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Posts Tagged ‘Jeddah’

Jeddah and Ombrophobia

09 Nov

Image via: David Castillo Dominici/freedigitalphotos.net

If you are a Jeddah resident, there is a huge chance that you already have it, and no one can actually blame you! it is Ombrophobia; the fear of rain or of being rained on. Now with the start of the winter season, the experiences and images of the last two years are descending and haunting the hearts and minds of Jeddawies (residents of Jeddah).

According to this piece of news, 94% of  Jeddah residents (a sample of more than 4000) are expecting heavy rain this year and somehow expecting a repetition of the last two years crises! Keeping in mind the limitations and flaws of such online survey, the percentage is still high! Maybe the problem is that there is no clear communication about the progress of the different projects in the city, or maybe Jeddawies are no longer trusting officials statements!

No one at this stage can claim that he can predict what will happen if rain start falling tomorrow. Jeddah is now like a patient where many doctors are operating on on the same time. Several and different projects are taking place at once. There is not a major road in the city where there is no project of some sort is taking place. It feels that what we forgot to do in the last 30 years, we are aspiring to accomplish here and now!

In all cases, Jeddaweis will definitely develop some kind of OCD (Obsessive–compulsive disorder) these coming days following up weather channels and news and waiting for the ultimate test of the success of all these projects; a test I hope the city will successfully pass!!

* Image Source

 
2 Comments

Posted in Project Management, Saudi business

 

Jeddah Crisis and Disaster Management Center

17 Aug

via saudigazette.com.sa

It is like a beehive in Jeddah these days; it is occupied, literally, with so many projects. New roads, Corniche renovation, and most importantly, rains and floods control projects.
What have been expected since the first Jeddah disaster in 2009 is finally here; a crisis and disaster management center (CDMC- my abbreviation!).

Although it will unfortunately miss the upcoming rain season, the contract to construct the new CDMC has just been signed by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, last Monday. The project will go through two phases; the first was the one just signed and will cost SAR 49.85 million.

As I said earlier, such action was anticipated, if not demanded. The center is supposed to eventually enhance the communication between the different involved parties in order to mitigate losses of time and efforts and to eliminate any impediments that may occur because of bureaucracy. We have all seen the chaos during the second disaster!

These are some of the features of the CDMC:

-         450 square-meters center and to be located within the Makkah Emirate building in Jeddah.

-         First phase to be completed within 152 days from the date of signing the contract.

-         Linking about 25 civil and military sectors to the center.

-         Merging radio facilities used by all involved parties.

-         The ability to receive live video feeds from up to four helicopters.

-         Installing 150 monitoring cameras in different parts of Jeddah and linking them through microwave.

A certainly good step in the right direction …

 
6 Comments

Posted in General Management, Project Management, Saudi business

 

The Woman who Inaugurated Jeddah Projects

17 May

The school principal and the mother of four, Mrs. Al Touariki, is the first Saudi woman ever to inaugurate a public project in the whole Kingdom!  This is the piece of news that filled all the Saudi media outlets during the past couple of days. What is the project, you may ask; it is one of the projects that promised to protect the city of Jeddah of any possible floods in the coming years.

It is most certainly a good news for all those concerned about this dreamy city named Jeddah. It is a message that the wheel did not stop, and there are still sincere efforts to realize the promises that were given after the second flood hit the city few months ago.

Let’s go back to Mrs. Al Touariki because her presence in the inauguration is one of the most clever PR and marketing moves that I have witnessed recently!

For those who do not know her story, she is the woman who stopped Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the governor of Makkah province, and openly complained about the disastrous state of the infrastructure of her area and the whole city in general. That move during the Prince visit to her area after the floods was circulated by the media as nothing less of a tale of bravery from her side and a story of a great humbleness from the Prince side, and both are true up to some extent.

The decision of asking her to be part of the inauguration is cleaver because it somehow gives the project both a human face and credibility. She has been presented before as the voice of Jeddawies (people of Jeddah), she has been turned into a symbol that keeps reminding us of the event and its aftermath, and in marketing, symbols are considered of a great value!

