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Spring time

November 2011

How should brands behave in the post-Spring new world order? Siobhan Adams finds out.
Qtel is not Egyptian. Almarai is not Tunisian. But this summer, both were temporarily deposed during brief consumer coups in their native Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Disgruntled over service levels from the teleco and price hikes from the dairy giant, consumers mobilised social media urging brand boycotts.

Following what became the Qtelfails campaign, the provider met with the 'protesters', noted their feelings and pledged to improve its services.

Almarai, stung by slogans such as "Let their milk rot," reverted to its old pricing. And this despite having to absorb the rising costs of raw materials which, it said, had forced the increase in the first place. Intervention by the Ministry of Commerce, however, seemed to clinch it for 'demonstrators'.

In a region beset by profound social turmoil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, along with the rest of the GCC bar Bahrain, stand strong as beacons of stability. (Shoredup, no doubt, by a timely slew of public sector benefits.)

But that notwithstanding, has an Arab zeitgeist of empowerment contagion spread beyond the symbolic confines of Tahrir Square and Tunis? Qatari journalist Abdullah al-Athbah, thinks it might.

Speaking in July to London's Financial Times (FT) about his participation in Qtelfails, he said: "Qataris have a reputation for being complacent.

"With everything going around us in the region, people feel they can be part of a change in the attitude of service providers, customers' rights, a strong regulator and a quality service for the price they pay."

Fellow Qatari and one of the most active Qtelfails campaigners, 32-year-old Raed al-Emadi said in the same article:

"The company cannot stop us from demanding a better service because it bears Qatar's name."

He added:"We wanted to change the mindset of these companies. They are not used to criticism."

Al Rajhi Bank 's head of marketing, Yusuf Jehangir, believes self belief and confidence among youth is especially evident in countries whose financial muscle is being flexed worldwide, particularly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In fairness, however, competitor activity can never be completely ruled out when 'boycotts' occur.

And, when GMR contacted Al Emadi his tone had become decidedly less fervent than that conveyed in the FT.

Asked if it was reasonable to infer that actions such as his had been influenced by events further north, he told GMR, "You would have to ask a researcher in that. I am just a mere consumer who isn't happy with the level of service and does not believe he is getting value for money spent."

And, as the ferocity of the Danish cartoon backlash proved, Arab consumers have never been passive bystanders, dormant and voiceless until the Jasmine Revolution.

"The change has been building for some time, but was accelerated by the Arab Spring," says Yusuf Jehangir, head of marketing at Saudi's Al Rajhi Bank .

"I think, in time, we will all look back at 2011 as the year when the people of the Arab world crossed over into a new phase in their lives," says Kamal Dimachkie, regional managing director, Leo Burnett UAE, Kuwait and Lower Gulf.

"There is a wonderful new dawn upon this region and it may bring even more sunshine, as people's minds at large have been unshackled; this is an age when the default setting of existence has been altered and previously unthinkable thoughts, accompanied by their resulting actions, have naturally followed."

For The Brand Union's creative director, Paul Cardwell, the mindset has chnaged, but it is too early to detect patterns. "The chnage is too profound," he says.

Mohit Lodha, human experience director, SMG Dubai, senses a new-found boldness and resilience among consumers, saying: "It's not just youth we are talking about. This mindset cuts through age groups and genders."

Hubert Boulos, strategic planning director, JWT Dubai, agrees.

"People seem more likely to express their opinions since the Arab Spring. You can clearly see that on Facebook statuses, for example. They are now more daring than ever with people voicing their opinions in a very direct way."

Looking to Saudi Arabia specifically, he cites the recent spate of online webisodes of satire and social criticism towards brands, society or institutions at large.

"The Arab Spring is the biggest change in this region since the discovery of oil (the two are not unconnected). It is a revolution. People are desperate to be heard and are willing to die in the attempt," Cardwell says.

To ascribe a wholesale change in attitude and aspiration to millions of consumers as though they comprised one, homogenous, cohesive unit would, however, be a gross oversimplification.

Everyone is affected differently according to their circumstances: student, parent, unemployed, rural, urban...the list is long.

It would be easy to say the Arab Spring has had a knock-on effect across numerous aspects of life, as any significant occurrence often does - and not always in the most obvious of places, says Dimachkie "What I believe we are seeing is a new release of thinking that comes from recognising the power of the people's combined voice; it seems to have developed a life of its own as it has now taken off and is increasingly touching areas which, in hindsight, can benefit from and be improved by the effects of the Spring."

Cardwell further cautions that marketing operates within an exaggerated lexicon, until that is, it is taken off guard by something as colossal as the Spring.

