The top 5 marketing mistakes of Dubai #4: Stop lying to your staff

There is a culture of self-affirmation which is prevalent in this country and it is at a silly level.

I am going to be very blunt in this post but someone has to say what all others are thinking:

Stop awarding each other with 'best xyz' awards which no one else is competing in!

Every year, you hear of Shaikha X winning Humanitarian of the Year type awards from their fellow UAE nationals.

You'll also hear of the lip-service (which is a silly term to be used in today's innuendo laden English) being given to the oft-touted 'Emiratisation' movement.

This is the government's attempt at ensuring the local i.e. UAE National working-age adults get jobs in roles across industries in the country. Guess what, it ain't happening.

Why? Lets look at this closely:

Total UAE population: 6 million
Total UAE Nationals: 990,000 (although this is disputed given the number of older UAE nationals who refuse to divulge information no the number of females in their homes due to cultural norms)

Lets take away, say, 10% of that number as 'elderly', which leaves us with 891,000.

Take away 20% of them who are below the legal working age of 18, leaving us with 693,000.

Now, take away those UAE nationals who have family businesses, and / or are quite well-off enough to not have to work at all. I'll put this number at 5% not wanting to take a shot in the dark by putting a larger percentage, despite us knowing its probably the case. That leaves us with:

643,500.

The total number of working expatriots in the UAE is approx. 4 million. Even with the most aggressive Nationalisation scheme, this means they would still only be filling less than 20% of the required number because of nothing other than their total local population.

This doesn't take into account the fact that it seems unfathomable to everyone including UAE nationals that they would want to work in anything other than a job that pays over AED 4,000, which is what a majority of the workforce in the above 4 million earn.

Without benefits.



I've not sidetracked from my reasoning for this post. There are almost 7 different 'localisation' events. One of them is an event I'm marketing myself as well.

These events have been around for almost 5 years at the minimum. Yet, every year there seems to be a problem with Nationalisation and the reasons given by different sources all contradict each other.

However, ONE reason seems to be recurring amongst them all, and has proof to back it up in the form of surveys by reputed firms as well as simple market knowledge and grapevine:

Emirates don't want to work in low paying jobs of long hours and minimal benefits.

In other words: no hard work which makes you sweat.

In more other words: completely the opposite of what the government wants them to do.

So here we are again: with the complete lack of accepting as fact what the consumer really wants i.e. easy, high paying jobs; true, deserving awards to others in the community than Shaikhas; real, visible embracing of human rights, there is a culture of 'if I advertise X enough, no one will notice the 'y'.

Bullshit.

Everyone doesn't just see it, they're smelling it. Around the world. And they're not hesitating speaking it.

I would safely say this is one of the biggest mistakes Dubai has made, wherein it has assumed that if they have enough money, they can allow for a culture of sedentary lifestyles to become rampant and they'll simply advertise the highlights enough to allow the brightlights to drown out the darker underbelly.

Lesson: Don't lie to your staff. They have to be convinced that what you're selling is the truth. And it HAS to be the truth. If your property won't be launched for at least a YEAR after the date your salesmen are quoting, put the actual date. Buyers prefer waiting the extra year than finding out later of the delay, and then pulling out, leaving you with nothing instead of something.

Solution for Dubai: set up accountability and transparent employment laws which are implemented. The sooner your National workforce realises that sweating a bit for a lower pay grade has more rewards than money, the sooner they will start building this country even stronger than the Expats have.

And this time, a recession won't crush you.

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!

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.