People could get skeptical about the efficiency of these projects, they have witnessed broken promises before, they have been through the disaster twice already. So to contain all this, let’s bring the symbol to witness the realization of her dreams of a safe house and city, let her represents the city inhabitants and make them feel that they are there themselves, her presence spreads sincerity, we would not bring her if it was for nothing you know!

I think the message was well received by the audience, which means it was both smart and successful. Now let’s sit back and watch the implementation, this is the most important part!

 
2 Comments

Posted in Communication, Marketing, Public Relations, Saudi business

 

The Jeddah Anti-littering Campaign

19 Dec

I was sitting in my car, minding my own business, waiting for the traffic light to go green when I saw that smiling gentleman flying from car to car distributing plastic bags and saying somethings to the drivers. My turn came and I received the below shown plastic bag and the gentleman said something like ‘Throw it right or you will be fined SAR 150,’ in other words, he was threatening me!!!

This is all a part of the anti-littering campaign that is currently carried out by the city municipality. The campaign started few days ago and the posters are all over the place advertising the fine that the city is imposing on Jeddawies throwing trash wherever they want! To see a photo of the street ads, check out this post by Deadul, and notice how she described them as ugly and creativity lacking, so now I am sure that I am not the only one who thinks this campaign is … read on …

So the campaign is built around the fines the city is imposing on people throwing trash around, in other words, the campaign is more advertising the fine rather than the cause itself. And in my opinion, this approach won’t work and won’t give the desired results!

Let me tell you why, usually the targeted audience of such campaigns are the youth sector between 20 and 35 or 40. And using the authoritative and/or threatening approach with such young audience won’t usually resonate with them, let alone the probability of leading them to the total opposite behavior.

If you remember, this same approach was also used by Saher, the traffic monitoring and ticketing system. Now, you cannot help but wonder why our government bodies are so convinced that Saudis won’t commit to such social causes unless threatened to subjected to punishments. I would bet my largest amount of money on the marketing agencies developing those poor campaigns.

Moreover, it is important to notice that even if we decided to let go the authoritative and threatening approach and adopted the softer one of appealing to people and nicely asking them to throw trash into cans and so forth, the campaign message won’t work as well!

So what should we do? many studies under the topic of social causes marketing suggest that for a campaign to be successful, it is better to be emotionalized. It should relate to the audience feelings, to trigger their shared responsibility, and to make them aware of the impacts and consequences of their decisions whether to adhere to the campaign message or not! Many techniques can be used to achieve this target, humanizing the face of the message is one, calling for the sense of the group/community or national pride is another, officials engagement to promote the message, or eliciting peer pressure (e.g. honoring those adhering to the message) are all possible ways of delivering an emotional social message.

To get things clearer, please allow me to close with an example that some would consider as the best anti-littering campaign ever made; it is the campaign branded as ‘Don’t mess with Texas.’ Back in the 80’s, the state of texas started to realize that it has a real problem of littering, especially on its highways, that was costing the city a lot of money to clean and look after to. The city went through the usual, they nicely asked the people to use trash cans, it did not work. They moved to threatening, it did not work neither. Then, they realized that they need to engage audience.  They humanized the message and used many celebrities in their campaigns. Within few months, it has been reported that littering has been reduced in Texas by about 72% …

Now … that’s what I call a successful campaign.

 
4 Comments

Posted in Advertisement, Communication, Culture, Saudi business

 

The New Jeddah Airport

17 Nov
I am not sure how to start this post. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the news of the new Jeddah airport. Let’s put it this way; I am of course happy that a new giant service project will take place in my beloved city, I am just not so enthusiastic about the news!!

