Product Design Differs in Gulf

Product design from region to region differs for many reasons. I have been working in this field for more than seven years and made lot’s of product design which I had learned many things. Would like to share my knowledge and experience with different professional working in the field.

Marketing Communication

The way to reach customers in gulf differs from USA and Europe. One of the examples is marketing through web sites. Customers do visit local web sites but will not buy online from a local web site. Same Customer will buy from http://www.amazon.com as he trust it as an international web site. Many customers in USA and Europe have high internet access. In gulf, Penetration of internet is low and speed is low comparing to Europe. You can not use the internet to show high quality videos to gain more customers. We use here different methods. For instance, in Oman Marketing for government sector through news paper is very successful as the newspaper is delivered to the employee daily.

Culture

The religion in Gulf is Islam. Providing the right messages and pictures is very important. People will not except some messages which does not respect Islam religion. Furthermore, the Arabic Language. Marketing materials in Business to Consumer need to be prepared in both languages mostly. A professional should consider that when developing the marketing materials.

Word of mouth is very successful method in the Gulf. People do trust them selves a lot here in gulf.

Awareness of Product

In gulf, we do have many foreigners from out the gulf region and they might have lot’s of information about the service and local citizens with no information and do not know about the product. Way of providing awareness should be considered that some people know a lot about the service. On the other hand, some other people need to be educated.

Market Research

In gulf when doing market research we have the challenge of the difficulties of there is lack of data. It is not easy to get data and information. Statistics is not much available. Many times in developing a market research I spend a lot of time developing reports. Very popular method many professional use is benchmarking. In gulf for the benchmarking they do compare between the six countries of gulf which are: Oman, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain & Kuwait.

Learning from Other Countries

Many professionals do see what had been succeed in other countries and try to implement it here in the Gulf. This is very populate here in the gulf. One advise I would like to give to professionals is that to customized the solution based on our region.

Vendors Developing the Service

In gulf in many industries such as Oil & Gas, Telecommunication and Information Technology do have local representative with companies outside the country. Many local representative are not establish in the country. We do keep this into consideration when developing the product. Sometimes, the vendor need to find a local representative do the work with the customer.

Here in Gulf, professionals trust a lot of companies who show them selves in a professional way. Also, providing business cases and portfolio that their product was successful. In Information Technology they do trust a lot Indians. In Telecommunications, they do trust a Chinese company called Huawei which is a leading global telecommunications solutions provider as it is saving a lot of cost to telecom operators.

Furthermore, after providing the service, the weekend in gulf is different from other countries. In Oman, our weekend is Thursday and Friday and outside the gulf is Saturday and Sunday. The days we share are three days per week which are Monday till Wednesday.

GDP is High in Gulf

The GDP of countries in the Gulf is High. In the CIA World Factbook two of gulf countries were in the top 10 which are Qatar and Kuwait. In World Bank Qatar & UAE was among the top 10. In addition, in International Monetary Fund Qatar was among the top 10.

This shows that GDP in Qatar, UAE and Kuwait is very high and customers are willing to spend to buy products. Through my personal experience, marking in Qatar depends a lot in Quality and they do have the cash to invest.

Request and Needs of Customers

Request and Needs of Customers in some product might be different in our region. This is something I would like by the end of my article. For example, our nature and environment is different from other places. Our nature is deserts and mountains. I had been in one of fiber to the home and the company considered that our region has deserts and mountains.

This are some of some points what makes product design in our country different from others.

Time to Market

Time-to-Market methodology is a popular methodology discussed worldwide in the market world. The first time I had heard this concept was with Orange from France. I liked it and in many services I try to implement it to make it successful service.

Time-to-Market is a methodology which is from the start of the idea till it is ready for selling it. Making the service ready from all the different directions. For example if a company needs to finish launching a project with three categories which are: Vendors tasks, commercial side and technical side. The Time-to-Market methodology target is to finish the project from the different categories. Time-to-Market not only focus on time. It also concentrates on the resources. It’s target it to reduce the resources. One of the resources is the amount of cost of vendors, buying equipments, services requested and others.

I want to tell you about one of the experience I had for one of the services in my work. Many challenges do employee who is responsible of managing and launching of the service of not get all the internal approvals. In addition, it may find many challenges that the service is getting to make the technical tasks ready. Time-to-Market targets too is getting the internal approval and make the service ready from the technical aspect.

