Understanding the Arab Consumer

Introduction

We reviewed the article “understanding the Arab Customer, written by Vijay Mahajan in Harvard Business Review, may 2013, 128-132. The article is concerned with the risks and opportunities of operating in the Arab world. When you try to sell to Arab countries or have a shop in an Arab country there are a lot of factors you have to take into consideration. In the Arab countries, business and religion are closely related. Religion plays a large role in the daily lives of the Arabian people and therefore businesses need to understand the religion and adept to the customs. They need to respect the five pillars of the islam.

The five pillars

Because religion has a substantial effect on business, you need to be careful with not insulting the people. An extreme example of this was the effect the Muhammad cartoons had on the Danish company Arla Foods. Because of these cartoons the Saudi Arabia was boycotting all Danish goods. This they did, even though Arla Foods had been doing business in that region for 40 years. They showed there good interest and were the first company to get an exemption. This cartoon was not made by Arla Foods themselves and so they had no control over it. However, companies can take measures to ensure a good relationship with the Arabs.

To become more successful in the Arab Countries, companies need to think about the five pillars of the islam and use them to their advantage and minimize risks. The first pillar is Shahada, which means there is no god except God. Mahajan says that it is important for companies to distance themselves from anything that could be construed as offensive to the Islam. The implications of this can be seen in the example given about Arla Foods.

The second pillar is Salah, or formal worship. Muslims must pray five times a day, with three during working hours. It is against the law to prevent employees from praying. During one of those prayers everyone stops with what they are doing and starts praying....