Surprised and Delighted by Dubai!

Why I Was in Dubai

Marketing to Women in the Middle East 2010: Is Your Brand Man Enough?

It was my privilege and pleasure to be invited to speak at the fourth annual Marketing to Women in the Middle East conference in Dubai in May 2010, following in the footsteps of fellow marketing-to-women colleagues Andrea Learned, author of Don’t Think Pink, and Mary Dean, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Kickskirt. The Conference is produced by Mediaquest Corp, a media and entertainment group that publishes B2B and B2C magazines in English and Arabic.

Although I lived for a few years in Jordan and Beirut as a teenager, I’d never been to the GCC before (Gulf Cooperating Council) – a term I learned is used for the Middle Eastern countries on the Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located. Other parts of the Middle East include (imprecisely, but to the best of my recollection) the Levant, which we might call the Near East, including Jordan, Syria and Iraq; North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt; and the Asian Middle East, which includes Iran and Afghanistan, among others.

So – I’d never visited the Gulf Region before. And despite all my research to prepare for the trip and my presentation – or perhaps because of all that research, which revealed so much diversity and so many contradictions and paradoxes – I found myself confused and unsure of what to expect.

It was, in a word – epic.

The City

My 19-year-old son Nick is an enthusiastic world traveler, so I often invite him to come with me on my more exotic speaking trips, and Dubai would certainly qualify.

Our flight arrived after dark, and as we flew in over the city, it was a bit like landing in Las Vegas, with bright neon lights of all colors highlighting the cityscape. Instead of signage, though, Dubai’s bright lights are more often accent elements used to dramatize the beauty of the spectacular buildings that make up this newly-built, world-class city, which has emerged almost magically from the sandy shores of the Arabian Gulf in just the past two decades. 

We disembarked into Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 1, a gorgeous, pristine, beautifully designed system that moves international passengers through passport control and customs smoothly and efficiently thanks to the well-staffed ranks of officers on duty, even at 10:00 p.m. As we were riding into the city from the airport, one of our hosts called us to welcome us to the region. When I commented on the spacious and lovely airport we had just left, he said, “And you only saw Terminal 1. The real beauty is Terminal 3, opened even more recently for Emirates Airlines – it’s at least 10 times larger than Terminal 1.” According to Wikipedia, in fact, Terminal 3 is the largest man-made structure in the world!

Equally unexpectedly, Dubai International is the world’s 3rd busiest airport in international passenger traffic! And Emirates Air, which I knew to be one of the highest-passenger-ranked airlines based on service and comfort, is also the world’ 7th largest airline! All this for a geographically tiny city-state, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Add on that each of the emirates has its own airport, and that Dubai is building a second airport on the other side of the city, and you realize how truly international this place is. Astoundingly, only 10% of the UAE population are Emiratis; the rest are expatriates who have come to the area for its phenomenal growth opportunities.

The conference was held at Grosvenor House, a brand new Starwood/Luxury Collection hotel of unparalleled elegance. As we reached the top of the entry escalator, we were greeted by two hotel staff members in sophisticated, beautifully-fitted designer uniforms, who escorted us to a sofa in the lobby, and brought us welcome and refreshing iced teas. While we relaxed on the sofa, sipping our drinks and listening to the pianist and violinist, the receptionist took our passports and handled our paperwork, returning soon with the keys to our room.

The next day, we headed out to explore this exotic new city – and I mean “new” in every sense of the word. Several people told us that Dubai Marina, the city center that was home to several dozen office towers and hotels, including ours, the Royal Meridien and the Ritz-Carlton, had all sprung up in just the last five years.

How do they do it? Construction in this city goes on 24/6. Because there’s no winter and almost no rain, construction can continue unimpeded 52 weeks a year, with laborers working 12-hour shifts, day and night except for Friday, the Muslim holy day.

And we’re not talking about just slap-dashing some block buildings together here. Dubai is on a par with Shanghai in terms of truly amazing architecture. In the U.S., we’re proud to have two or three signature buildings per city. In Dubai, among the myriad modern buildings that comprise Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina and other major city centers, there are at least a dozen especially stunning skyscrapers, the most extraordinary being the Burj Al-Arab, shaped like the billowing sail of a regatta yacht; and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built – 160 stories of shining silver, glinting in the desert sun.

The city of Dubai is right on the coast, just a little above the southeast tip of the Arabian peninsula. So there’s a lot of beachfront property – particularly because when Dubai runs out of beachfront, it just builds more. One of the most audacious projects in the world was visible from my hotel room window: Palm Jumeirah.

This is a composite of artificial islands and canals in the shape of a palm frond framed in a perfect circle, constructed by building up sandbars in the ocean justoff the coast. They were finished all of four years ago, and are now populated by very wealthy British, German, Indian and other expats living in some of the most expensive villas in the world.

Dubai beachfront is best enjoyed November through March, when temperatures are in the 80s and the air is desert-dry. Things start to heat up considerably in April, and June-September are described, quite accurately I thought, as “unpleasant.” The daytime temperature while we were there was technically “only” 112 degrees, but Accuweather’s RealFeel Index was at 130. And the best part was that this was the beginning of the humid period, which I gather is sort of the fringe effect of India’s monsoon season. Thank heavens and an ample power supply for air conditioning!

