Department of Business and Management Master Thesis in Luxury Management ANALYSIS OF THE MIDDLE EAST FASHION AND LUXURY MARKET: SUCCESS OF UAE THROUGH THE PRISM OF ECENOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TRANSFORMATION Supervisor: Prof. Alberto Festa Candidate: Polina Beraja 668811 Assistant Supervisor: Prof. Carlo Fei ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1: ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF MIDDLE EAST AS TARGET MARKET FOR LUXURY BRANDS: DUBAI PERSPECTIVE ............................................................................................. 6 1.1. HISTORY AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS ................................................................................. 9 1.2. PESTLE ANALYSIS OF UAE ......................................................................................................... 11 1.3. ECONOMIES OF LUXURY IN THE WORLD………………………………………………….22 CHAPTER 2: HOW ISLAMIC TRADITIONS AND VALUES INFLUENCE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR .................................................................................................................................................... 23 2.1. NORMS AND VALUES .................................................................................................................... 24 2.2. COMPARISON OF ISLAMIC AND CONVENTIONAL CONSUMPTION BASE .................. 30 2.3. IMPACT OF VALUES ON LUXURY GOODS CONSUMPTION ............................................. 34 2.4. RELIGIOSITY AND LUXURY GOODS CONSUMPTION ........................................................ 39 2.5. WHAT DEFINES AN ISLAMIC WOMAN AS A CONSUMER? ............................................... 40 2.6. GLOBALIZED ARABIC CONSUMER ......................................................................................... 42 2.7. DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES ACROSS GENERATIONS ........................................... 52 CHAPTER 3: MARKETING APPROACH TO THE ARABIC MARKET ........................................... 60 3.1. INTRODUCTION TO TRADITIONAL MARKETING MIX ..................................................... 61 3.2. THEORY BEHIND ISLAMIC MARKETING .............................................................................. 62 3.3. MARKETING MIX REVISIONED ................................................................................................ 62 3.4. MARKET SEGMENTATION ......................................................................................................... 65 3.5. ADVERTISING ................................................................................................................................. 67 3.6. RAMADAN RUSH ............................................................................................................................ 73 3.7. BRANDING ........................................................................................................................................ 79 3.8. THE ART OF STORYTELLING .................................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER 4: ARABIC FASHION LANDSCAPE .................................................................................... 87 4.1. ARTIFICIAL VS. ORGANICAL CLUSTERS: WHY DUBAI? .................................................. 88 4.2. ARABIC FASHION MARKET PLAYERS .................................................................................... 97 4.3. MODEST FASHION ....................................................................................................................... 110 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 122 ABSTRACT..………………………………………………………………………………………………128 PREFACE Probably this is my last thesis and I am extremely happy that I chose LUISS, that I studied Luxury and Creative Industries Management, that I moved to Rome and met a lot of wonderful people. I love the city, I love the university, I love the dynamics. Due to the topic chosen, I faced some difficulties in finding necessary information, but all this is nothing in comparison to my happiness, when I got answers from majority of Arabic brands that I wanted to interview. It is inspiring, exciting and interesting. I am very thankful to all these brands and to my Arabic friends, who were always available to discuss any topic related and provided me with reliable and finite information. I would like to thank my parents for giving me an opportunity to live this LUISS and Roman life and also friends and people I met, it would not be the same without all of them. If I had a chance to repeat 2 years at LUISS I would have done it without any doubt, but it is time to go on! Polina Beraja pg. 1 INTRODUCTION Developing inner dynamics, people transform the world around them. While in 1820 the Western world observed how the world changed during the First industrial revolution, in the UAE Britain tried to fight piracy along the Gulf Coast and Saudi Arabia could be described by a few key words: Sunni raids, Wahhabis and Ottoman conquest. With the discovery of the oil in the region and many more other decades later, the Middle East went out of the stereotypic Bedouin life and appeared to the world as extremely sophisticated, educated, open-minded, fashionable, respectful and rich consumer. A consumer that is visionary, innovative and creative enough to be able to attract the rest of the world and to give them jobs (ex. 227.000 job places will be created from 2016 till Expo 2020) asking in return only a certain level of innovativeness to maintain new dynamics of the region. Nowadays, in the light of extremely low oil prices, Islamic economy (of particular countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait) governed totally or partially by Sharia Law, is commendably pushed forward by diversification, new market regulations, travel industry, large infrastructure and cultural projects, created a melting pot for well-established and new businesses from all over the world. Inner and outer development of the society has a religious touch on it, however, that does not impede the evolution, that theoretically could be contra-traditional, but it is not. This transformation has its reflection also in Quran, that is quite often frivolously interpreted, however, it always remains the first, the last and the only source of truth for Muslim population, which makes the majority in the Middle East. Quran says, that people have to develop themselves in order to reach the better self, which explains their thirst for knowledge, travelling, beauty, fashion, and also explains, why do they strive to be rich and have a luxurious lifestyle. The answer is again in Quran and it calls for having decent lives. This is also a call to action for brands and companies of different industries, that are also wise enough in their approach to the market, to be able to grab the slice of a pie. The “pie”- the population and, hence, the market of Muslim consumers is expected to grow by 35%, what cannot go unnoticed and is even more interesting to analyze. However, the region’s consumption is not build only by Muslim consumers, another part of the mix is represented by travelers and affluent expatriates, which leads to more diversified consumption patterns, creating a challenge for Western and local brands to cater the market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate economic, social and cultural base for the development of the Middle Eastern market and industry, including exogenous (economy, regulations, legislation, urbanization and etc.) and endogenous (transformation of norms and values, change of generations, means-end approach to consumer behavior, collectivism vs. individualism, impact of religion) factors that reshape brands’ approach to the market in terms of calendar, marketing, communication, timing, advertising and pricing. The main subject of reference for the present thesis is fashion and luxury market analysis, hence anything analyzed in it will have or will lead to a fashion and luxury consumption perspective in both directions: Arabic consumers willing to buy luxury western brands and Arabic designers willing to cater to western consumers. The before pg. 2 mentioned analytical base serves, in simple words, to show who, for who, why and how created such a retail hub, main travel destination and new fashion Mecca like Dubai. The main research topic is: Analysis of the Middle East fashion and luxury market: Success of UAE through the prism of economic development and consumer behavior transformation. In order to be able to reach a complete and logical conclusion, three intuitive parts must be analyzed to different extents: • Economic overview: moderate depth of analysis, there is no need to go deeply in all legal, economic and environmental issues that are not fashion and luxury industry related. • Consumer specifics and consumer behavior building blocks: deep analysis, it is a main differentiation point in comparison to Western consumers. It influences the Arabic consumer from 360°, hence it is the most important driving force of the