Here is the summary of the project:

  • First contract, costs SAR 15.12 billion:
    • Constructing a 670,000 square-meter terminal with 94 aircraft bays.
    • 200 counters
    • Advanced luggage handling system.
    • 46 departure gate.
    • 4 first class lounges and 1 for business class.
    • 96 airway bridges.
    • 56 room hotel.
    • Duty free shops.
  • Second contract, costs SAR 11.97 billion:
    • Constructing the world tallest airport control tower at 133 meters.
    • 8200 car parking lots.
    • 3 power generations and cool centers.
    • Data centers.
    • Road Network.

So the total project with its two contracts would worth about SAR 27.1 billion (about $7.2 billion.) The targeted time is 36 months. Allow me to repeat this last part, the targeted time is 36 months (3 years)!!!!!!!!!

We have nothing but to wait and see how such a giant project would take 3 years to be completed. I can already hear some of you whispering that building a bridge inside the city usually takes more than that, it’s Jeddah, right!! Let’s try to be optimistic this time, so let’s not go down this road right away.

Another remark is about the tallest control tower. Again, it is our strange obsession in this part of the world with the tallest, the biggest, etc. I am sure a lot of you would agree that as long as the control tower is doing its proper duties, being the tallest or the shortest would not make that much of difference!

Lastly, it is good to mention that the construction cost of this airport is within the average, given that it seems to be huge at first! The airport construction costs would equal about 36% of the currently most expensive airport in Hong Kong at a record of $20 billion. The new Dubai world central international will claim that position upon completion at $33 billion.   Now it would also be good to wonder how GACA would market/position this airport in the area with the presence of strong competitors in Dubai and Qatar!!!

Let’s wait and see!!

 
No Comments

Posted in Project Management, Saudi business

 

Volunteering Not Dating

15 Nov

Any observer to the internal Saudi scene should’ve noticed the boom in the volunteering work activities that are initiated by the youth, both males and females, in the country and especially in Jeddah. Some big scale activities, like the groups participated in the Jeddah flood relief initiatives, or smaller scale activities, like groups promoting the cleanness of the Jeddah sea coast, are all coming with positive ideas and morally high goals and trying to spread the word and inviting the whole society to engage in achieving these goals.

They are using any tool that is available to them to advertise and promote the core ideas of their work; and what is better than Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to do so in the modern world.

Despite of all the obvious benefits of such work to the whole society, it was really shocking to see a video that is ridiculing and strongly demeaning such initiatives. The video that just been released a couple of days ago accused most of the young males and females participating in these activities of perusing one of two major goals: either looking to get advanced in the society ladder by being labeled as volunteers, or looking for dating! If this is not a superficial and insulting analysis of the situation, I do not know what is!

The video that tried to be present its argument in a funny fashion but failed miserably, apparently forgot all the characteristics that such work usually implant in the youth personalities and only pictured them as hormonally raged teenagers! It forgot about fostering their self esteem, developing their senses of creativity, team work, organization, goal orientation, and their skills to manage and be responsible. And it forgot that maybe by working in such mixed situations, while separation of the sexes is the norm in Saudi, they would learn to look at each other with respect, as normal human beings, and not as a girl trying to seduce a boy or a boy trying to hook up with a girl!!!

Before leaving you here, I just want to say that I purposely did not post the video I am talking about on the site, I just do not want it to be part of my blog. And to not be accused of totally dismissing those I am not agreeing with, you can search the Youtube for this Arabic phrase to see it (فيلم التطوع الأخير).

To get you back in the mood, I refer you to this video published by our fellow blogger Qusay, about the the volunteer work of cleaning the Jeddah Corniche ….

Can you sense the difference?!

 
5 Comments

Posted in Culture, Personal

 

The Burning Heat

21 May

From: http://www.al-madina.com

The past couple of days were ‘hot’ in Jeddah, and I mean that literally! And what got things really hotter is the debate between the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the rest of us, Jeddaweis (people from Jeddah.)

