Welcome to market-i 500! In this blog, with 500 words or less, we’ll highlight issues relevant to marketing, marketing research, and brand strategy within Middle East and North Africa. We’ll be sharing with you knowledge and insights accumulated through our day-to-day contact with the region’s stakeholders. Our hope is that you will find them as fascinating as we do and that they provide you with a fresh perspective applicable to your business in the Middle East!

The main contributors to market-i 500 include our senior team members, who have been actively involved in the region for the past 20 years. We have witnessed first hand how the region has evolved and continues to evolve, and we have worked with a diverse range of clients to help navigate the turbulence and uncertainty surrounding this rapidly changing region.

Indeed, these are exciting times. A little over 2 years have past since the Arab Spring swept the region, shifting the fundamental Arab mindset from one of tacitly accepting authority acting with impunity to one of conditionally accepting authority who serve with accountability….to the people!

And despite the continuing unrest across the region as governments grapple with the growing pains of democracy and self-determination, the collective optimism and self-belief of Arabs remains steadfast. They hold strong the belief that their lives are limitless with possibilities, and that dreams can come true.

What’s more fascinating, if not downright frightening, is the role social media has played in facilitating this attitudinal transformation. Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-in now form a critical component daily communication amongst Arab consumers and professionals. There are nearly 45 million Facebook users in the Middle East who throughout a typical day exchange a wide variety of information from simple pleasantries to criticism of governments from invitations to Farmville to invitations to organized protests.

Add to this, the frenetic pace at which consumers are adopting smartphones and tablets as their preferred communication devices. Recent statistics released by Google indicates smartphone penetration has crossed 50% in countries like Egypt and Jordan and exceeds 60% in UAE and Saudi Arabia. What we are witnessing is an alpha Arab consumer, empowered, informed, networked, and mobile.

Brand owners have come to the realization that social media combined with smartphone technology can facilitate a water cooler conversation on a massive scale, one where opinions, truths, and lies can go viral in an instant! Companies are now scrambling to develop digital engagement strategies that ensure they are part of the conversation.

Brand owners who successfully connect with their constituencies in the Social Media space sphere will enjoy a transcendent relationship, one where they become flesh and blood members of a community, interacting, learning and growing. Those that fail to adapt or ignore the necessity of digital engagement will languish or worse yet, perish into the abyss of brand oblivion.