A mint on your pillow with your personal oxygen bottle

To truly appreciate what is happening in the hospitality sector in Qatar, let’s first take a step into the future to view the trends which are already with us. Once these trends accelerate, they reach a ‘tipping point’ and become the norm and the benchmark for expectations of service and consumer attitudes.

Everything is speeding up, thanks to our obsession with technology and efficiency. “Instant gratification” is our mantra for the Second Millennium, although whether anything is actually moving in the right direction is a moot point.

Globalisation is increasing the intensity and number of new channels of communication.
You can blame the Internet, mobiles, low cost travel, vlogs, ipods, or blogs. The result is 24/7 access. Instant everything – from goods and services to the sharing of reviews and opinions (myspace.com and facebook.com are examples of social networking), multi-tasking, microwave mums, meals on the run and individuals (and organisations) that want everything yesterday. And if you’re not ‘connected’ in this reality, you can always visit Second Life, a 3D online digital world imagined, created and owned by its 8.8 million residents.

While this connectedness and mobility mean that we’re always on the go, they also blur the lines between home life and office life. The result is stress, anxiety, a lack of sleep, work–life imbalance and, conversely, an interest in slowing things down. Hence the rise of spas and the whole wellbeing industry, downsizing, teleworking and home/offices. I could obviously write a lot more about this trend but I know you’re busy and probably keen to flick to the conclusion!

While all this is happening, there is another trend apparent, the rise of increasing wealth and overall success of mass production have created a new class of “Gold Standard” customer.

As we get richer and more used to luxury products and services, we start to expect added value products and services as standard. So there is a “red carpet” expectation – from upgrades to executive club lounges with free food and drink on tap, to butlers on call and personal shoppers.
We are getting more spoiled and our expectations increase with each experience as we seek that exclusive something that no one else has. Hence the rise of artistry for that one-off unique piece or sculpture and soaring contemporary art prices.
We are witnessing the rise of a new GOLD class: consumers who demand outstanding levels of service, quality, difference and design with all brands, products and services.

At the same time, the importance of celebrities and admiration for the stylishly wealthy – from Roman Abramovich to David Beckham has meant that glamour is most definitely “IN”. Refinement and elegance fused with grace and style now form part and parcel of the luxury hospitality industry’s core offer; sublime experiences with distinct and discriminating taste.
However there is also blurring and polarisation taking place. By 2015 the middle market will could disappear in most developed countries taking mid–price retailers with them.
Many consumer markets are already polarising between economy and premium sectors (low price versus luxury). High net worth customers can happily live in both segments buying $15 T shirts and mixing them with $500 jeans and $250 trainers.

Most importantly, we have the relatively recent rise of the brand as the key core communication principle, the DNA of every company, their soul or brand essence. At grow, we call this the “BIG IDEA”. The brand, probably the greatest gift that commerce has ever given culture, allows us to identify with other like-minded people, products and services to create the world around us in our vision, resonating with our needs and aspirations. It’s a shorthand to identify your “tribe” or “brand” and align with it.
Recently, witness the rise of brand extension. This is where customers are happy to suspend their rational, logical, objective analysis of a brand’s functionality and are willing to go along with a brand they believe in emotionally and trust that it can produce new products not part of its original core competency. So you have Marlboro selling jackets, Caterpillar selling boots and Porsche selling sunglasses. You have bookshops selling coffee, coffee shops selling music, supermarkets selling loans, Ralph Lauren selling white paint and water companies selling gas. So why are we not surprised with Bulgari and Versace Hotels opening somewhere near you?

So with all this going on, what about Qatar and the Hospitality Industry? To set the scene, as we already know, we have massive, sudden wealth. A local population where 65%+ are under the age of 31, mostly well-travelled, well-educated, well-heeled and, well, incredibly brand aware. These are people who appreciate value and values, where heritage, tradition and family are fused and work together with a forward-looking and ambitious outlook on life. And finally, they are online and on the case.

