São Paulo – The youth of the Arab world is the main public to be sought to companies that want a larger share of the consumer market of those countries. Almost 69% of inhabitants of the Middle East and North Africa are under 34 years of age and it’s this age range that has a stronger influence when choosing brands and products.
These were some of the topics discussed in the lecture The Opportunity of the Arab Market and the New Consumer, given by Rubens Hannun, vice-president of Foreign Trade at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce this Wednesday (24th) in the city of São Paulo.
“This age range is the one that will do business, consume and determine behaviors”, emphasized Hannun in the event. The executive added that the Arab world has 361.2 million people, which represents 5% of the world population, and that there’s a growing trend. “Over there, the population is growing, while in other countries it’s stagnant or decreasing.
Hannun also presented results of the seventh “Arab Youth Survey”, a survey done annually by the agency ASDA’A Burson Marsteller. The research was done earlier in the year with 3,500 people aged 18 to 24 in 16 Arab countries. Among the results it’s the indication that, despite English being a widely spread language in the region, the Arabic is still very valued by the youth of the region.
“The Arab has in the language a strong sustenance factor, a strong personality. We have to take this into account when doing business”, emphasized Hannun, explaining the importance of the production of promotion material such as folders in the local language.
Another point brought up by the executive is the value given by this age to the origin of the products and brands they consume. “Young Arabs consider the origin of the brand and product to be extremely important”, he pointed out. “They like to know from where a product came from because they consider boycotting [the brand] if it’s not a country considered a friend”, he said, pointing out the advantage that the Brazilian products have in this matter. “Brazil has a huge potential since they really like Brazil”, he said.
The vice-president of the Arab Chamber presented the profiles of different consumers in the Muslim world in general, which, besides the Arab countries, also include Asian nations.
Despite the existing differences between consumers considered traditional (who value religion traditions very much) and futurists (more open to change), all of them consider important the values related to family. “In the communication, it’s very important to talk about family unit”, said Hannun about ads directed at the Islamic consumer. He also highlighted the relevancy of religion among the public. “From the traditionalists to futurists, the values [of Islam] are very consistent and we need to work with this”, he explained.
Challenges
The audience at the lecture was formed by entrepreneurs and executives with business in the Arab world or who are interested in entering the markets of the region. Danielle da Cunha, exports representative of Sustentare, a food company, said that until now her company only exported to Chile and the she attended the lecture to have a better understanding of the Arab consumer, since she wants to export to countries in the region.
“I think that the main difficult lies in having the access [to the market]. There is the challenge of setting up a halal network for our products. A large investment is necessary to access this consumer. I believe we have to be more active”, she assessed, talking about her company’s need to adapt to the halal pattern, which indicates that the products were manufactured according to the Islamic tradition.
Businesswoman Kátia Timani, owner of Kans BR, a hair products company, has a vast experience in business with the Arab countries and says that market research is one of the main factors to achieve success over there.
“I had to study the Arab market to understand it. Understand the habits, traditions, what is valued, what’s important in the view. That’s what I did a research on [before opening the company]. In the first three years, in my trips, I tried to notice their behavior and, upon it, work my products to be able to enter the market”, she said.
Despite all the exposure that Dubai gives to the United Arab Emirates, she says that it’s also important to know the behavior of consumers of other countries, such as Bahrain, Qatar and Lebanon.
And which specificities did she find out about hair products in the Arab countries? “The Arab woman takes great care of her hair and makeup. They take great care of themselves. They go to do their hair twice a week and this brought me great results. They’re women that really dedicate themselves to beauty”, she said.
Before Hannun’s lecture, Michel Alaby, CEO of the Arab Chamber, welcomed the participants, and José Manuel Cristóvão, Sales and Marketing manager, gave an institutional presentation about the institution.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