"In the business of communications we live in a world of conscious exaggeration and habitual over-statement."

Apple, he points out, trumpeted its new phone with 'This Changes Everything' which, he says, it didn't.

"This is not to criticise Apple. They just did an impeccable job of making some-thing unimportant seem unmissable. And we've all had that brief.

"But when something happens that really does change everything, we don't know what to say. We run out of words."

While consumers are grappling with profound change, veering between postrevolution optimism and deep insecurity about their future, what can a brand 'say' now that is genuinely meaningful and relevant?

Should brands hang onto the old promise or offer fresh propositions instead? Treading the fine line between empathy and exploitation is the first, and pretty huge, brand challenge.

Speaking from the Tahrir front line, Tarek Lasheen, PR director, Memac Ogilvy & Mather, Cairo, has a sharp perspective.

"Some of the consumer-based companies are exploiting the Arab Spring. Some prefer calling it "tapping the zeitgeist" or riding the wave," he tells GMR.

He reports a spate of humourous ads and guerilla campaigns combining what he describes as "elements from recent political issues integrated sometimes in a funny, perverted sense of humour."

Gemas effie 2010 winner, Birell nonalcoholic beer, for example, adapted its long-standing - pre-revolution campaign - Be a Man, Drink Birell. Its latest campaign - on YouTube - urges guys to hold back their tears, be men and drink the beer.

The timely launch of potato chip debutant True Chips, coinciding with the testimony of Omar Soliman - chief of Egypt's Intelligences Services - at Hosni Mubarak's trial, is another case.

"There was this joke which also came out of nowhere on Facebook that Soliman will eat True Chips then testify against Mubarak," recalls Lasheen.

"Later, when asked by the judge if he had anything to say about Soliman's testimony, Mubarak says 'no comment'. The judge then asks, 'not even a like'? referring to the like button on Facebook."

But humour will only take a brand so far - although admittedly probably further in Egypt than other places.

Tentative articulations of optimism underpinned some early campaigns, even though eventual outcomes are uncertain.

"Most of the small to medium size brands have either decided to hold their marketing activities for the year or have tried to ride the revolution wave by using 'rise-up' messages and mostly failed too," according to Medhat Amin, managing director, Mindshare Egypt.

Tag Brand's Joe Moufarrej says it's a similar scenario for some international brands which suddenly changed its message to claim their brand promise was 'for a new Egypt'.

"Most of the international brands changed their communication strategy after the revolution, but on a very superficial level because they still don't know where the country is heading."

Those which are so far getting it right, according to many pundits, include US titans Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

The latter's OOH campaign strapline 'Make tomorrow better' complemented an aspiration-themed TVC, 'Sky'.

The campaign, says Cardwell, highlights the fact there is no alternative but for brands to work towards integrating awareness and consider their accountability for the social impact of campaign messages and ensure the brand is perceived to be authentic.

His advice? "Don't try to ride the wave, be in the wave."

JWT's Boulos cites his client Tunisiana as another brand that calculated the empathy-exploitation ratio with grace and charm.

Taking hope and optimism at its core, the campaign culminates in a TVC about the birth of a Tunisian child on January 14, 2011. (The day president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali resigned after 23 years in power.)

"It is taking a positive outlook without jumping on the bandwagon of the "Arab Spring" and without being patronising."

Cardwell also commends Memac Ogilvy Label Tunisia multimedia, future-looking Tunisia June 16, 2014, campaign.

It not only engaged the entire country, but was a catalyst for positive change, he says. "A brilliant example solidifying the power of media and the willingness of the people."

The judges at this year's Lions clearly agreed, presenting the agency (supported by Mindshare) with a media Gold Lion - a first for a Tunisian agency. But what sometimes chimes with the national mood as authentic empathy can also, albeit inadvertently, jar as insincere platitudes.

Despite launching two epic-scale CSR projects in the early aftermath of Egypt's revolution - a campaign to eradicate illiteracy in the country within five years, and one year to install one million free lines to Egyptian farmers - Vodafone (another JWT client) crashed into a barrage of criticism for its 'Shokran' Ramadan campaign.

Users were still smarting from its shutdown in the early days of the unrest.

Similarly Mobinil's airport campaign, featuring supportive quotations about the revolution from famous people, drew criticism for allegedly misquoting Barack Obama and including the highly controversial Silvio Berlusconi.

Its reversal of fortunes continued when, in August, 300,000 users reportedly deserted following a comment by co-owner Orascom's CEO, Naguib Sawiris, which was perceived as insulting Islam. (Echoes of the Danish cartoon, perhaps?)