Qatar is growing exponentially. Over 41 hotels, planned or in the process of opening,
with clubs, spas and luxury hotels all here or coming soon and all requiring their share of a growing population. Add to that the visitor mix, with businessmen representing 85% of visitors and occupancy in the region of 70%-75% and you have an interesting opportunity where the demand/supply scenario is going to shift and the hospitality sector is finally going to have to compete for real and differentiate their offer to maintain market share in light of increasing competition.

This is already happening. On a global scale, Sheraton have revamped their identity and added the tagline “Belong”, thus seeking to identify with people seeking a community of like-minded individuals (a “global neighbourhood”).

Sharq Village and Spa has created a luxury hotel resort based on the interesting concept to portray the Qatar brand of yesteryear fused with traditional Arabian hospitality and world-class service in a beautiful authentic Middle eastern village type environment that has grown organically over time, supported by Six Senses Spas. A wonderful notion and a very credible positioning in the luxury boutique sector, especially as cultural holidays are the fastest growing sector of the tourism market, according to the World Tourism Organisation.

I believe there will be a tough battle in the luxury to premium sector in Qatar as the Shangri La, Hilton, Rotana, Millennium, Intercontinental, Sofitel, Renaissance, Al Fareej Resort, Radisson SAS, Hyatt, Kempinsky, Wyndham and La Cigalle fight for market share along with existing Ritz Carlton’s and Four Seasons. It is going to be increasingly important for these brands to identify who they are targeting and reinforce their positioning and differentiation to a very brand-savvy and aware audience that has no brand loyalty and will always gravitate towards the new.

I believe there is room (excuse the pun!) for the Sheraton, Intercontinental, Marriott, Mövenpick and Ramada, among others, to market exclusively to the business traveller,
but then their offer must include ALL the high-tech gadgets, high bandwidth, easy-to-use technology, plasma screens and dedicated secretarial and concierge service to assist these commercial warriors to do battle and win. These people don’t want to muck about with adaptors and connections that don’t work, or cost an arm and a leg to operate.
Instant access, on demand and preferably in-built into the cost of the room.
Examples include DIY check in and check out services, available online. The quicker these hotels focus on prioritizing and servicing the needs of the hotel guests of the future and their insatiable demand for instant convergence and simplicity, the quicker they can garner market share.

I believe there is a huge growth market in two very distinct areas. One is in the budget business hotel, presently catered to by Merweb: simple, functional and available.

Watch out for Stelios and his crew at EasyHotel and the new Yotel. I also believe that the fully furnished serviced apart-hotel as exemplified by the pioneering Le Mirage Executive Residence and Le Mirage Suites is a growing category which is competing head on with 3-4 star hotels. I also believe there is a growing market for the local family seeking a weekend away. Rather than going to Dubai or booking a villa at Sealine Hotel, they could access some hotels here and book 5 or 6 rooms or a villa for their family to enjoy a long weekend.

We’ve yet to witness the arrival of the hip, boutique hotel, the slick-minimalist-style made famous by pioneers like Phillipe Starck and Ian Schrager. Names like Brown’s Hotel, Sandersons Hotel, Anoushka Hempels’ original Hempel Hotel, “41” in London and “Dream” Hotel in New York, among others, satisfy the increasing demand for personalisation and have infiltrated the industry and become a feature of major hotel chains such as Hilton, Starwood and Le Meridien. I am sure that the boutique concept will also feature in Qatar (witness the arrival of “W” hotels) as it grows in sophistication and variety. For the winners in this category, also check out Gansevoort, James and Thompson boutique chainlets in USA.

Luxury hotels have to offer unique, individual experiences, fused with a dynamic theatre of the exceptional as opposed to homogeneous pampering (“am I in Hyatt Boca Raton or Honolulu?). First class service and quality come as standard. Pushing the boundaries of individual service and gastronomy, mixing art, music and theatre with high technology, creating worlds within worlds and legendary experiences represent the next phase of the successful luxury hotel. At the same time, honouring the individual and his/her needs and requirements is key. Witness the 24 hour-a-day-check in policy at the Peninsula Beverly Hills for a clue to personalisation. Other recent hotel 'innovations' include bath butlers at the Sydney Hilton (to run your bath for you), e-butlers at the Dorchester Hotel in London (to explain how everything in your room works), personal oxygen bottles (Optus hotel in Vancouver), iPod rentals (Dream Hotel in New York), Wi-Fi access inside elevators (Langham Hotel in London), and personalized room lighting (Sofitel Paris).