SEC claimed that it had major power cutoffs in Jeddah because of the unusual temperature that reached 49 °C. The PME, feeling that SEC just stepped on their speciality came out and said “No … No … It was never 49, it was only 46 °C. (read here, in Arabic)

Now let’s talk business:

  • To SEC, please do not try to blame the weather for your poor performance, I am not sure anybody is buying that. Let’s say that it was really 49 °C … so what??? It is not like you are operating the network from Alaska or anything!! So the summary of the message is: the poor PR performance of trying to cover failures by ‘not so smart’ justifications is not acceptable, that’s beside SEC apparently poor contingency and back up plans to deal with the ‘more than expected’ heat this summer, and please note, we are not summer yet!
  • To PME, your response was like saying ‘do not exaggerate people, hey … it’s only 46 °C.’ We would’ve really appreciate showing some feelings for us, the Jeddaweis who felt that burning heat to the bone! Or even better, you could’ve sent messages to some companies to take some kind of measures to protect their field workers. So the summary of the message is: when you do not have a good PR to share with the rest of us, it is much better to keep it in your drawers and not to play smart on us!

 
7 Comments

Posted in Public Relations

 

Saudi Earth Hour

21 Mar

Few days to the 27th of March and its Earth hour. The whole country is taking part in this global initiative to spread awareness about the scarse of resources on our planet Earth.

No matter how romantic the idea of saving the planet may sound, saving energy for one hour won’t make the Earth problems go away! But still, it must be feeling good to participate with the whole world at the same time in joint efforts to show your concerns about the planet; it is a reminder to everyone that we are over utilizing Earth’s resources; both on individual and group levels (whether this group is government, companies, etc.) A reminder that we should really re-evaluate our resources consumption approaches.

I am glad to see that the country and many of its government and private sector companies are taking part of this initiative, although the question ‘How?’ remains a mystery! In all cases, I really hope to see those tall business buildings with their many offices and those banks (especially banks!!) which leave their lights on all day and night for decoration purposes turning their lights off (I really hope they can do that every day, not only for an hour!!!)

Moreover, on a personal level, I am planning to participate in this hour. Bringing such topic into family discussions will definitely lead to some insights on how we are consuming resources available to us, in addition to give the children at the family a hint or two on how they should be dealing with those resource in a responsible manner. After all, we are really leaving them with a horrible legacy!

And for those of you living in Jeddah, you may want to have a look at this initiative named ‘Earth Hour Jeddah.’ There is a number of good hints on how you could participate and show you participation thereafter. Just do not forget to hear the lovely podcast of Nesreen and her guest Sharifah, the mastermind behind ‘Earth Hour Jeddah.’

So … Are you in?

 
6 Comments

Posted in Personal, Saudi business

 

A Hospital Customer

01 Nov

Visiting a hospital is an emotional experience. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be there. Just take a moment and think about what the word hospital will provoke in your mind; I am sure things like (pain, sickness, needles, and blood) should’ve come across your mind! From a marketing point of view, this is a disastrous situation.

So to overcome this internal image we all perceive about hospitals, many studies have been discussing the importance of servicescape design in changing such perception. Feel free to argue with me that hospitals are not only buildings and I will agree with you, they are not ONLY buildings, but a hospital building is a major part of the whole therapeutic experience.

A servicescape is a well known concept in the service businesses. Developed by Booms and Bitner back in the 80s, it refers to the physical environment where the service is taking place. They’ve argued that such environment should be designed in a way to facilitate the service encounter and improve the service delivery process. And by doing so, customers satisfaction with the provided service will increase.

Now let’s go local, I will be talking about my city; Jeddah. First and foremost, we have to admit that we have, up to some level, a pretty good healthcare. We have good doctors, state of the art medical equipments, and reasonable medical education in the country. But when we talk servicescape … mmm… sorry, not so much.

Most of the hospitals operating in Jeddah right now have been built decades ago, and from time to time, they are renovated by repainting the walls and rearranging the chairs! I can confidently argue that none of them have been designed with any psychological effects calculated. That’s why when visiting any hospital, you feel tensioned and under stress. Just look around you in the waiting room and check, a lot of people are nervous and frustrated; not only because of pain, but because they faced a hard time finding a parking spot outside, the receptionist was working as a robot, they could not find the clinic they are looking for and had to ask about directions several times. Or have you ever been admitted to a hospital or even visited a friend or a family member and tried to open the windows? How did you like the traffic noise? Or the empty land view with cats partying all night long?

