The UAE has a diverse mix of people,here\'s how brands can get ahead and build lasting relationships with consumers

1. Advertising in the UAE 2011The Mixed Bag Model By @alextohme

2. UAE overall (From Abu Dhabi DED) 2010: Population surged to 8.26 million due to foreign nationals Number of Emirati nationals grew by less than 100,000, (from 851,164 in 2006 to 947,997 2010) The percentage of nationals in the overall population has dropped to 11.47 % Abu Dhabi had 42% of the national population

3. Dubai There are approximately 1.480 million men in Dubai against a mere 431,415 females. The figures showed nationals remained a minority in Dubai, the region's main commercial centre, standing at around 168,000, just under 9% of the total

4. What does this mean? If brands prioritize targeting nationals (because of spending power) that’s only 11% of the entire population – DON’T FOCUS ON THE SHORT TAIL There are almost 3.5x more men than women in Dubai

5. The rest of the long tail and BOP If your brand discounts the majority of these men because they are labourers, there is no room for innovation for the BOP population (http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/ict4b/Fortune-BoP.pdf ) Seth Godin on BOP here http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/09/marketing-to-the-bottom-of-the-pyramid.html At the recent “Planet of the Apps” a senior industry exec said 100 million #smartphone users + models similar to #iPhone for just USD$75 in India Foreign workers send home over $2.7bn / month from the UAE in 2011 - up 15% from same period last year

6. More implications Assume women are more social and digital and tailor our creative / media buy accordingly Attend the “Marketing To Women Conference” at the end of May http://www.gmr-online.com/m2w.php Lead innovation for females through creativity

7. Even MORE implications Focus on the HETEROGENEITY of the UAE population and tailor communications accordingly Look at where new sources of consumers are coming from – China / Russia If your brand is global, co-ordinate with your other global offices

8. Hyperlinks to whitepapers How Global is the Business of Retail by CBRE 2011 Using Long Tail Sites to optimize Media Spend Growing International Business with Global Content Value Chains Women in their Digital Domain The Top 50 most Valuable Chinese Brands