WHY Does Dubai NEED BRANDING?

1. Boost exports

2. Inward investment

3. Tourism

4. A country’s band image can shape its cultural, economic and political
destiny.

Challenges to Brand Dubai

1. 9/11 terrorism links to Dubai

2. Political instability

3. Negative COO impact (Backward and threatening image of Dubai)

4. 82% of the population is expatriates

5. Remittance of money (12.5% of the global remittance due to expatriates)

6. Nepotism

7. High cost of living

Target Customers

Higher income group (The upper class and the upper middle class). Increasing
European customer.

Segmentation of tourism industry of Dubai

1. Transit Tourist

2. Business Tourism

3. Medical Tourism

4. Education Tourism

5. Sports tourism

Five drivers of Dubai’s T&T Industry

1. Economic- Ports, Business, Real Estate

a. No Tax

b. Free zones

c. Revised property ownership

2. Tourism- Hotels
 3. Retail- Shopping,

4. Services- Education, Medical services

5. Transit Hub-Drivers- Airports, Ports

Factors Effecting Branding

1. Internal stakeholders

a. Heritage

b. Citizen value

c. Priorities

d. Level of citizenship

e. Ethnocentric tendencies

2. External stakeholders

a. Information

b. Delivery of services

c. COO effect

d. Ability to match the international standards

e. Destination product portfolio performance

i. Natural asset

ii. Past history

iii. Culture

iv. Developed infrastructure & facilities

Destination Contribution

1. Destination Brand
Destination can
a. Natural asset contribute to trade,
logistic and people.
b. Past history

c. Culture

d. Developed infrastructure & facilities

 2. Destination Loyalty

a. Safety

b. Perceived culture difference

c. Perceived convenience of transportation

Key Drivers of the Destination

1. COO effect

2. Quality Services

3. Past Experience (the feeling of pride and the essence of the place > Word
of mouth)

4. People of the destination

5. Internal & external Communication

Factors that lead to growth of Dubai

1. Effective leadership and endowed vision of the Sheikh

2. Strategic location of Dubai

3. Availability of black gold

4. Fast infrastructural Growth

a. Airports

b. Ports

Scope for Dubai

1. Tourism industry expected to grow to 5%, Dubai’s tourism currently is

4.4%.

2. Future attraction could be sports tourism.

3. Cultural and historical exploration- becoming a Cruise terminal

4. Growing medical tourism in the world growing by 15% p.a.

5. Educational tourism

6. Encourage intellectual and social capital

7. Pay more attention on security

8. Diversify portfolio
 9. Try to make investors portfolio more international other than just
regional(Middle-east region currently)

10.Try and increase average guest nights.

7 Ps of Brand Dubai

1. Product

a. Tangible: Infrastructure

b. Intangible: Services: business government and consumer service,

social and human capital, welfare, quality of life, security.

c. Product Portfolio: real-estate, business investment, financial

services, lifestyle, tourism, shopping, healthcare and education

2. Price : the cost of living is high and its target customer is the upper
income and upper middle income group. Also the prices of tourism etc
have to kept in perspective. The packages available to various tourists
around the world on its website www.dubai.com.

3. Place: Comfortable time zone (between Europe and far-east), strategically

placed in terms of resource and location

4. Promotion:() Add campaigns, shopping festivals, child focus

extravaganza, annual gold and diamond jewellery sale

5. Physical Environment() Infrastructure, Dubai Logo, Dubai website

6. People (; weak) : brain drain, problem attracting skilled labour, low
remuneration, lack of motivation, lack of employee training, productive
labour relation. OVERALL: low intellectual capital.

7. Process: integrating 24 government offices, easy exchange, identified

with the IMD world competitiveness centre to identify a competitive
framework. Efficient airports and sea ports. Open sky policies. Multi
commodity centre, Dubai flower centre, free trade zones, rapid
infrastructure development,

Gaps

1. GAP 4: The promises so heavily advertised on which the brand Dubai

stands for are still being completed.

2. Lack of Intellectual human capital.

3. Infrastructure at various places within the city is still incomplete.

Differentiation Strategy

1. Tallest, biggest, richest, unique. Superlative building structures.(very

vague should narrow it down)

Pest Analysis

Political Factors Economic Factors

1. Effective Leadership with
endowed vision
2. No taxation Policy
3. Political instability
4. Reservation quotas
5. Free trade zones
6. Weak trade union power
Social Factors
1. Lack of intellectual capital
2. High cost of living
3. High expatriate population
4. High working hours
5. High consumerism as compared
to other ME region.
6. Cultural Diversity.
7. Low ratio of native population
8. Security issues
9. Negative COO effect
10.Unbalanced demographics
11.Low remuneration
12.Brain Drain
1. The Dirham is connected with
dollar.
2. He ownership rights are
reserved.
3. The GDP growth rate CAGR 13%
4. High employment rate
5. High FDI inflows
6. High rate of remittance
7. Good infrastructure development
8. One of the richest economies
9. Cheap energy sources (Black
gold)
10.Increasing globalization.
11.Increasing native tourism CAGR.
Technological factors
1. High R&D and industrial
Expenditure
2. High technology transfer.
3. Increasing netography.