Actually, an ample power supply is one of the keys to Dubai’s municipal mission and rapidly accelerating growth. Unlike sister emirate Abu Dhabi, which by itself controls about 7% of the world’s oil reserves (with the GCC controlling in total about 20%), Dubai never had much in the way of oil reserves, and what it had is nearly gone. It has built and is building its position based on three platforms: 1) world financial/trade center, like Singapore and Hong Kong; 2) real estate; and 3) tourism.

Here’s my take (no doubt extremely over-simplistic) on the world financial/trade center: During the last decade, I daresay you’ve noticed the rapidly accelerating growth of commerce between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, as India, China and Korea joined Japan not only as major producers of Western goods (offshored manufacturing) but also major consumers, as their populations’ income and spending power increased accordingly. The two major players, India and China, each have fundamentally different points of unique advantage:

• India, according to author Dan Pink, is the largest English speaking nation in the world, and English is the international language of business. However, India’s infrastructure (roads, power, internet and telecommunications access) still has a long way to go. For example, according to USA Today, frequent power outages caused by insufficient power plants and growing demand regularly shut down major portions of even the largest cities during the summer. It’s hard to sustain a role as a world trading center when you could lose your computers and phones at any point for 12 hours at a time.
• China’s vast resources are enabling it to add infrastructure just about as fast as it needs it, apparently, though with some severe costs in housing shortages and pollution. (Just this month, China overtook the U.S. as the largest energy user in the world.) However, Chinese people don’t learn English as routinely as Indians do, which makes their business dealings more isolated from the rest of the world. With 1.5 billion people, China can probably develop and sustain an economy all unto itself, if it wants to; but communicating in a common language is always a plus for building trade relationships.

Dubai, you see, has both – amazing infrastructure, and just about everybody speaks English (anyone a businessperson would come in contact with, for sure). And Dubai is conveniently located pretty much in the exact center of the crossroads between East and West. That would make it a great location for – as I mentioned - one of the largest, most modern, best equipped airports in the world. Soon to be two.

As for real estate – one of the reasons the building boom has been so frenetic is that prices for both housing and office space in Dubai have risen astronomically in the past five years. Yes, there was a bit of a hiccup last year when the real estate speculation got a little ahead of itself, but good buddy Abu Dhabi stepped in with a few billions of bailout money, and everything seems to be on track again, at least according to the people I talked to at the conference.

Finally, there’s tourism. I’m telling you – it’s epic. Even when it’s hot and sticky outside, it’s worth going.

We took a water taxi across The Creek (actually quite a substantial saltwater inlet, larger than our river in Chicago) to the spice souk and the gold souk. The spice souk was just what I would imagine – just like in the movies, with tall cotton bags open at the top and overflowing with chili pods, vanilla beans, and mysterious dried leaves, dark berries and aromatic powders.

The gold souk, on the other hand, was almost unimaginable: shop after shop after shop after shop with windows filled with bright gold jewelry, some very traditional, and some far more interesting and innovative in design than anything I’ve ever seen window-shopping at Cartier or Bulgari.

Of course, Dubai has some phenomenal fun stuff indoors in the air conditioning as well (for those delicate flowers like myself who wilt in the stifling humidity). For instance: where else would you be able to see the world’s largest indoor ski slope? Ski Dubai is at the Mall of the Emirates, one of the two big shopping complexes in the city. In fact, my fabulous hosts took me and Nick to dinner at Salmontini, where they had secured a table across from the big picture window overlooking the ski slope.

The other big shopping complex, located in Downtown Dubai near Burj Khalifa, is Dubai Mall – the largest mall in the world. I know, I know – you’re tired of hearing it, right? Everything in this tiny country is “the biggest in the world.” But that’s all part of the strategy. In fact, on the Definitely Dubai tourism website, have a quick look at “The Dubaiest™ Things in the World.” Dubai Mall boasts: a full-size indoor ice-skating rink; a two-block long, three-story high indoor waterfall; a full-scale aquarium and aquatic zoo (I got spit on by an archer fish!); a Bellagio-style choreographed fountain display, and more gorgeous shops than you have ever seen in one place in your life.

Interestingly, retail is organized differently in the UAE than I’m used to. You know how in the West clusters of car dealers all co-locate next to each other in strips? In Dubai, lots of things are like that. All the dentists in the Jumeirah district are located next to each other. Likewise all the fitness/spa facilities. The big buildings owned by the media companies are all close to each other (Mediaquest, CNN, Reuters, BBC). And in Dubai Mall, each wing of each of the three levels specializes similarly: the electronics stores include Sony, LG, and others. The home furnishings strip; apparel; handbags, kids’ clothes; toys. The only element scattered about seems to be coffee shops. (And honestly – I expected to see Starbucks – but Caribou Coffee and Gloria Jean’s?!) Makes shopping not only enjoyable but efficient!