I was talking about private hospitals above … public ones, do not get me started!! Now, have a look at the below video just to have a glimpse of how your mode might change in a ‘different’ designed environment (please note that I am not related to Hudas Designs in any way, I just liked their video!!)

 
3 Comments

Posted in Branding, Customer Service, Marketing, Saudi business

 

Lomar Thobes; A Saudi Entrepreneurial Story

13 Oct
Picture from www.lomarthobe.com

Picture from www.lomarthobe.com

 

Just pick any generic product around you and think if you can transform it into a differentiated big business. If you can do that, then you must have a genuine innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.

I would suggest to use the Saudi Thobe as an example (I hope you know what a Saudi thobe is, if not, check out this Wikipedia page.  And yes, it is on Wikipedia!!). This product has been around for hundreds of years now. Although the fabrics and final touches have evolved a bit throughout these years, the general design, style and color almost kept unchanged. Now making a big, new and profitable business out of such a product is a real challenge.

Loai Nassem and his wife Mona Al Haddad did just that, they chose to be different in a saturated market, in a market that kept its status quo for hundreds of years.

The story of their initiative can be found here, but I would like to shed some light on the interesting marketing tactics they used to build their business:

-          Setting the imagination: One of the interesting quotes said by Mr. Loai, the founder of Lomar, that I particularly like is ‘I wanted this business to start big.’ It is obvious that he had imagined the business before its start.  Such perspective enabled him to set a reliable track for his business and brand. One of the most common problems of entrepreneurs is to have the idea and … that’s it!! Picturing the idea, the way it will be realized and how it will be recieved by people are all major factors determining the success of any entrepreneurial project. Once the picture is clear, the project business plan will be based on a solid ground; it will be more focused and will lead to more reliable results.

-          Careful Targeting: The well known golden rule in marketing is: you cannot sell to everybody. Lomar thobes is using this rule effectively. They wanted their brand to be associated with a specific group of people. People who are daring to change, and yet have the money to do it! That’s why Lomar thobes is charging a premium price in exchange for its products. Their prices are greater than the rest of the market by around 40%. Their boutiques are located in premium locations and their internal designs are unique and modren.

-          Emphasizing the brand: They are using their brand name on buttons, zipper sliders, or even somewhere on the thobe itself. This is certainly a unique approach in the thobes market. Usually seeing the brand name will start conversations about Lomar designs, colors and fabrics. In other words, by using this approach they are encouraging word of mouth marketing.

However, Lomar thobes are dealing with considerable challenges; such as:

-          Cultural Difficulties: Although recording a remarkable success among young customers (those between 25 up to 35 years old), Lomar is still facing some cultural acceptance issues. Surviving all these years with minimal changes, Lomar approach is seen as a threat to local costume traditions.  These difficulties can be sensed when comparing the popularity of Lomar designs amongst the Kingdom’s regions. Its success is still concentrated in Jeddah although are some moves to make it more acceptable elsewhere. 

-          Typicality and Competition:  Lomar made a surprise, a wave of shock if you want to call it, to the status quo in thobes designs. This was definitely a part of its success. However, people will soon start to wonder, what else? What is new? Especially when realizing that their first-player-in-the-market-position will last no longer, new entrants already started to position themselves in the market!

 

Finally, such initiatives should always to endorsed and given the chance to grow and prosper. And for young entrepreneurs, it is important to see peers from their own culture, their own environment who can face the challenges and come out with successful business examples. Modern economies are now built on such entrepreneurial spirits, on small businesses generating jobs and adding to GDP.

I think it is time to conclude now by stating that I do not know the owners of Lomar Thobes, or any one working there for that matter.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Entrepreneurship

 
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