From Our Own Comms Correspondent

Ryan Wheaton talks development, rebranding and cultural change from the capital and port city of Doha, Qatar.

The blaze of publicity surrounding Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup in 2022 has brought the independent Gulf state to the world’s attention. Whether it’s a debate about the practicality of playing football in 45 degree heat or headlines about the safety of low-skilled workers, Qatar is on everyone’s lips.

In our experience, this is a country of amazing change, and strong links to Britain. So much so, that Qataris refer to London affectionately as ‘Lon-Doha’, because of the country’s enormous investment in London.

Qatar is on an astonishing journey, building a new society at considerable speed. It does so drawing on the expertise and inspiration of leading academics, architects, engineers, politicians, thinkers and creative minds from around the world.

In the last 10 years, Doha has grown from an unremarkable city in the sand, to a towering metropolis of glass and steel. Now, numerous major infrastructure projects are underway. A new airport will rival Singapore and Dubai. This joins a new port to accommodate giant gas tankers exporting Qatar’s biggest asset, liquefied natural gas, and a new underground, freeway and power station.

Qatar’s journey is driven by the 2030 vision.

As well as promoting infrastructure, business, health and education, this reformative plan also strengthens family values, while heavily promoting the role and involvement of Qatari women in national leadership and decision making.

The influences from abroad are considerable. There are only 250,000 or so Qataris living alongside two million people from Europe, Asia and Africa, alongside various nationalities from across the English and Arabic speaking worlds helping to realise the plan.

The elite and middle classes have largely been educated at British and American universities and schools, or at sister campuses in Doha. The new emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was himself educated at Sandhurst and Sherborne. This makes the collective conscience of Qatar

largely western-oriented, but the al-Thani’s have been careful not to let that happen at the expense of heritage. Part of the education programme is a commitment to fostering an understanding of Qatar’s roots, both at home and abroad.

Through programmes like the Katara Village and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha is on a mission to be a cultural hub as well as an economic one. It’s also home to Al Jazeera, the first independent news channel in the Arab world, launched to cover and uncover stories in the region.

Spurred by the country’s ambition, influences and growth, Qatari businesses also want to bring their own image in line with brands like HSBC, Vodafone and BP.

Industry’s rebrand work with Commercial Bank of Qatar – a highly successful bank with big aspirations – has helped to position it for its next phase of growth and put it on a playing field with the big international brands.

Commercial Bank prides itself on fairness, transparency and supporting Qatar’s exponential growth through nurturing business and helping individuals achieve their life goals. This attitude is summed up by the strapline “everything is possible.” Some of our own banks could probably learn from that.

Others have rebranded too. Like Commercial Bank, the main telco Qtel needed to support its investments abroad. Its answer was to change its name to Ooredoo, Arabic for I want. Spearheading the investment trend, Qatar’s

Sovereign Wealth Fund owns iconic entities like The Shard and Harrods, which alongside deals like Qatar Foundation’s sponsorship of FC Barcelona, further increases Qatar’s prominence.

Now the fastest growing economy in the world, Qatar is not only changing domestically but also fast becoming a major player on the world stage.

Ryan Wheaton is a director at brand consultancy Industry

Love in the time of digital

Ashish Mishra asks, "Is loyalty, the venerated virtue, anti-evolutionary and irrelevant in the post-digital era?" from Mumbai, India

To understand loyalties in love, irrespective of what it is for, it’s important to at least size up the iceberg of a question: Why do we love in the first place?

People love for different reason, often guided by their expectations and responsibilities, values, beliefs and influences. People love out of devotion, out of duty, to fulfill social expectations, to carry out familial responsibilities, to feel part of a region or community or quite simply because they were supposed to. Brands people love have been guided by the dominant expectations and moods of the times, guaranteeing quality assurance during industrialisation, symbolising lifestyles when prosperity grew and advocating bottom line when tough times loomed.

As we evolve into mature, individualistic societies, the self gains prominence and leads to a new definition of love. This love is now chosen, not thrust as an ownership and obligation in exchange of social and financial security or even a familial arrangement of beneficial convenience. The primary reason for it in the brand world is the fact that consumers’ engagement with what they choose is increasingly dominated by their abilities to pause, fast forward and rewind the purchasing process, rather than to simply play. Digital has made time less linear and posed challenges to loyalties in a world of daily relationship status updates.

It is fair to say that the balance of power between consumers and businesses has changed for the good. But it’s not just about mindless variety and access. There’s an increasing customisation and personalisation, too. It is the “you age.” And isn’t it irresistible when you have not just immense choice, but competing choices? 

The temptation doesn’t stop here. In the pluralistic societies simmering beneath the surface with many conflicts due to the overwhelming social flux, progressive brands have begun to become a new and much needed cultural resource. They anticipate such conflicts and resolve them through brand: A scooter brand resolves the restrictions placed on teen girls, an insurance brand assuages the financial dependence and loss of pride of elderly, Dirt is Good takes a stance against hyper-parenting and the world’s most affordable car, TATA Nano, lyrically encourages the struggling middle class’ ambitions.

So the big oxymoron of a question is: “Is Loyalty sustainable at all? Or is it as good as it’s made out to be?” Should it be an expectation at all or merely a result of superior ongoing deliverance of the most compelling needs and desires? Otherwise isn’t it a case of tolerating the bad, the inefficient?

It is in this context of change and evolution that we at Interbrand like to reinforce our belief about brands having the power to change the world. Today more than ever before, brands define people. They are about opinions and heart and are expressions of their users. Could brands be the best way of ensuring loyalties in the promiscuous and seductive openness of the digital age?

Lunchbox, India’s potential Oscar entry this year gives an account of a simple housewife who after being taken for granted by her busy and philandering husband, found a true companion by sharing love notes in a lunch box. She ultimately left her family with little guilt. I wonder how long it would be before the same woman would move on from her mother’s brand if she can co-create a greater brand experience and connect elsewhere.

I also wonder if she can really be faulted for doing so, in the latter case as well as the former.

Ashish Mishra is the MD of Interbrand in India