"If anything, the Arab Spring has liberated the judgmental side of people," Dimachkie points out. It will be interesting to see if Mobinil's new project to create 100,000 new jobs will help it redeem itself. CSR now seems to be a temporary default tactic as brands scramble to align themselves with the reconstruction effort.

Don't shoot the messenger Media, too, is in the consumer firing line. The impact of social media has been well-documented and largely emerged the hero. But what of traditional media, particularly the bastions of state-owned institutions so closely associated with the old regimes?

Asked if lurking mistrust persists, Mindshare's Amin is unequivocal. "I'm not sure about other revolution countries, however in Egypt, definitely.

Egyptian TV especially has been the biggest loser in this media frenzy post-revolution.

"Egyptians still consider Egyptian TV as pro old regime, and things will never change. The proof was Ramadan where Egyptian TV practically had absolutely no advertisers during the entire month."

Many consumers, it seems, perceive state-owned media as pro-army and government.

"Some government newspapers are trying to stir themselves away from all this, but they are having such a hard time doing so, as they still get directives from the army of what to and what not to say, which is not sitting well with the Egyptian population."

Miriam Amir, senior brand manager, Novartis Consumer Health Egypt, agrees."I believe consumers think of state-owned organisations as lacking credibility and integrity, even during the transitional phase."

Leo Burnett's Dimachkie is equally forthright, saying established media has lost its status as the be-all and end-all avenue for information and entertainment. "Today, it occupies a marginal role in people's lives - and rightly so, I might add," he says.

Half-year figures from PARC show that Egypt, Mena's top-spending market in 2010, has slipped to fourth place.

The upshot, says Amin, is the bigger brands have taken a more cautious and studied approach relying more on ... yep, you guessed it, CSR. "Many of the major advertisers have taken a more social responsibility route."

What next?

By now, of course, the shock has worn off and brands - like everything and everyone else - are tiptoeing through the transition phase.

Says Cardwell: "In times of war we define ourselves by nations, tribes, beliefs. In more tranquil times we have the luxury of using brands to tell the world who we are. That is the phase we are moving into now."

Relatively conservative advertising that reflected the status quo will gradually surrender to young consumers who are a lot more demanding than they have previously been given credit for, he says.

"And, if they are not satisfied they will ensure they spread the message." The time for brands to tread with caution is ending. Consumers expect more affirmative action.

Brands, says Dimachkie: "Quite simply need to: reinvent themselves; rethink the role they play in people's lives and how relevant and useful they are to them.

"Utility is one area, but so is transparency and owning up to their actions. Just as individuals are judged by the consistency between word and deed, and more so deed than word, so are brands and media being increasingly viewed and judged."

Al Rahji's Jehangir advises re-alignment of communications strategies to embrace more digital.

"Brands, he says, "will have to explore unchartered territory to gain a competitive advantage.

Marketing needs to become more meaningful and real, warns SMG Dubai's Mohit Lodha.

"Consumers are taking control of the marketing conversation and becoming increasingly active and participative. Marketers need to acknowledge this and embrace co-creation."

He cites Al Jazeera's Stream as a great example of co-creation, but the need of the hour, as it puts it, is to be more meaningful and real and appeal to consumer's deep-rooted needs.

Consumers, reminds Jehangir, want to be heard and be part of the communication. "Real influencers are ordinary people who now have the platform to be heard."

The stark reality, however, is that people in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Libya and Yemen are preoccupied with more pressing issues. Safety, security, rising unemployment and prices are top of their minds.

"People are still consuming the same brands, with a careful eye on expenses, and are more focused and concerned with the overall general politics," says Amin. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, many consumers will trade down and the gap between rich and poor, connected and unconnected, will widen, leaving room for the middle classes to expand.

"Companies will increasingly be competing in the middle ground, where the price/quality equation will grow in importance," says its editorial director, Philip McCrum.

Tectonic shifts in geo-political relations are, in reality, unlikely to deeply impact brand association to any great extent. "Egyptians or Saudis or Yemenis may well be wary of the US, for example, but they are savvy enough to differentiate between political and cultural trends. "Powerful brands, such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro, will remain aspirational.

However, those brands which are seen to stray too closely to the political sphere, may face a consumer backlash," he adds. Boulos agrees, saying the main priority is improving society.

"The Arab Spring is much bigger than brands; people have died over it," he adds.

He goes on to say how Arab consumers are far more advanced than we like to think, "and the Arab Spring just proved it from a political and societal perspective.

"Brands are not necessarily in the front line right now as there are more pressing issues, but they will be and they'd better be prepared."

© Gulf Marketing Review 2011