The Hospitality sector has realised that brands are the only key differentiator between their offer and their competitors – as the saying goes: “a hotel without a brand is just a bed for the night”. Investment in your brand is key to your success and will lead to lower customer acquisition costs, increased market share, happy staff and customers and healthy profits. And never forget that your staff are (almost) more important than your customers. They are your brand ambassadors and can retain or lose a client in a moment of unawareness or sabotage. (For more proof and analysis of the value of brand in the hotel sector, read the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s groundbreaking analysis of the effect of brand affiliation on a hotel property’s value.)

Your brand is the essence of who you are and what you stand for as a company. The communication of it has to be holistic and consistent – internal as well as external and as a minimum must stand for something that is both meaningful and true, something we can believe in. How you communicate your brand on its journey to the customer and what it stands for is what makes the difference between ordinary hotel brands and truly great hotel brands.

A mint on your pillow with your personal oxygen bottle

Is change as good as a rest?

Change forms an inextricable and inevitable part of our lives. We are born, we live, and we die. This is a fact. To a greater or lesser extent, we accept, reject or embrace change as it affects us moment to moment.

Companies are made up of people and are living organisms, changing, growing and implementing new actions and activities as a response to change. Some of these changes are huge: as a result of a merger of takeover for example. Other actions signal change. I think that we’re all aware and somewhat petrified (for the younger generation read ‘excited’) at the speed of change taking place in this society we call Earth. Not only does time appear to go faster, but many of the rules that were sacrosanct seem to be breaking down or disappearing altogether, with new rules being created and then broken in rapid succession.

Take a job for life: In the good old days after the second world war, you started an apprenticeship with a company and by the time you got to 65, you got the gold watch and were put out to pasture. These days’ statistics tell us that the average lifespan of a CEO of a major multinational company is 1-2 years, and job-hopping for middle management is seen as work experience.

Take trust in a company’s products and their reputation. In the good old days you had bellwether stocks (IBM, AT&T, Bethlehem Steel) and people trusted these companies to deliver and walk the talk. These days you have downsizing, restructuring, mergers and takeovers and of course, not forgetting Enron and their accountants Arthur Anderson –so you can’t believe what companies say or even do anymore (take Shell and their less than exemplary environmental record in Nigeria, or overstating their oil reserves as a case in point). And these days with the all-knowing, all-seeing Internet and its latest manifestation Web.2, people are taking the initiative and the rise of consumer power – blogs, podcasts, video phones and video recorders, text messages and the imminent convergence of telecoms and media mean that the balance of power is shifting. Pressure groups are becoming increasingly more vocal and active and control of the flow of information is passing from those who manufacture and create products and services to those who use them – i.e. you and I.

If you equate this observation to the human population, there is cause to believe that society is moving to a higher level of consciousness, awareness and sophistication. Consumers are saying “no” to being constantly sold to by advertising agencies. Consumers are saying “no” to being lied to – witness the demonstrations against the Iraq War in the UK and to the collapse of Enron and the subsequent enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act which forces companies by law to tell the truth on their balance sheet or face punitive consequences.

So how is an H.R.Manager and indeed his boss, the CEO, supposed to react to these fast-changing events and lack of allegiances and trust in companies in general, especially when seeking to attract graduates.

Let’s look at some facts and statistics to see the lie of the land. In a recent study among 1000 school leavers in the UK, when asked the question: “what are you looking for in a job?”, 82% said that they were looking for a job that was “personally fulfilling”. Furthermore, 62% said that they were looking for more of a “balance between work and life”, i.e. more time for themselves. So the days of offering more rewards by way of money, status or perks are just not working anymore with an increasingly educated, aware and sophisticated population.

