Some major organizations in the Kingdom have begun riding the Internet wave in a bid to advertise their products or services as part of an emerging trend that has seen their migration from off-line to online advertising.
"Though the traditional form of advertising through the print media is still strong, online advertising will be the wave of the future," said Karim Hassan Asad, general manager of a major advertising agency, which claims to be the pioneer in relationship marketing (RM). He added that RM is a new tool being used by some banks, multinational and local companies to build up personal relations with their clients.
And, in some cases, it has provided them an opportunity to overcome cultural and other barriers. "They can now reach out to the female customers over the Internet much more easily than in the past." In the process, the Kingdom skipped the direct mail trend due to the postal and cultural problems encountered with such a form of marketing tool.
According to the data compiled by Publicis-Graphics, of the Kingdom’s estimated population of 21.8 million last year, the number of males stood at 12.06 million as against 9.74 million for the females. Some 43 percent of the population was under 15 years of age in 1999, 54 percent in the 15-64 age group and 64 percent from the elderly group.
The Kingdom’s per capita income was $7,174 last year, up from $7,024 in 2000 and $6,509 the year before. However, the per capita ad spend at SR163 remained lower than Portugal’s. It is expected to dip further as some major companies in the Kingdom have slashed their advertising budget by up to 50 percent in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The advertising market has now gone creative by reaching out to the customers on the Internet. Maggi, a Nestle product, is being targeted at the housewives through an online customer-focused program on the do’s and don’ts for a balanced diet during Ramadan. It is profiling its customers in terms of their hobbies and food preferences.
"All this is part of Nestle’s plan to build up a database for its customers and strengthen relations by offering health tips and other useful suggestions," Karim observes.
Banks have also jumped on the Net bandwagon to firm up their relations through CRM (Customer Relations Management). "We try to stay close to our customers by addressing their special needs and proposing to them on the Internet special products, such as an educational plan for their children, or a special credit card. We even come up with a customized solution after discussing our clients’ needs," Abdul Aziz Al-Manie, senior manager, Public Affairs, at the Saudi British Bank, told Arab News.
According to Anwar Hilmy, Riyadh manager of Ofoq Information Systems and Communications Co., the Internet market in the Kingdom is surging ahead with a growth rate of over 10 percent every quarter. "Many companies have been approaching us for the creation of websites enabling them to publicize their products and services. No wonder, within a short span of time we have around 500,000 Internet users in the country."
However, a majority of the users, he points out, are Internet browsers rather than Internet shoppers. An inhibiting factor in the growth of e-commerce in the Kingdom is the lack of security applications for Internet users.
As a result, they go online only to browse for the products, while the actual transactions take place on the shopping floor. Till the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the Internet security tool, is firmly locked in place, e-commerce will rely on the click-and-brick mix, allowing the customer to do window shopping on the Net and cash transactions on the firm’s premises.
An example of this is Al-Khaleejiah Advertising and Public Relations Co. Ltd., a sister company of Arab News, which has created its own website featuring 16 publications of the Saudi Research & Publishing Co., the group for which it acts as an advertising arm. While an advertiser can get an idea of the technical and other details of the publication he is interested in, he places the actual order on its premises.
That the Internet is offering a platform for closer interaction between companies and their customers is borne out by the case of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) whose highly entertaining program, "Mutannash", has logged on around 200,000 hits since its launch last month.
It revolves around a Saudi male character whose penchant for rash driving often lands him in jail. Interwoven with humorous episodes, the program underlines NCCI’s message concerning motor insurance policy as a hedge against accident-related compensation claims. Nokia has also pitched in with an interactive game to stimulate its customers’ interest while continuing to send across its subliminal message.
Such marketing ploys are set to become the stock-in-trade of the Kingdom’s advertising industry as it seeks to reinvent itself in its search for new pastures. With Saudi Arabia poised for the membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO), many global players will be vying for a share of the dynamic Saudi market. It is the company with the right product or service that will hit the bull’s eye.
The days are not far off, according to Karim Assad, when interactive TV will make the waves on the marketing front. "You would be able to place order, for example, for a Tom Cruise T-shirt by freezing the program on the screen and relaying your message to the shirt dealer along with your credit card number." That reality, he points out, will dawn with the next swing of the pendulum. Till then the flow of creative juices into the ad contents will be felt more than ever before.
