UAE consumers willing to pay more for some local goods

'Indulgence' is the main emotional factor fostering brand loyalty

Consumers in the UAE are willing to pay 20 per cent more for some local and regional goods while 'indulgence' is the main emotional factor fostering their brand loyalty, a study has found.
Local and regional brands - including 50-year-old Kuwaiti mega-corporation Americana, three GCC dairy farms, and Lebanese chocolatier Patchi - make up half of the "Top 10 Most Intimate Consumer Goods Brands" in the UAE, the study revealed on Thursday.
According to the 2017 Brand Intimacy Report by MBLM, a brand intimacy agency, 'indulgence' emerged as the characteristic forming the strongest bond between brands and consumers in the country. Among the most intimate locally and regionally produced consumer goods brands in the UAE that fared well against international counterparts such as Kraft, Nestlé and Lays were Americana, Almarai, Patchi, Al Ain, and Marmum.
The top ten brands include Kraft (with a brand intimacy quotient of 47.1); Nestlé (46.9); Americana (34.9) Almarai (32.4); Patchi (32.3); London Dairy (31.7); Al Ain (31.4); Lays (29.5); Sadia (22.0), and Marmum (19.7).The most comprehensive study of its kind analysed the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the US, Mexico and the UAE. Domestically, the ability of 386 brands to create and sustain intimacy with UAE consumers was reviewed. Aside from indicating by-industry and overall rankings, the study also shared key brand intimacy insights based on age, gender and income.
The characteristics of the emotional connections people make with their favorite brands - referred to by the study as 'archetypes' - are examined in depth as well. Results showed that 'indulgence' is the top archetype, with most consumers seeking brands that gratify and pamper them the most.
Another archetype, 'Identity,' also ranked high. More commonly associated with automotive brands, 'Identity' suggests that consumers connect very intimately with the ideas or values embodied by a brand to the point that they identify with the brand as a symbolic part of their own personality. The results of the study indicated that more personal and emotional weight may be placed on food and other consumer goods than commonly thought.
The study also investigated the willingness of customers to pay more for the brands they are emotionally invested in. One of the key findings was that Americana and Almarai have above-industry averages for consumers willing to pay 20 per cent more for their products - slightly outranking industry giants Kraft and Nestlé.
"As marketers, we cannot underestimate the power of emotions. They drive everything we do - from the people we choose to spend time with to the packages we pick off the grocery store's shelves. And because people pay attention to numbers, it's important to note that in the last 10 years, brands with higher intimacy have outperformed less intimate brands in both revenue and profit growth," said Jae Hwang, Partner at MBLM. Consumers in the UAE also seem to have higher emotional connect with global brands. The research finds that all top 10 brands favoured by them are global, with Apple, BMW and Ford leading the way.
Carmakers Lexus, Audi and Mercedes came in fourth, fifth and seventh, with Google - also with aspiring automotive aspirations, incidentally - placed sixth. The final three spots were taken by Louis Vuitton, Hilton and Nescafe. Home grown UAE brands have dominated YouGov BrandIndex's first UAE Brand Advocacy rankings, which ranks brands that receive the highest recommendations from their own customers.
From a pool of more than 410 major brands, the top 10 brands with the highest consumer recommendation levels were led by Emirates Airline at number one, followed by Emaar at number three. Etihad Airways in sixth place and Emirates NBD in tenth position.
Even across a broad range of sectors, UAE based companies captured the highest recommendation levels from their customers, with the Travel sector coming out on top, followed by Real Estate and Finance. UAE brands defeated top global tech and retail brands.
"Home grown businesses in the UAE have become global leaders of world class standards of quality and service, we can see this is true as their customers are consistently loyal and would happily recommend UAE brands to friends and family," said YouGov Mena General Manager Kailash Nagdev.- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com