Google Ara Marketing Strategies For UAE Market In Essay.

Features and Long-term Plans

The following project concentrates the marketing and promotional activities of Google Ara, the revolutionary Smartphone that is yet to be launched in the market of UAE. The Smartphone is a class apart from the other phones of the era. It has all the Smartphone features in it but the distinguishable feature of the phone is the presence of hardware modules that can be upgraded and modified at any point of time. There are six flexible slots in the phone that can be easily swapped.

Strategy is the specific set of plans that are undertaken by an organization to achieve success. As mentioned earlier the research has been based on Ara’s promotional features in the Middle East. There are some unique features related to the consumer behavior and Smartphone preferences in the Middle East market. The case of United Arab Emirates has been the main point which is highlighted in the research with special reference to Dubai. Dubai has been one of the main business centers of west Asia; it has implemented some excellent strategies to attract investors. The government of UAE has made Dubai a tax free zone which has helped different companies to market their products (Cho & Fiore, 2015).

Ara is a latest addition to the innovative range of Smartphone manufactured by Google. The company believes that Ara will be a game changer in the Smart Phone market as it has a futuristic design and is loaded with futuristic features. The company has fixed its long term plans quite effectively which will make it successful in the market. The mentioned company has taken the help of social media to formulate its long term strategy. Rising demand of smart phones will help the organization to make huge profits in the Dubai market. The company has formulated some fixed strategies to establish a stronghold of the UAE market.

• The company has collected data from different primary and secondary sources and has concentrated the most on these data. The database is mainly filled up with the information about the buying behavior of the customers. The database has helped Ara to fix their target people. The main source of information is collected from the secondary sources like the government reports and other marketing reports published by different companies dealing with Smartphones.
• The company has appointed a number of different professionals from the arts field as well as the marketing field to take innovative decisions regarding their marketing strategies. Appointment of IT professionals has helped the organization maintain their website and have helped them to connect with their customers in an easy way. These experts will provide the organization with the best ideas to maintain a competitive advantage in the market.
• Google has specially designed a customer grievance cell to address the problems of the customers. Earlier there had been many cases where the customer had a lot of grievance against the organization but due to lack of such platforms were unable to express their problems. This did not help the cause of the organization as sometimes they lost old customers. The creation of different apps and tools by the organization has also been of immense help as because they have helped the organization to interact with their customers and provide solutions to their problems. Ara being a totally new product might face some difficulties which makes sense for the introduction of the customer grievance cell.
• The company is always in a mood for experimenting and they try out new and latest marketing strategies to get rid of the traditional strategies and the boredom along with attracting more and more customers under their fold. Google had offered some exclusive discounts on credit and debit cards to the first set of customers buying the phone. Such type of exclusive and off the track marketing strategies not only makes the customers curious it helps the organization to earn more applause in the market.
• The mentioned company has been extra careful in planning its strategies for Dubai. Being a West Asian country UAE enjoys a very hot season all the year round, thus the company has ensured some additional features which helps the phone to not get overheated.
• Google has designed the phone to cater the needs of different individuals. It can be easily assembled at any point of time according to the choice of the user.

It is not easy to achieve a good market share easily in a highly competitive market. The companies cannot achieve success only by creating a world class product (Laeequddin et al. 2016). The organization has to convince the people in such a way that they are aware that the products offered by the organization are superior to all the other products in the market. The mentioned organization has taken some special steps to compete in the market;

• Selecting a target market- Before entering in the market of Dubai Google has selected a target market and carried outan extensive market research to prepare the ground for selling its product. The research was carried out by a professional agency that was appointed by the company itself. The market research showed that the company has a bright prospect in the market. The company at first segregated the market and determined the targeted group that would be approached by the company. The main target market of the company was to attract the teenagers going to the colleges. The target market must be fixed well in advance before the launch of the products in the market. The mentioned Smart Phone Ara has been designed specifically to withstand the excessive heat of the country.
• Packaging the Product-Product packaging is one of the main plans of the organization to achieve unlimited success in the market. The products of Google especially the Smart phones are designed in beautiful packages that attract the customers. The eye catching product designs of the company have helped the company to stand out from the rest of the organizations. Google has appointed different professional artists to design innovative packages for their products. The beautiful packages have helped the company to gain profits.
• Proper Distribution Channels- The right distribution channels for Ara helps the company to achieve its target easily. Google has targeted the supermarkets of Dubai to display its brand of products. It has also collaborated with the different medium stores present in the malls of Dubai to sell its item. Last but not the least the company has created a new website which displays all the products and provides all the information related to them.
• Website- The management team of the company appointed to promote Ara has created a proper website where it displays all the product features of the revolutionary brand. The website has been created by one of the largest IT companies of Dubai and is totally maintained by them. The use of high quality graphics and different attractive posters of the brands attracts the customers and they tend to buy the product.
• Advertising- Advertising is the medium by which the organization displays its goods and brands to the targeted customers. Advertising in a proper way through different channels helps to garner the attention of the people and makes the people aware of the products. The mentioned company takes the help of billboards, electronic display boards, social media as well as the radio to advertise its products.
• Door to Door Marketing- Door to Door marketing is another plan of the company which has been somewhat successful to expand the base of the product in Dubai.

