Over fifty marketing academics and professionals gathered at the SBS Dubai campus on May 18 for the third annual 'Middle East Marketing Academia Meets Practice' roundtable, organised by Dr Catherine Demangeot, from the Department of Marketing. There was a strong community turnout and enthusiastic participation from all.
As in previous years, participants broke into separate groups for poster presentations and lively discussions about their track of choice: Branding in the Middle East, Cultures of the Middle East, Social Media Routes to Market, or Islamic Marketing. Four rapporteurs then presented brief overviews of the ideas discussed in the various tracks, and brainstorming on each topic was extended to the entire group. As branding specialists weighed in on approaches to social media and Islamic marketing experts shed light on how to satisfy the needs of a multicultural population, the extension of expertise across academic/practical and topical boundaries raised interesting questions.
Additional content was provided in the form of two keynote addresses. In the first, Dr Ron Bradfield, Strathclyde's Global MBA Director and a scenario planning expert, discussed the potential future scenarios of social media. In particular, he considered the recent escalation in social media use by businesses and consumers alike, and the new but widespread assumption that social media – as we know it – will become an increasingly important market channel. Dr Bradfield challenged the safety of that assumption by presenting a variety of high-impact potential outcome states in which social media structure, function, and importance could change in the future. In many of these scenarios, the social media marketing strategies of inflexible organisations would be put at high risk of failure.
Additional food for thought was provided by practitioner keynote speaker Ali Faour, a Director at Memac Ogilvy who shared his insights from more than 19 years of regional marketing, public relations, and corporate communications practice. Using specific examples from his experiences with an impressive range of well-known global and regional brands, Mr Faour discussed how the explosive development of the UAE has been accompanied by a host of marketing industry revelations. He provided advice about using research to better understand Middle East markets and customers, and encouraged marketers to take initiative and try out new approaches without fear of failure, but rather with a willingness to learn, adapt, and respond.