More and more these days the battlefield where companies compete against each other is fought less and less on price and more and more in the hearts and minds of consumers. The most visible manifestation of this is the increasing importance that brands and branding are taking in the boardrooms. Companies are realising that their brand represents everything in the minds of consumers: not only a promise of consistency and quality, but also shorthand and an expression of their needs and aspirations. Brand and branding is now centre stage, not only reflected as a line item in the balance sheet, but also increasing a company’s share price (or vice versa) depending on whether companies have invested in their positioning and differentiation which is accepted as being believable and true and resonating with consumers’ belief systems and what they deem to be important and relevant as part of their life and lifestyle.

Companies are increasingly aware that brands are the only key differentiator between their offer and their competitors – as the saying goes: “a hotel without a brand is just a bed for the night”. And more importantly that staff are the brand ambassadors of a brand being the closest touch point to the customer. So the question now is how does one motivate staff to fully endorse and believe as well as communicate the brand values to customers? Not being an H.R. professional, I don’t have the answer by way of best practice standards and systems. I do however lead a ‘growing the brand’ seminar for companies to provide the bridge for thought leaders and middle management in organisations to integrate their company’s vision, mission and values and understand how to live these day to day.

What I mean by “how” is that truly enlightened companies that attract the best people and constantly hit the top ten companies to work for, realise that they stand for something that is more than just about the money or product or service on offer. They have embraced a value system (e.g. Apple – ‘think differently’, or H.P. with ‘Invent’) that resonates with our desire for “meaning” or “being” – a sense of purpose. Here we as consumers are looking for honesty, integrity and a value system we can believe in that resonates with our desire for meaning, truth and authenticity.

Companies are increasingly taking over from Governments and the promise of a welfare state is rapidly losing its potency as the benefits of mass production and our increasingly ‘global village’ environment take effect. Companies have to be seen to “care” in word and especially in deed. So the all-important “values” are taking their rightful place as companies embrace their responsibility to give something back – whether it is by way of charity, work in the community, adding value to their offer, or providing their staff with training programmes, motivational and team-building events, flexi-time work structures or crèches for their children.

How you communicate and indeed ‘live’ your brand both internally, at point of origination, and on its journey to the customer and what it stands for is what makes the difference between ordinary brands and truly great brands. Enlightened companies are seeking more and more to empower their staff so that they not only agree to represent the company in a ‘job’ but, more importantly truly endorse the company and its products or services as co-owners – this is becoming the rallying cry for HR managers. Let the brand ambassadors represent the company. Everything else is process.

Is change as good as a rest?

Quintessentially yours. Pearl of Wisdom #1

Years ago I read somewhere about archetypes. Something about that we are made up of more than who we think we are and there's a judge, critic, child, father, mother, brother and so on, inside us, all jockeying for position to guide us with infinite pearls of wisdom. So there's a bitter sweetness (schadenfreude) to companies like match.com and rivals fighting for the position to win our vote and hearts as they lead us down the garden path of true love. Notwithstanding the fact that more than 50% of marriages in the UK end in divorce, we continue, like lemmings, down this path in search of "the one".

In this day of instant everything...from karma to soup, isn't it strange that the one thing we truly crave, desire and need is always just beyond our grasp. "What's that" you say? Yes, I am talking about true love. Not the love - romantic love, that we see in The Holiday (nice movie though it is), but the love we all seek from the moment we are born to the moment we die.
The love of self; the love of being - in the moment, here and now. For this love, we have to STOP! Stop what we're doing, stop seeking, stop gabbing, just stop. And look. No, not there, in drink, drugs, TV or other people, and not in the incessant mind machine that warbles on and on, seeking to protect and control. No, peel away the onion and look for the original self.

Now that's a journey worth considering. Is it hard? I suppose that's what grow -ing is all about.

Quintessentially yours. Pearl of Wisdom #1

Causative formation, or the great leap forwards. Brand and the art of being.

On an island off the coast of Japan, anthropologists arrived to observe the habits of monkeys who were the sole inhabitants of this island. The monkeys were living in harmony, the exclusive inhabitants of the island, on a diet of roots, berries, nuts and seeds. One day, one of the monkeys, called Susan by the anthropologists was scurrying deep in the earth and happened on a sweet potato. Normally the practice would be to eat it unwashed. However this time, Susan watched as one of the anthropologists demonstrated how to wash the sweet potato. Before long, her family had included the practice of washing the sweet potato as part of their daily routine. After a few months, the whole island were scurrying beneath the earth, searching for sweet potatoes. This is where it gets interesting.



