Brand Dubai
Tallest, highest, biggest, shiniest, a Vegas like moneymaking machine… words often associated with brand Dubai. But dig a little deeper and what you hear from the locals is actually very different. This is a city about values and traditions, a home for families, businesses and culture. You only have to see how bustling the traditional Souks are and the perfectly preserved old town, to see what traditional customs mean to locals and tourists alike. The region is clearly about more than financial gains and a destination for the rich in which to play. But seemingly this deeper Dubai is invisible to the world.
Brand Dubai grew during an unsustainable boom, rather like the dotcom industry at the turn of the century. Here businesses went bust as they could not justify their over inflated share prices and they didn’t stand a chance of recovery when the boom turned to bust. But what of Dubai’s fate? Surely it is built on a more solid sustainable foundation?
If you judge Dubai on its image, then the brand equity has taken a hard hit. Dubai needs a stronger idea, one based on more than just short termism, financial reward and the glamorous set. A brand idea that signifies what’s great about the region, its rich heritage, its unique multicultural Arab and Western community and all that it has to offer. Right now Dubai needs a brand that will work hard to regain the trust and confidence of the people that visit, live and work in the region.
Brand Dubai is vulnerable. The region needs to look within to really identify what it stands for and use that to build a firm brand strategy based on values and culture. Dubai has learnt the hard way; global assumptions are tough to change, but if the city looks to project its reality rather than its image, perceptions will follow suit. Only then can it start to carve out a uniquely sustainable position in the eyes of the world.
21 April 2009, posted by Abed Bibi and David Bruce
Like to see you try?
Believe me when I say the problem with brand Dubai is that the country is steeped in tradition and historically has and will be controlled by too many people.
As a Creative Director working in Dubai. We have worked with the highest associated people of government here and believe me when I say that brand Dubai will never happen – not due to economic hard times or global melt downs, but a simple fact that unless you’ve seen it with your own eyes, then and only then, will you know what I’m talking about. Dubai and the whole UAE is the last untouched place on earth where good design has found a home.
June 18, 2009 | Posted by Angelo Bellandi | http://www.weare11.com/
Brand Dubai
It is not vulnarable, it is still forming. Dubai has captured many fabulous imaginations and some not so glamorous realities. This is not a comment about whether Brand Dubai did a good job towards establishing its equity, nor about how fascinating it was, or how dissapointing many would fancy it to be. This is a comment to lead into a question, that of which stage is Brand Dubai at: forming, storming or norming... And waht are the ingredients Brand Dubai should look for in its DNA to help it complete these stages harmonously and coherently.
Cheers
raja
May 9, 2009 | Posted by raja haddad | http://www.souwari.com/