Providing customers with personalised content can lift revenue by 15%, according to Harvard Business Review, so why is it that businesses so often settle for producing generic marketing – or, worse, create messages that simply do not translate? Robert Berkeley says they need to do more to localise content if they are to draw in customers and grow their businesses.
A new Arab Advisors Group survey of Oman’s Internet users revealed that around 19.4% of the adult internet users in the country buy products, pay for 
services or pay bills online through e-commerce.
The survey of internet users in Oman was conducted by the Arab Advisors Group between January and April, 2014 and revealed that around 19.4% of adult internet users in Oman buy products and pay for services and bills online. The Arab Advisors Group conservatively estimates the number of these e-commerce users to be around 180 thousand users.
The survey, Oman Internet Users and e-commerce Survey 2014, probed internet and cellular usage patterns, in addition to online games, e-commerce, online banking (e-banking) and e-government usage.
Mai Al-Zeir, Arab Advisors Group senior research analyst, said: “The survey revealed high adoption levels of mobile Internet; with 78.6% of Internet users reporting accessing the Internet through their mobile operators’ networks. The survey also revealed high smartphone adoption, with 96.5% of Internet users reporting owning a smartphone.”
The Arab Advisors Group survey questionnaire provides a focus on the following areas:
The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has already produced more than 3,875 reports on the Arab World’s communications, media and financial markets.
Samsung and Google top the list of most admired global brands in a multi–country survey from YouGov, covering Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
The list was compiled using YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks consumer perception of brands through daily nationally representative surveys in 15 countries around the world. Each brand is assigned a ‘Buzz’ score based on whether respondents have heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news, word-of-mouth or friends and family.
Samsung rates in the top 25 most well-regarded brands in 13 of the 15 countries surveyed, while Google comes top 25 in 12 countries. They are followed by YouTube in third place, which ranks in the top 25 in 10 countries. German automaker Volkswagen (8) and American electronics brand Apple (8) both rank fourth globally. Rounding out the list of global super brands are Sony, Audi and BMW, which rank in the top 25 in six of 15 countries surveyed.
In Brazil, China and Mexico, three of the major emerging economies covered in the YouGov rankings, all of the global super brands rank highly with consumers. Google is notably absent from the top 25 in China, while Samsung is rated number one among Chinese consumers. Chinese search engine Baidu has the largest share in internet search in China, and is the country’s third most well-regarded brand, according to YouGov BrandIndex.
In addition to Volkswagen, German car makers Audi and BMW also make the top 25 in both Brazil and China, and enjoy a strong global profile in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Japanese electronics company Sony is also in a strong position, making the top 25 in six countries, spanning Latin America, Europe and the US.
YouGov BrandIndex CEO, Ted Marzilli, said: “Technology and internet brands transcend national boundaries and provide products and services that impact people’s daily lives. Whether it is technologies made by Samsung, Apple and Sony, or the wealth of information and videos made instantly available by Google and YouTube, these companies shape modern life and connect people from around the world, making them some of the most powerful global super brands.
“Three German automakers, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW, made our global super brands list, which shows the high regard that consumers around the world have for German craftsmanship in the auto category. In addition to being top brands in the European markets, they also rate highly in Brazil and China, which are the new frontiers of the global economy.”
Global super brands, based on the number of countries surveyed where they rank in the top 25:
See the full global rankings
Can women entrepreneurs be more common in the Middle East than in Silicon Valley? Columnist Doug Sacks (pictured) ponders the question.
Yasmin Elayat, an Egyptian-American born and raised in Silicon Valley says yes. She feels “the ecosystem of investors, business mentors and other entrepreneurs in Egypt and the Middle East was more supportive than those in the U.S. or Europe…”
While a study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) suggested women in MENA were the least likely in the world to start a business, the study did not include data from startup powerhouses Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE and Qatar (Israel was included separately).
In Jordan, the number of female-led startups is closer to 33 per cent, near the global average of 37 per cent, and in Egypt, about half of the businesses invested in so far involved mixed-gender teams. The number of women entrepreneurs throughout the region probably lies somewhere in between, at about 15-20 per cent. Compare this with the GEM study findings that 10 per cent of the US adult female population and 5 per cent in Europe was involved in entrepreneurial activity in 2012.
While the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Middle East are vast, there are reasons for their rise in the Middle East:
Multiple business incubators and accelerators have opened in major cities across the region in the last three years, along with organisations and competitions specifically targeting women.
The World Bank says more women in the Middle East now attend university than men.
Girls throughout the Arab region are funneled into the hard-to-enter university science courses because of better high school grades than boys.
The number of women-led startup businesses could flourish further because the internet enables highly educated women to start a home-based business if, as in Saudi Arabia, her family might object if she went outside to work.
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Doug Sacks is International Business Development, Focus USA. Read his blog, here.