Article i wrote on digital marketing and impact on family businesses in Middle East for Qatar Today

1. 82 > qatar today > august 2013
W
hile they continue
to invest in tradi-
tional ways of ad-
vertising and mar-
keting, the new age
media aren't get-
ting the attention
of most of these
traditional family-run/owned businesses,
which are still shying away from using this
medium to reach out to their audience.
Most of these companies were largely
dependent on service and some local ad-
vertising to grow their presence, and with
loyal customers up their sleeves, word of
mouth was the best and only form of mar-
keting they believed in. However, the new
generation is more technology-friendly and
is looking to associate with brands that are
aspirational; they are low on brand loyalty,
which means that a lot of family business-
es are getting left behind. While traditional
marketing media are cost-intensive, digital
marketing is the need of the hour for these
family-owned businesses to build a brand,
come closer to their customers, engage
with the audience and position themselves
as ambitious, new-age and adaptable.
How to have a global presence?
Start with the basics and get yourself a
web presence. A website today acts like an
online business card and will help your po-
tential customers know more about your
brand, adding tremendous value from a
business perspective. Get yourself listed on
different web portals that drive traffic, like
Yellow Pages, Google Places etc. These plat-
forms have large volumes of users checking
for their requirements and have in the past
helped SMEs to generate a large number of
leads. Once the website is in place, expand
your reach in digital media. If your audi-
ence is on social networks like LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter, then reach out to
those platforms to connect and engage with
your prospective clients. If you are a B2B
business, you might want to position your-
self on networks as a thought leader and
hence build content like brochures, white
papers and case studies to be used and
broadcast on social networks. Share your
customer experiences and testimonials on
these networks and also through your own
blog, which can help to build a stronger
brand.
Success stories
In 2008, when ictQatar created an account
on Facebook, there weren’t many people
from Qatar who were present on the me-
dia. But since they launched their Facebook
Digital Marketing and
Family Businesses in Qatar
Family-run businesses in
Qatar have played a vital
role in the nation’s growth
and economy, but the future
success of family businesses
isn’t guaranteed, as they
face challenges on numerous
fronts including marketing
and brand positioning.
development > tech talk

2. qatar today > august 2013 > 83
page to engage with the audience it has
been growing fast, from 40 fans in 2009 to
18,000+ fans today. A strong Facebook pres-
ence is helping ictQatar not just to reach
out to Arab fans but also to engage with
them on a continuous basis with updates
on activities. This also helps them drive
traffic to their website and blog and hence
build further knowledge and brand equity.
ictQatar has also been active on Facebook
applications further interacting with users
on varied topics and content.
While ictQatar is a non-family busi-
ness example, family businesses like the
Al-Jaidah family, originally trading food
products across the Middle East, have a
strong business portfolio today. Although
widely known as an automotive leader in
Qatar, the family is very successful in other
sectors such as industrial equipment, oil-
and gas-related businesses, heavy equip-
ment, technology and many more. Two of
the most prominent and successful Jaidah
family businesses in Qatar are Jaidah
Group and Al-Jaidah Brothers. Jaidah
Group has been active on digital media
with a well-segmented website showcasing
products, services and offerings to different
stakeholders. However, with over 50 people
from management on LinkedIn, extending
to business networks like LinkedIn to build
a stronger brand should be the next step for
Jaidah Group.
Al Siddiqi International Group, on the
other hand, has a website, a presence on
networks like LinkedIn and use of corpo-
rate videos to reach out to the masses. The
portfolio also plays a big role, and with Al
Siddiqi having some B2C brands, digital is
the obvious way forward for them.
Globally, family businesses like Bata and
Clarks have taken to digital marketing very
strongly. Clarks is one of the oldest foot-
wear brands across the globe and is head-
quartered in the UK. With stores across
the globe (including Doha), Clarks have a
strong digital marketing presence coun-
try-wise. While their global Facebook page
has around 156,000 fans with very high en-
gagement levels, they have been focusing
strongly on countries like India with activ-
ities on social media, search engine market-
ing, e-mail marketing etc. Clarks India has
around 90,000 people visiting its Facebook
page. Clarks Qatar, which recently went on
Facebook, is still grappling and has around
90+ people on the page.
Another global brand that has ventured
into Qatar, Nando's has started to show
signs of a great engagement plan on social
networks (for Qatar). While Nando's has a
strong online presence in Doha, its Face-
book page is very recent and has around
3,000 fans whereas the global page has over
120,000 fans. Generally we have seen that
businesses with a fan-base of 501 to 1,000
fans have 3.5 times more traffic than those
with 1 to 25 fans, while businesses with over
1,000 fans have 22 times more hits
Manik Kinra
Co-founder and CMO,
Jade Magnet
Maximum traffic online
registered users in Qatar
= 10,000
using Facebook for brand marketing
of businesses
using this channel
to promote their
offerings
of small
businesses do
A quarter of businesses
in Qatar use the Internet
to conduct business-
to-business (B2B)
transactions
sell online
8% I4% II%
online advertising
of large
businesses
advertise online
40%