Some popular technical tools are available online which some can use and others are desktop tools Time-to-Market. Online which is free from Zoho and desktop which is Microsoft Office Project.


Personally, I do feel it is nice concept to be followed to let the SMEs and big enterprises launch their services in the market and be happy that they had launched a new service.

Market Research from an Omani Working in Gulf

Market research is an important role and task working in the field of marketing. Being a Product Manager, Marketing Executive or Marketing Manager the Market Research is an important responsibility. Personally, I enjoy doing Market research. From collecting data to the last stage which is preparing the report to our Senior Managers. Some of the companies in the Gulf let the Market Research part of the responsibilities of one of their employees in the marketing department. Some of them let a dedicated employee with the Marketing Research job title.

The first step in doing Market research is defining the objective of the Market research. The Market research is divided into two types in terms of purpose which are: For operational and strategic. The objective of operational is for the daily tasks in the company. The second type strategic purpose.

In the Gulf we do go to some global companies and ask them for reports such as Forrester Research, Hall & Partners and Gartner Group. We do also have local research companies such as Arab Advisers Group and International Data Corporation (IDC) in Dubai.

Data been collected is divided into two types which are: Quantitative and Qualitative.

Some of the methods we do implement is to collect some data from press releases from local newspaper such as Al Watan and Oman. Some of the popular places that provides useful reports from the government are The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in UAE. In Qatar is Qatar's ICT Landscape which been conducted by Qatar ICT. I am also using popular portals during my Market research from Gulf. Popular news portal in the Gulf that i trust a lot are AME Info FZ LLC and Zawya. Collecting data from employees from different department is a nice way to collect data. I do collect from Sales, Customer Service, Call Center, Engineers, and technicians.

After collecting data we do analyze through using different tools. We do measure by different tools. Some of the tools I had been using are Risk Analysis, Cost/Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment (ROI). In the gulf, Benchmarking is an important method that is used commonly in the government sector where governments compare with the different countries in the gulf.

Technology had changed the way we work in the Market Research. Internet had changed the Market research dramatically. Products from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM and other vendors is helping a lot. Microsoft has a product called Microsoft SQL Reporting Services which you can develop and obtain report easily. We do collect data internally from Databases and Warehouses. I Do also use a tool commonly in the Microsoft Office which is Excel.

Personally, I had conducted many Market research in the Telecommunications & Information Technology industry. I did for Internet services and fixed services. In addition, in Information Technology industry.

Introduction to Business-2-Business Marketing & Market from Gulf

I have been working in Marketing for more then six years in the Gulf. Every business whether small or big wants to market their business to get more customers, generate more revenue and grow their business. Marketing in business which sells products to women is different from marketing products which sells to tourism shops. I will share with you some of the features of B2B market and marketing that I saw in gulf.

Generally, we can divide marketing into two types. The major types are B2C which is Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business Marketing which is B2B. The following are examples of selling in the B2B market. This week Oman Fisheries Co won a contract from Ministry of Defence to supply Fishes for three years. Another example, Etisalat is providing Broadband Internet service to their business clients in UAE. Marketing in B2C is different from marketing in B2B. In B2C, companies market through leaflet as one method with is popular. Some of them had used new technology like Mass SMS to market their products. In B2B, companies market through press releases such as saying they had signed a contract with a partner which will allow them to sell a new product. This will let other potential customers to be excited buying the product. This kind of business we call it as B2B. Briefly, Business-to-Business Marketing is a type of marketing in a business to other business to sell their products and services.

We can divide B2B market into different segments. The different major segments of Business-to-Business are: Big Companies, Small & Medium companies (SMEs), governments.

Marketing to a business is different from marketing to individuals. The way they make a decision differ too. Some of the products are similar and some of the products are different. Marketing the products in B2B is different then B2C.