A sister island quite some kilometers away was also inhabited solely by monkeys. They too started incorporating sweet potatoes in their diet. Now how did this happen? Monkeys didn’t swim to the first island and see what their neighbours were up to. Nor did birds land and inform the monkeys of this sensational new addition to their diet. So what’s the answer?
The anthropologists seem to think, backed up by numerous scientists, that it was caused by magnetic resonance. In other words, when enough members of a population incorporate a pattern of thinking or behaviour into their lives, then suddenly there is a quantum leap in consciousness and those habits are inbred into the system, so to speak.

If you equate this observation to the human population, there is cause to believe that society is moving to a higher level of consciousness, awareness and sophistication. Consumers are saying “no” to being constantly sold to by advertising agencies. Consumers are saying “no” to being lied to – witness the demonstrations against the Iraq War in the UK and to the collapse of Enron and the subsequent enactment of the Sarbannes Oxley Act which forces companies to tell the truth on their balance sheet.

The rise of blogs, podcasts, email, videocasts, digital diaries, personal video recorders, text messages and the imminent convergence of telecoms and media and the like are providing a powerful voice for consumers to say this is what we want, or not. and companies and their agencies have to move with it, or be superceded by more self-actualised brands.

Furthermore, communication of the brand, given the fragmentation of media has to reside at the customer touch points, which means your staff have to be the brand ambassadors -not just by paying lip service, but truly by enrolling in the Vision, Mission and Values and expressing it through their everyday contact with the customer.

Causative formation, or the great leap forwards. Brand and the art of being.

"Show me the logo". Qatar's search for branding.

“Show me the logo!!” he shouted, midway through my credentials presentation.

“But we have to do the research, analysis and positioning, competitive audit and understand your business model and objectives before we can even begin to develop creative design concepts” I said. To stop him from walking out the room, I had to promise him that at our next meeting we would indeed have some corporate identities to show him. This was 2 years ago in Doha and while the client was a high ranking Government official and Chairman of a NEWCO, this attitude I have found, to my horror, not exactly uncommon in these parts.

True the Doha Asian Games brand image and look programme for which I originally came out to Doha as a London agency client director has lifted the veil, so to speak, on what is possible with excellent branding and what can be achieved with an holistic ‘look and feel’.

With the nightmares of what has happened before, (e.g. a leading Qatari Bank’s new logo created by a Dubai-based company being remarkably similar to Royal Bank of Scotland’s identity), I felt sure that enlightened Qatari companies would welcome a professional strategic and creative advertising and design agency focused on brands when I set up “grow” eighteen months ago, and in the main I was right.

Yes there still is the cry of “I need a logo” for next to no money, but clients are willing and receptive to understand how the creation of a brand which is campaignable and has longevity is more than just about the logo. Our clients want to hear how we can add value to their brand by creating effective positioning and differentiation which will, in the long run, increase their market share, their profitability and lower their customer acquisition costs, while giving them a platform to launch new products and/or services as part of the brand development. These companies understand that what differentiates a great brand from merely an ordinary brand is how the product or service is communicated and perceived at each stage of the customer journey.

So while Qatar makes its great leap forward onto the world stage taking bold steps to define its identity, Qatari companies are working hard to articulate their positioning and establish their communications - from tone of voice to look and feel - that are integrated, compelling and true.

And some of these are companies who used to give their Annual Report to printers and say “here you design and print it”. Now we are receiving calls from companies who understand how important the Annual Report is as a marketing and communications tool to promote their brand, outline their future plans, attract new investors AND reach the entire stakeholder base - employees, analysts, community groups and business partners. When we tell them that it plays a vital role in communicating their strategy, objectives and performance, while conveying their values and culture, long-term factors which influence investors’ sentiments, they are all ears.