Fixing the budget of the company on marketing and promotion related activities will be tough call for the mentioned organization just after the launch of Ara in the market of Dubai. A feasible budget would be prepared by the company after a high level meeting of the top management of the company. The main questions that will be raised during the meeting are,

1. What will be the annual budget on marketing and promotion?
2. How much amount would be spending for hiring celebrity promotion?
3. How will the company meet the target audience with the allocation of the budget?

Budget Planning

Google will try to allocate 25% to 30% of its total revenue in marketing and promotion in the first year of its entry into the new market. Dubai is already bustling with other good Smartphone operating companies and thus the allocation of such a huge amount will be necessary to compete with the successful companies. The starting budget will therefore be an instant hit. The earlier marketing history of the company will help them to manage its budget efficiently and prepare the budget in such a way that there is no fund crunch. The management of Google appointed to market and promote the brand in the Gulf Nation is involved in preparing the budget tally up the financial needs of the upcoming year. The earlier calculation and allocation of the budget helps the company to adjust its marketing plans in the similar way. The huge competition that the mentioned organization faces in Dubai is a stiff challenge to them in preparing their budget. The organization surveys the market and gets the idea about the amount that the competitors spend. The organization thus prepares its budget in such a way that it can maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Ara‘s market share has been quite impressive in Dubai just because it prepares the budget after thoroughly analyzing the budgetary allocation of other similar companies. The researcher however came to know that recently the company is following a new policy to allocate its budget (Cho & Fiore, 2015). The organization assesses the different instructions that they perform with the customers and accordingly they get an idea about the demand of their product in the market. Depending on the result the organization fixes the budget. Google has been able to create a perfect budget due to some reasons;

• Valuable Insights- Owning valuable insights largely depends on the performance of the employees of the organization. The employees must work in close coordination and according to the rules of the company to achieve success. Working in such a way helps to achieve the goals of the company and makes it successful in the long run.
• Long term goals- The Company must have long term achievable goals to ensure maximum possible success rate for the company. The budget which in most of the cases is taken as an annual plan is not always successful. In case of Ara which will be launched in the market of Dubai, formulating a budget just for one year is surely a risk as it may face loss in the beginning. In such cases the company allocates a healthy amount for a much longer time.
• Product- The innovative Smart phone Ara which is the product of Google is one of the main factors that determine budget allocation as such a luxury Smartphone will surely depend on much better financial resources to reach to a large number of consumers.

Designing quality advertisements is one of the main strategies of the companies. Google will surely appoint a professional advertisement agency to formulate the best advertisements that would help them to begin Ara’s journey in the country in a proper note. The company will be allocating a proper amount of financial budget to prepare the advertisements. The advertisement agencies on the other hand will organize different meetings and conferences to fix the advertisement strategies. A number of innovative ad strategies that will be taken are;

1. The company will start promotional campaigns four months in advance before entering the market which helped them to create a craze for them in the market. They will begin with just a small poster of a boy engaged in solving a Rubik Cube. Below the picture a very small but innovative message was written, “Idea is loading”.
2. After a few months the same picture was there but it bore a different message, “Arriving soon in your city”. The craze was slowly being created and a survey conducted among a group of people claimed that six out of ten among them were seriously curious to know about the nature of the advertisement.
3. Just before the launch of the product in Dubai the company changed the picture and gave the logo of the company as well as changed the message.
4. The company bought some international celebrity from across the world to mark the auspicious occasion of its entry into one of Asia’s biggest market.
5. The advertisement agency of the company also installed multiple numbers of billboards that depicted the different features of Ara. The billboards were installed in selected places so that it catches the attention of the maximum number of people.
6. The agency also displayed the different features and properties of Ara in electronic advertisement boards and distributed leaflets in malls and public places to make people aware about the brands of the company.
7. Social media was perhaps the most used while advertising. Different pages and accounts of the company were created by the IT professionals appointed by Google. The main aim of the company was to connect with their customers and listen to their grievances or recommendations regarding their service or any other problems related to product quality or product use.
8. The social media accounts of the company in Face book or Twitter is updated every now and then. The graphical design is also done in such a way that it catches the attention of the customers easily.
9. Advertising through FM channels of radio is another main form of advertisement followed by the concerned company. Advertising campaigns through FM have been useful to reach to a large number of consumers that might get omitted from other forms of advertisements.