One of the important features of Business-to-Business Marketing is relationship. For example, Many Companies in Dubai in B2B release and concentrate a lot in one of the jobs called business development manager. He is responsible of managing relationship with the client. I had found from my experience in the gulf that having a good relationship with the client is very important. Good to build relationship with decision makers in the business you want to make revenue. In B2C business do not spend much time with customers. In B2B, the relationship in many cases is long term not short term. Sometimes business spend with some clients 10 years. Also, the way of making decision. Customers might buy a product within five minutes. But in B2B the seller might spend many minutes, many days and many months before he make a decision to buy a product. In the private & government sector in Muscat the client takes a long time to make a decision. In many scenarios it starts from an employee. The employee talks to the direct manager. The direct manager speaks to the General manager and tell him that this product will save money or generate revenue to the company. The General manager make a decision.

Client do consider when he purchase a product that this product generate revenues or it safe cost for his business. It is not enough to market the product with its features. It is important to market that this product will generate revenue for the business or it will save money for the business. For example, in the Information Technology industry going to a customer and telling him that spending in Internet Marketing will generate more revenue will let him think about it. But the client will not say “Yes” from the first visit. The company needs more then one meeting, more then one call and more then one email. The business need to be patient and never give-up from the first visit. Briefly, it is more complicated process and it takes a long time then B2C. Marketing materials are different too. In the B2C Leaflet is a popular marketing material. Before starting the new semester of the school in Muscat, Many schools were distributing Leaflets after the Friday prayers. In the B2B developing business case studies is very popular. Showing other companies what other had purchased will give confident to the client to buy it. Here in the Gulf when showing business cases that companies in similar industry from USA and Europe are using your product will make the company more willing to purchase it. Another thing that customers in B2B are less in quantity. Some of the B2B companies only have one or two customers. For example, some in the oil industry in Sultanate of Oman have Petroleum development of Oman or more popular as PDO and Occidental Oman as their only clients. Some of them do have more clients. Other in the B2B do have clients more then that. Some do have 100 clients. Some do have 200 clients. Many companies do divide their clients as Accounts and Key Accounts. Key Accounts are the important accounts and which most of the revenue of the company do come from the key accounts. Many companies in IT industry in Oman do consider Information Technology Authority (Popular as ITA) as key Account as it is willing to spend a lot in the IT projects and they do care about ICT a lot in the country. When dealing with clients in the B2B they will be asking lot’s of questions. For example, selling services in Telecommunication industry such as ADSL clients will ask if the company do provide Static IP or Dynamic IP and many other questions. If the seller do not know the difference the client will be unsatisfied because the seller do not know the difference. The seller should have a strong technical knowledge about the product that he is selling. This is a good advantage when selling the product. The seller should learn about the products and from time to time read about the product.

The Internet had changed the method of marketing in B2B. Having a good web site which gives a good impression to the clients is a good method to market products in B2B.

That is my opinion of Business-2-Business Marketing and market from my experience in the Gulf.

Performance of the Three Petrol Companies in Oman During 2Q of 2010

In Oman we do have three companies providing petrol stations services which are: Al Maha Petroleum Products Marketing Co. SAOG, OMAN OIL MARKETING COMPANY SAOG and Shell Oman Marketing Company SAOG. The three companies are listed in Muscat Securities Market. Shell is among the MSM 30 Index companies. The net profit of the three companies had increased in 2010. Al Maha had increased OMR 528,000, Oman Oil had increased OMR 1,135,505 and Shell had increased OMR 769,000. Furthermore, Earnings Per Share of the three companies had increased. Al Maha Earnings Per Share (EPS) had increased mostly by OMR 0.076 and Shell Earnings Per Share (EPS) with the lowest OMR 0.007.

Al Maha had opened 5 new filling stations during the last year. Shell Aviation Business had won new contracts. Some of the projects are Fly Dubai and Shaheen Air. Oman Oil had signed an agreement with Vale S.A. (VALE) to Invest in Sohar Iron Ore Pelletizing Plant.

Personally, The net profit and Earnings Per Share (EPS) shows that the Omani economy is doing well during 2010 and it is expending comparing to 2009.

From Abu Dhabi, Leading Change in Your Organization

During 2010 I had the opportunity to go to Abu Dhabi and attending a conference called "New Essentials for Leading Change in your Organization". It was nice experience and had learned from Daniel Goleman and John Kotter. Individually, personally, senior manager, entrepreneur, member of an organization and ministry dream of a change. Some leadership do success and some do fail. Steve Jobs CEO of Apple succeed in establishing Apple and launched successful products such as iPad, iPhone and iPod. Bill Gates CEO of Microsoft established the company and launched many successful operating systems and softwares. In the middle east, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid made Dubai one of the most popular cities in the world and very successful city in the middle east and world wide.