POTER’S FIVE FORE ANALYSIS MODEL

1. Rivalry of firms (moderate)

a. Higher switching cost

b. High Market growth

 c. Free economy

d. Rapid market growth

e. Fewer rivals as many countries do not provide no taxation and free

trade policy

2. Threat of New Entrant (LOW)

a. Cost and resource advantage in UAE(Easy labour availability from

Asia and Africa)

b. High capital requirement

c. Only a small pool of entry candidate (Singapore, Hongkong)

d. Industry growth is rapid and profit potential is high

3. Threat of Substitutes

a. Substitutes are readily available

b. The FDI countries are comparing the other economies like china and
India comparable.

c. Lower price of substitutes with developing countries like India and

China.

d. Countries like China are competing in quality and performa

e. nce. MACAU and SHANGHAI are becoming big brands.

f.

4. Buyers Bargaining Power (HIGH)

a. Largely dependent on external economies

b. The dirham is connected to dollar

c. Most of the population consists of immigration workforce.

d. Lack of Internal skilled labour

e. Handful native brand companies

5. Suppliers Bargaining Power(Low)

SWOT Analysis

Strength Weakness
 1. Good Infrastructure 1. Lack of intellectual human
2. High GDP capital
3. Good technology 2. Negative COO effect
4. High capital availability 3.
5.
Opportunity Threat

Question

1. What are the branding challenges and opportunities?

Answer

I. Challenges

a. Dubai is a multi cultural country with the major population being

expats of different culture such as Arab, Asians, other Arabs and
western. Due to highly diverse population it is a challenge to target
everyone. This is primarily because of the varying product and food
preferences and the different languages they speak.

b. The negative COO effect id a challenge to the branding.

c. Threat to brand equity: Dubai’s incomplete infrastructure, pricing

dilemma and privacy and liberalization issue are barriers to its
brand equity,

Creation of umbrella brands

1. Dubai Duty free

2. Emirates

Brand Portfolio:Sports, retail and tourism.

A consumer paradise boasting opulent hotels and restaurants, tax-free shopping,

pristine beaches and year round sunshine

Six factors affecting the brand image of the country

1. Governance (the way a country is run or perceived to be run)

2. Culture (cultural heritage and popular culture)
3. People (people’s perception of the people)
4. Brands and products that come from the country (Germany and Japan were able to build strong
brands after a ‘black period in history’ through these more neutral channels that had a spill over
effect to other aspects like culture and people)
5. Tourism (some countries like Jamaica only have a ‘tourist image’)
6. Business to business (sectors which are communicating directly with a specialized audience, for
example the higher education sector)

These sectors might be sending out conflicting messages and the only way to have impact is via a
shared national strategy. coordinated communication through all channels is essential to close the
gap between identity and image.

Emphasizing the role of building upon the very positive place attributes, Dubai now
needs to include the people and culture aspect as well. “It should be a global center,
but not a transient one--one that attracts and makes people loyal.”

It has to be real not fake

So if you make a false claim and you entice people to use your brand, whatever it is,
Dubai for tourism or living here, and what was promised in communication is not
delivered, then in actuality, the brand breaks down. Afterall, a satisfied customer will
tell three people, and an unhappy will tell 8!

Real’ places for real people to live in and visit,”

Anholt believes that only the development of “a lasting cultural identity that makes these ‘real’ places
for real people to live in and visit,” will provide the bedrock for future success for Brand Dubai and the
wider Emirates.

Ireland Case

They did it with a combination of substantive policy change around taxation,

providing skilled labor pool, and then they did that in hand with a new image and an
enhanced brand. So if they just came out and said, do business in Ireland that
wouldn’t have worked. If you do a cost benefit on what they did, it was really a
successful strategy.”

Suggested strategy for Dubai

Suggested strategy

International media outreach needs to be balanced with discreet campaigns to key

stakeholders for Dubai in the financial, political and business communities.

Geographically the focus should be on key European markets, the US, the Sub-Continent to a
degree, and key markets in Asia.

In terms of support, Dubai already has a roster of international PR agencies working for both
the Dubai Media Affairs Office and other Dubai government entities charged with
representing the emirate.

Success should be measured through media sentiment and opinion-former tracking, as well as
tracking campaigns alongside indices such as FDI inflows, bank lending, tourism inflow and
so on.

And in the face of some of the juvenile 'Dubai bashing' in the UK media in particular, just
some old-fashioned good coverage would be welcome.