"Arab consumers across the GCC used to dress the same way, buy the same kinds of brands and drive the same kind of cars. However, the advent of satellite television has changed all that. It has given them a window on the world and exposed them to foreign cultures" said Ken McDermott, director of special projects, NFO Merac.
Regional marketing research firm, NFO Merac, has recently completed a study into the psyche of Gulf Arab consumers, giving insights into their modern lifestyles and how they relate to brand communications. "They are fascinated by some of the lifestyle freedoms available in the West and this has sometimes caused a radical reappraisal of their own attitudes and values," he added.
NFO Merac asserts that four typologies of consumers are emerging. The first consumer type is collectively driven in both their worlds, with individual needs suppressed for the greater good of the community. "These consumers tend to be especially religious and anti-Western," says McDermott. "They have recently called for boycotting of American brands in response to what they see as the pro-Israeli stance of the US government in the Palestinian conflict."
The second cluster consumers are also collectivist but searching for more private space in their private world. They tend to be unmarried, living with their parents and focused on securing a sound base for their future. They see themselves as more "open-minded" than the first group. Girls are getting married later than before and enjoying adolescence for the first time.
The third cluster tends to be married and has chosen to move away from the extended home to a nuclear arrangement. They resent the interference in their private affairs that occurs in the extended family and demand a house of their own.
Finally, the fourth group members tend to be young adults and teenagers who are searching for more Western-style personal freedoms and who are preoccupied with satisfying their personal need to express their developing self-identity in ways that sometimes challenge the established order.
NFO Merac is an NFO WorldGroup company, an international provider of research-based marketing information and counsel. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