During our professional life we always see a problem and we want to change it. Sometimes businessman see their business is not working well or does not make revenue and decide to sit with himself or the members and say "Let's Change". Members of the group meet and discuss about changing the group and say "Let's Change". We always want to change to better. I had learned from the conference a very nice way that I really liked it and I do advise companies to implement it.

First Step: is setting direction. It is nice to set a direction and have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to change. It is having a clear vision in your company for what you want to achieve. In other words, is creating a strategy.

Second Step: aligning employees to the direction you had set it up.

A great leadership cannot do the job alone. Good to have employees believe in your vision and let everyone as possible to be part of your strategy. Communicating your vision and strategy to the employees in the company is important issue. One person can not do everything. Teamwork and collaboration with the different employees will make your strategy come true.

Third Step: Motivating employees to do action is very important. From time to time, Create things that will motivate employees. Some employees do get motivated by giving them promotion. Others do get motivated by giving them more challenging jobs. It is like career development. Everyone has different things that motivate them.

Fifth Step: Having creativity and innovation is good. Do not do like all other do. Sheikh Mohammed did not think as all the Arab leaders to make Dubai successful. Bill Gates did not thought like all the CEOs in the Information Technology industry to make Microsoft successful.

Sixth Step: Proper Business Model. In other words, It is planning how you are going to achieve what you want to achieve. Ask your self an important question which is How the customer needs our changes? Creativity and motivation without the customer needs is not good. It is good to think from customer perspective.

Changing is a challenge but everyone can do it. Not all the people who changed are the same. But all have one thing in common. They believe they can do it.

Investing in a Petrol Station in Oman

Cars are increasing in Sultanate of Oman year after year. The demand of oil products is increasing year after year. Citizens and expatriates driving the car in the country are increasing. Many petrol stations are opening outside Muscat and the petrol stations inside Muscat are doing well. The retail sales had grown 19% in Al Maha in 2008 (Source: Financial Report) and it opened 11 petrol stations. Oman Oil had started 8 petrol Stations in 2008 (Source: Financial Report)

Government Rules

Government in the Sultanate of Oman do consider that all the individuals who are interested in opening a petrol stations do have a land which is commercial or Residential & Commercial lands and the size to be not less then 2600 m2. And the distance between each petrol station to be 5 Kilometers. The Five Kilometers rule does not apply in Sohar and Salalah (Source: Employee from Al Maha). Those rules are appliciable to the three companies in Oman managed by Ministry of Oil & Gas in the country.

Brand

In Oman we do have three brands for petrol stations which are: Oman Oil, Al Maha and Shell. Selecting which brand you want to represent is important. The three companies will support you well. Having good relationship with the company is important and showing that you can manage the petrol station is important while you are with them. Thinking about the way the Marketing strategy that the three companies do follow and the Customer Service Support they will provide you is important. According to a research done by an independent company it shows that customers in the country prefer Shell (Source: Shell Oman Marketing Report). When an investor go for Al Maha they do prepare for him a business case and feasibility study (Source: Employee from Al Maha)

Products to Sell

Selecting selling the three major products which are super, regular or diesel is another factor. Being in a location where many tracks do by pass means it is important that you sell diesel.

Location

Location is very important criteria when you want to start a petrol station. Knowing about the new roads where the country is planning to open. Roads which they are many cars do by pass and there is know petrol station. The Volume of cars is important. Surrounding major projects and houses is important factor. This an important factor the three companies do care about.

Value Added Services

Another very important factor is Value Added Services are services beside the major petrol station is important. Opening a shop with the petrol station is important. This will generate direct sales from the shop. Also, it will increase the revenue of the petrol station as people will stop their car to fillup their car and then stop shopping in the shop. Providing a Car wash. Furthermore, starting a restaurant where people can eat will let more people come to the petrol station.

Investing opening a petrol station is a Long Term Investment where you can make good Return on Investment for the Long Run. The three companies in the country will support you and Ministry of Oil and Gas in the country will provide you a great assistance.