Understanding Middle Eastern consumers through innovative research tools

The aim of this two-part DProf is to produce a portfolio of research approaches to:
Understand how mainstream brands can effectively access and engage Middle East consumers across the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), comprising Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates; Lever mainstream luxury brands to access and engage Middle East Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) across the GCC; Develop a training programme for Brands on insights of Middle East consumers, including UHNWI; Develop a website communication platform to act as a catalyst for enquiries. In achieving the aim of the project, the objectives were to: Review literature in relation to ‘hard-to-reach’ communities in the emerging market context, in particular the Middle East; Undertake a 600-strong face-to-face questionnaire survey of Middle East consumers across the six GCC nations; Undertake six gender-split focus groups across the GCC; Undertake a series of cognitive interviews with Middle East shoppers; Critically review five research projects undertaken in the Middle East; Carry out five in-depth interviews with brand influencers in the West and three practitioner influencers in the Middle East. The tangible outcomes that arose from the project included: A portfolio of new communication approaches pertaining to reaching Middle East consumers that incorporates a cognitive interview product and a culturally pertinent luxury brand health model; A refined ‘Middle East Millionaire Panel’ research product that appealed to Western brands. A number of distinct questions were the focus of this study: How can cultural features associated with Middle East consumers’ norms impact upon the suitability of research methodologies? What are the most appropriate qualitative and quantitative approaches that serve to maximise consumer engagement across research studies? What enhancements to research approaches can be developed to maximise consumer engagement by Middle East consumers? What will attract Western brands to take up the Middle East Millionaire Panel? How can the Panel and associated services be marketed in local and international markets? Whilst the products represent innovations for engaging consumers across this segment, they also recognise that rigour, validity of analysis and statistical significance have to be reconciled with tools that articulate novel ways of clustering and configuring heterogeneous Middle East consumer tastes and preferences.