Figure 1- Billboard advertisement

Source: (As created by the author)

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESS
The scale on which Google products operates is very large and thus it becomes its strength. It leads in different categories of products such as Websites, cloud platforms, smart phones, electronic accessories The branding of Ara is very strong thus it makes it one of the most famous and successful brands in Dubai. The experience of Google products in relation to phones and Smart Phones is vast which could be used very successfully in Dubai. Ara product is strongly associated with a few large retailers in Dubai. Thus relationship is a strong boost for the company.	The products to be marketed are mostly to be used by teenagers. Thus the promotion would be limited to teenagers only. This would limit the scope of the product. Dubai is known for its hot climate and thus large scare personal promotion would be hindered as public promotion on the streets through live demonstration would be difficult. Culture is made heavy and the speed of the process is brought down due to the large scale operations of the company. Quality control related issues might also arise. Private label products are not being offered by a company thus an opportunity is missed. The weak and poor brands is not divested by the company
OPPURTUNITIES	THREATS
Environment concern among the consumers in Dubai is high and as the company has increased its environmental goals it would lead to attract the environmental friendly consumers. The marketing and promotion in Dubai through social media and internet is already very well established in Dubai and as the company has a well structured internet and social media platform it can be great opportunity boost for the company. The lack of quality provided by the some of the other brands and recent reporting of incidents may be used by the company as an opportunity. The consistent goal of the company to pursue its business overseas can be used as an opportunity. The investment in the marketing and promotion of the particular product made by the company would enhance the existing customer base along with the experience of potential customers.	The competition which would be faced by the company in relation to the beauty products is cut throat. There are several multinational brands which are striving to establish their markets in Dubai. The product portfolio of the competitor companies is being made diverse day by day in order to increase market shares through the use of different marketing strategies. The spending of consumers in this part of the world in relation to smartphones is comparatively lower as there is lack of women empowerment. This might be a threat for all the investment the company is making in relation to the promotion program. The change in the trends of smartphone industry is very rapid thus the promotion of a particular range of goods might not have a long term effect.

The age group which should be targeted by the company should be 22-45 year old. Research has provided that women of this age group are most likely to use such latest and innovative product. The people of this age group are also most likely to understand the promotion and advertising program in favor of the Ara. The product is not only used by the teenagers and office goers occasionally but also on a regular basis. The party series which is placed to be at the high end of the pricing matrix would be a perfect for the high class society of Dubai (Cho & Fiore, 2015).

Advertising Strategies

As the features of the product are very diverse it can be provided along with products like accessories, web solutions and companies manufacturing such products can be approached. As the company has promised and taken prominent measures in favor of sustainable use of environment and manufacturing of products which are environmental friendly the product can be promoted among fund raiser events to the population in favor of environment protection.

Not only the teenagers but the company may also target other age group as well as working men of Dubai. The interests of men from 45 to 55 years in relation to electronic accessories have increased in the recent years. People are all the more getting concerned about how they present themselves when they get out of the house. Appearance has become a very important element in determining the personality of a person thus people are spending a significant part of their income on smart phones.  Owning Ara would certainly increase their status in the society. Especially in Dubai which has turned out to be one of the best markets for Smartphone, people are spending more and more on them (Cho & Fiore, 2015). The Chinese Smartphone industry has already utilized the market in the Middle East and has shown high profits in their balance sheet. There is still enough room in Dubai to expand the market in relation to Smartphone especially when it comes to environmental friendly products. Dubai is ne country where the environmental concerns are dealt with very severely thus environmental friendly users would be in mind of the company as market targets.

People in Dubai have a high amount of disposable income. The economy of the country has improved leaps and bounds during the last decade. Practically the citizens have core income that what they can spend on necessity thus the products of the company would prove to be hit in the country as pricing would be a matter of concern (Laeequddin et al. 2016). Thus it can be concluded that Dubai as a market target is one of the best choices for the company. The company has to target a selective age group of both men and women. Promotions of high end products have to be done in charity functions and environmental friendly programs as people present there are most likely to purchase.

Conclusion 

The research work has highlighted the ways in which Google will promote its business in the West-Asian trading center of Dubai. The research shows  Google Ara to be a game changer once introduced in the West-Asian market. A detailed discussion and description has been provided on the ways and processes by which the company fights with its rivals. After analyzing the whole project it can be implicated that the mentioned organization has been quite impressive in formulating its business operations in the gulf city. It is seen that it has applied aggressive and effective marketing strategies starting from offering discounts to door to door marketing in the country. The research work was much more compact than the earlier researches conducted on the same field. Therefore it can be concluded that Google will set a perfect example on marketing and promotional activities in Dubai for other companies that tends to start their operations in the gulf state in the near future.

References

Cho, E., & Fiore, A. M. (2015). Conceptualization of a holistic brand image measure for fashion-related brands. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 32(4), 255-265.

Laeequddin, M., Laeequddin, M., Abdul Waheed, K., & Abdul Waheed, K. (2016). Strategic management in cartelized environment: case of Hisham Packaging, Dubai. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 6(2), 1-16.