UAE consumers prefer authentic brands with local roots: study

Delegates attending the ‘Age of Authenticity’ panel discussion in Dubai on Monday. — Photo by Dhes Handumon/ Khaleej Times

Dubai — Consumers in the UAE prefer honest, transparent, “authentic” brands with strong local roots, according to new multi-market research released in Dubai on Monday.

The study — which was conducted by communications agency BPG Cohn & Wolfe — surveyed 12,000 consumers across 12 global markets, including the UAE, India, Indonesia, Germany, the UK and the US.

Cohn & Wolfe identified seven “anchors of authenticity”, which included honesty about products, services and environmental impact, integrity, transparency about their supply chains and a strong story.

“Authenticity” was found to have a powerful effect on company performance. In the UAE, for example, 65 per cent of survey participants said they’d prefer to buy from an “authentic” brand than from others, and 68 per cent said they’d remain loyal to those brands.

Globally, concerns about food production were found to be the issue most likely to cause consumers to become displeased with a brand. In the UAE, 75 per cent of participants said they would be “extremely angry” to discover a company was producing food unsafely or in an unhygienic manner.

In the UAE, the study found that consumers considered French retailer Carrefour to be most the most authentic brand, followed by etisalat, Samsung, Lulu and du.

The report also found that 86 per cent of local consumers value unique products and ideas, compared to the global average of 71 per cent. Geoff Beattie, global head of corporate affairs for Cohn & Wolfe, told Khaleej Times that technology has created an environment in which companies must be transparent or risk facing a backlash from consumers.

“We live now in an age of total transparency,” he said. “The internet and digital communication has meant that we live in an age in which it’s very, very hard for any company to keep anything private or secret.”

“Unfortunately, a lot of companies still behave as if they can hide, but they get caught time and time again,” he added.

Beattie also noted that the financial crisis of 2007-’08 changed consumer attitudes towards companies.

“Consumers are much more sceptical, much more questioning of what companies say to them. They are more demanding, they want more answers. They don’t believe so easily, and therefore companies have to work much harder to convince people that they have a real story, an authentic story, and that they are, in fact, telling the truth,” he said.

Globally, grocery firms were considered as particularly authentic. Among the top 20 companies judged by survey participants to be most authentic in the UAE, three — Carrefour, Lulu and Spinneys — are grocery firms.

“We call that the proximity effect,” Beattie said. “Those companies have a very privileged relationship with consumers.”

“It’s a daily relationship. You go to the supermarket very regularly, and they have the ability and the opportunity to deliver on their brand promise day after day.”

Additionally, the study found that UAE consumers highly value companies with an authentic “story, with 66 per cent of consumers finding that important, compared to the global average of 41 per cent.”

“Here in the UAE, people like that idea more than anywhere else in the world,” Beattie said.

“Particularly, for local brands. If local brands want to do better, want to displace some of the big international brands here, I think they need to focus more on authentic brand storytelling and really explain to people their roots in this country, where they’ve come from, their heritage, as well as what they’re delivering.”

Other brands widely considered as authentic in the UAE include Apple (6), Emirates NBD (7), Emirates airline (8), McDonalds (9), KFC (10), Sharaf DG (11) and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (12).

— bernd@khaleejtimes.com