabia based marketers in the room - cringe.
He said given that a majority of Facebook users in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East have profile pages in English, Arabic advertising isn't really going to make a big difference.
Forgive my French, but WTH!
I didn't mention one thing which made me wonder if Facebook really is doing its research. I hope Connect Ads corrects Mark Cowan.
During the Q&A session, I asked Mark Cowan and Trevor Johnson if they had any case-studies / research and what their plans are for advertising solutions in Arabic, based on the higher end solutions they're offering.
Mark Cowan's reply made me - and I'm sure many Arabia based marketers in the room - cringe.
He said given that a majority of Facebook users in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East have profile pages in English, Arabic advertising isn't really going to make a big difference.
Forgive my French, but WTH!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The top 5 marketing mistakes of Dubai #2: One way communication
The dawn of social media has made one thing very clear:
Communicating with your consumers is a two-way street.
Thing is, it wasn't social media which invented this. Social media simply highlighted it to such an extent that it is now an entire sub-industry in marketing.
No. The two-way street rule of thumb has been around for ages, and it was known by many names: CRM, service quality, customer feedback, etc. Brands that thrived with making sure this worked for them included Adobe (who listened and communicated actively with their core audience: creators themselves); Fox News (love 'em or hate 'em, they have a strong core audience base); Christian Science Monitor, Wikipedia and others.
And this is where Dubai failed. It has always been a one-way street. Dubai Inc.'s 'Board of Directors' would say something, and would be convinced that this is what the populace wanted. There has never been any way to give feedback except by 'lip service' links on government portals that used catch phrases like 'we want to hear from you'.
Yeah right.
Dubai almost made it happen with the Metro. Brilliant work delivering everything on 9/9/9. Wait...'everything'?
While promising that word, they instead released a 30% completed network, have delayed phase 2 by a year and a half, and are still struggling.
How is this a reflection of communication? The biggest consumer base for the metro was and still is Dubai's mainstream population of over 2 million. For 2 years, they waited believing Dubai is finally delivering the goods. And then this. Now Dubai has 2 million or so consumers who never cease sharing the negativity with their families and friends worldwide which could have easily been avoided.
Dubai doesnt' need bad press more than it has, but it just isn't learning.
Lesson: Put your mouth where your money is, and your money is in your consumers' pockets. Speak WITH them, don't talk TO them.
Solution for Dubai: Finish the metro quicker. And then brag about finishing the metro quicker. Highlight what you HAVE completed and make a big deal about it to your residents. They will then do the talking for you.
Communicating with your consumers is a two-way street.
Thing is, it wasn't social media which invented this. Social media simply highlighted it to such an extent that it is now an entire sub-industry in marketing.
No. The two-way street rule of thumb has been around for ages, and it was known by many names: CRM, service quality, customer feedback, etc. Brands that thrived with making sure this worked for them included Adobe (who listened and communicated actively with their core audience: creators themselves); Fox News (love 'em or hate 'em, they have a strong core audience base); Christian Science Monitor, Wikipedia and others.
And this is where Dubai failed. It has always been a one-way street. Dubai Inc.'s 'Board of Directors' would say something, and would be convinced that this is what the populace wanted. There has never been any way to give feedback except by 'lip service' links on government portals that used catch phrases like 'we want to hear from you'.
Yeah right.
Dubai almost made it happen with the Metro. Brilliant work delivering everything on 9/9/9. Wait...'everything'?
While promising that word, they instead released a 30% completed network, have delayed phase 2 by a year and a half, and are still struggling.
How is this a reflection of communication? The biggest consumer base for the metro was and still is Dubai's mainstream population of over 2 million. For 2 years, they waited believing Dubai is finally delivering the goods. And then this. Now Dubai has 2 million or so consumers who never cease sharing the negativity with their families and friends worldwide which could have easily been avoided.
Dubai doesnt' need bad press more than it has, but it just isn't learning.
Lesson: Put your mouth where your money is, and your money is in your consumers' pockets. Speak WITH them, don't talk TO them.
Solution for Dubai: Finish the metro quicker. And then brag about finishing the metro quicker. Highlight what you HAVE completed and make a big deal about it to your residents. They will then do the talking for you.
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