And the same is true for advertising campaigns, corporate brochures, CSR, CRM – clients want holistic, integrated communications that are going to deliver, on the brand promise as well as on ROI.

And for those who still just want a logo, go to http://www.makemyownlogo.com.

Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful and refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands. Successful clients include Alaqaria, Carnegie Mellon, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Harley Davidson Qatar, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, International Bank of Qatar, Qatari Diar, Qatar National Hotels, Ritz Carlton Doha, Ramada Hotel Doha, Sharq Village and Spa, Weill Cornell.
For more information please go to http://www.growqatar.com or email at anthony@growqatar.com

"Show me the logo". Qatar's search for branding.

Qatar. The momentum builds. Invest in your brand

Traditionally the advent of a New Year in the Western world heralds a time of new beginnings and at the same time, letting go of old, outdated behaviours and characteristics which do not form part of the new vision that promises so much for the year ahead.

In Qatar, we live in a country that is both dynamic and forward-looking. Blessed by natural resources, a youthful population and led by a visionary ruler, Qatar has both the will and the opportunity to make its mark and state its claim on the world map.

Looking East, Qatar is positioned at the gateway of Asia. Qatar has already endeared itself by staging the Asian Games in Doha, not only a remarkable achievement because of the many world “firsts”, but also because it has allowed Qatar to fast-track many of the infrastructure projects which will provide a firm foundation to future growth.

grow has always positioned itself as the Doha-based advertising and design agency of choice, focused on brand creation, development and communications to help Qatari companies articulate and differentiate themselves on the global stage.

It is important that now Qatari companies do not lose the momentum created by the visionary leadership and that they invest in their corporate identities, corporate communications and above-the-line advertising to deliver consistent, believable and true representation of who they are, what they do and most importantly what they stand for as summed up in their vision, mission and values.

Companies must invest in the strategic thinking and positioning to inform not only their staff (who will enjoy knowing what they are fighting for and how they can contribute) but also all stakeholders, customers, suppliers – indeed all their audiences. At the same time this must be followed through in the creative design process to develop memorable, powerful campaigns to reinforce the ownership of communication space.

In this way, Qatar and Qatari companies can follow through on the vision and create global companies, powerful and respected enough to stand side by side with the General Electrics and Exxon Mobil’s of this world.

This is our wish for the Qatari business community. We believe our collective expertise of working for some of the world’s leading companies and brands can add value. At grow we believe that growing your brand is growing your business. Whether it’s a new corporate identity, a corporate brochure, website, annual report, ad campaign, exhibition design or event, an integrated, hard-hitting targeted communications campaign can successfully grow your business.

At grow, we seem to be succeeding as seen by our expanding client base which includes Qatari Diar, Carnegie Mellon, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, UDC, IBQ, Ramada Plaza, Qatar National Hotels (QNH), Harley-Davidson and Nasser bin Khaled (NBK) to name a few.

Wouldn’t you like to grow? Your business, your profits, your brand, your market share, your earnings, your confidence, your potential…



Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful and refreshingly creative advertising and design agency focused on brands. For more information please go to www.growqatar.com or phone +974 444 6222

Qatar. The momentum builds. Invest in your brand

Qatar Outspends on Advertising in 2006. At the top of the world GDP growth table.

Qatar logged the biggest increase of + 101% from $118 million to $237 million. Print remained the dominant medium with $226 million accounting for a 95% share during 2006. From this, 92% went in to daily newspapers and 3% in to magazines.
The + 96% growth registered by newspapers is astounding compared to + 34% 2005. Magazines like-wise with $8 million accruing a share of 3%, saw exponential growth of + 306% compared to 2005 in-crease of just + 3%.TV followed with 3%.

A quick SLEPT analysis points to the progressive economic and farsighted leadership efforts of the last decade, making Qatar the fastest growing economy in the world. The pace of economic expansion is breathtaking. As recently as 1995 GDP stood at $8 billion compared with $34 billion last year and by 2011 the forecast is $62 billion. This compound growth rate of 15% places Qatar at the top of the world GDP growth table.