In the food court you’ll find all your favorite flavors from KFC to Baskin-Robbins, just like everywhere else in the world. What Nick and I found fascinating was the way the store names were transcribed into Arabic script and still retained the distinct look of the brand.

The Conference

The conference sponsors from Mediaquest made the trip an especially delightful experience, starting with dinner hosted by Alex Hawari, who co-owns the company with his brother Julien. Born in Beirut, but raised in Paris, Alex is almost a movie version of the exceptionally charming, handsome Frenchman. He was accompanied by his girlfriend Caroline, also Lebanese, and also drop-dead gorgeous.

Balancing Alex and Caroline’s beautiful French accents on one side of the table with their elegant English accents on the other were Siobhan Adams, editor in chief of GMR and one of the warmest, wittiest women I’ve ever met, and Basma Lababedi, the stylish and articulate Events Director of the conference. The evening of spirited conversation was one of the most delightful I’ve ever spent. I enjoyed it immensely and can’t thank them enough!

The conference itself was terrific as well. (See the one-page recap here.) For me, the most fascinating presentation was from Stuart Morris-Campbell, who shared findings from his recent segmentation study of Saudi women. While the society in general may be solidly traditional, the women of the Kingdom vary greatly in their views and attitudes. Substantial numbers strongly defend the dress and behavior codes prescribed by the clerics and support the protective role of male family members. Other sizeable segments describe relationships with their husbands and families that sound identical to what you and I have heard in focus groups in the U.S. I saw the tapes – and while I would never be able to recognize the women again, as they were all veiled for their interviews, I could certainly understand both sides of that story.

Monica Shina, Group PR Manager, P&G Gulf, talked about the role of social media with Saudi Arabian women. And while I am usually a skeptic of social media, and assert that many claims we hear in our conferences here are overstated, I believe the situation is quite different in KSA (conventional nomenclature for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). Since women aren’t permitted to drive, and very few are allowed to work, there is little opportunity for spontaneous social interaction. The advent of the Internet and mobile phone access is one of their few channels for casual communication with each other, or with businesses. Consequently, it plays a far greater role in their lives than it does in ours.

In preparing for my presentation, I learned a lot from looking at local marketing communications to find examples that manifest the GenderTrends™ principles I have found to resonate with men and women worldwide. As it’s hard to find Arabic magazines in Chicago, my best source this time was YouTube, which I perused for “Arabic ads.” Some ads were in English, some in Arabic with subtitles and some I just guessed at based on the visuals and context. See what you think.

• Almarai feta cheese – Literally “sensational” food photography appeals to women’s more strongly developed senses of taste and smell.
• ACDelco – Not exactly focused on women’s needs so much as on driving home the joke, but at least nominally acknowledges that women are busy and they need retail staff to respect their time.
• Geeprs - Resonates with multi-tasking women by dramatizing their frequent feeling of being many places at once and points to the brand as a helpmate in getting everything accomplished.
• Ringtones 1470 – Uses unexpected humor to differentiate this ringtone provider as hip and cool… And quite frankly, probably because it was so unexpected, this struck me as one of the funniest ads ever!

People and Culture

As I mentioned, only 10% of the UAE population is Emirati; the other 90% are expats, some from other Arab countries, many from North America, Europe and Asia, especially India and the Philippines.

On the sidewalks and in the malls, we saw many Arab people in traditional attire – men in dishdashas, women in abayas. Unlike their sisters in Saudi Arabia, Emirati women are not required by law to wear the abaya in public, but many choose to. Some are veiled to show only their eyes; others cover their hair with a head scarf. Although some abayas are plain black, I was surprised at how many are ornamented, with ruffles at the wrist or collar; a swathe of color across the scarf; rhinestones and bugle beading patterns on the sleeves, scarf, hem or back of the abaya – really quite lovely. (See some examples at the very stylish Hijablog.)

I got an interesting new perspective on abayas from Siobhan Adams, the Irish-born and London-raised editor of Gulf Marketing Review magazine. She told me a story about a British woman friend whose outfit had drawn an unflattering comment from her (equally Western) husband. “Fine!” she declared in a fit of pique, “Then I’ll wear an abaya. I suppose that will make you happier?” And so she went out and bought one and wore it for a few days. And she discovered she quite liked it. “It’s fabulous,” she told Siobhan. “I never have to worry about putting myself together to go out shopping. Shorts and a tee shirt underneath, pull my hair into a knot under the headscarf and I’m ready to go!”

Now, I understand most Arab women wear either floor length traditional dresses or uber-fashionable designer outfits under their abayas; but it sure gave me a different way to think about the choice!

All in all, an extraordinary experience. Because I grew up overseas, love to travel and take an interest in global culture, politics and trends, I consider myself as much a citizen of the world as any. Yet even so, I had little idea of what to expect. My eyes were opened and my mind expanded. The people were wonderful and gracious and very cosmopolitan. If you ever get a chance – don’t hesitate to go. You will be surprised and delighted by Dubai!

Warmest Regards,

Marti Barletta