At the same time, Qatar is using its energy revenues to diversify its domestic economy which has also led to general increased confidence and more interest from advertisers making it he fifth biggest spend-ing market in the Arab region.Overall the highest spender using all media was Doha Asian Games with $9.1 million followed by Q-tel, $6.1 million and Qatar National Bank with $4.9 million.

Qatar Outspends on Advertising in 2006. At the top of the world GDP growth table.

A day in the Life. Or why, what, how and when. Questions and answers with Anthony Ryman.

1. What were you doing before your current job?

I was Fitch London Client Director responsible for working together with our client DAGOC for the Doha Asian Games Brand Image and Look Programme.

2. Why did you decide to start your own business?

At a presentation to one of the key Qatari officials, I was impressed with their comment to put Qatar on the world map, and I suddenly thought “I can help you do that, I have the talent, the training, the expertise to bring best practice standards and quality creativity to Qatar”. And so the idea was born.

3. What are the main differences between working for a big company and a creative start-up?

Not only do I have to be jack of all trades, tea boy, driver, client handler, accountant and Managing Director, but a new company is like a new-born baby, keeping you up at night, worrying that it’s going to be OK, and being immensely proud when the baby takes its first real steps.

4. This is your chance to sell yourself. What makes your company special?

Our core expertise is branding. We live and breathe brands and understand them; how they need to be consistently and coherently communicated both internally and externally, and matched by the customer experience. This is what makes the difference between ordinary brands and great brands.

We took an undertaking as part of our mission to not only provide quality creativity in design and advertising, which is why I brought on board and International award-winning Creative Director, but to grow brands and therefore business. That’s the added element that separates us; as well as our investment in analyzing future trends and how they affect our clients business. I also am a registered business trainer and have developed a unique branding seminar “growing the brand” that enables companies to ensure that their staff enroll in the vision, mission and values of the company and ‘live’ the brand as brand ambassadors.

grow also specialise in Annual Reports which should reflect a company’s identity as it plays a vital role in communicating the company’s strategy, objectives and performance and conveys its brand values and culture. These are long-term factors that influence the entire stakeholder base – shareholders, employees, analysts, community groups and business partners.

5. What has been the most frustrating aspect of starting your own business?

Learning to walk before we can run. grow, as the name implies is all about growth; as our clients grow their brands and their business, so do we. We have been fortunate that our values and expertise resonate and match those of the leading companies in this region, so our growth is exponential. Having to buy new clothes every time you grow three inches overnight can be frustrating
6. Who do you most admire in the advertising industry?

Wally Olins. Not strictly advertising, but a leading brand guru and founder of Wolff Olins, probably one of the most influential brand consultancies of my generation, creating benchmarks for competitors and new paradigms in the industry. And Henrion, who was a pioneer of ‘corporate identity’, one of our specialisms.

7. How good is the standard of creativity in this region?

Two things. Look at the number of creative Awards won by agencies in this region, compared to USA or Britain. I decided early on to hire Rico de Guzman, an International Creative Director from USA, working in Tokyo, who has won numerous design and advertising awards. I wanted to ensure that we pushed the envelope of creativity. Secondly, local culture: this can be learned, observed, and seamlessly integrated into a communications campaign. Don’t copy Western design, but emulate their best practice standards and ensure that the theme and content of your creative treatment resonates with local culture.

8. What is your proudest professional achievement? Why?

In 1989, I developed the concept, sold it, produced and managed the Daily Express Lifestyles 2000 Exhibition in London, sponsored to the tune of £ 1 million, featuring concept cars, robots, video phones, fashion shows, the house, plane, train and engineering marvels of tomorrow. It also featured Tomorrow’s World, one of TV’s biggest TV shows with an audience of 9 million, broadcast live from the show. It was in the Daily Express newspaper every day. The industry said it couldn’t be done. It was 5000 square metres on the floor, which for a first-time exhibition is an outstanding success.

9. And what was the most embarrassing moment in your career?

Pitching for a million pound account where the computer didn’t work, the CD was corrupt, and my brain went on strike. Dithering and dathering, stuttering and sweating, the client took pity on us and let us leave. Naturally we didn’t win the business.

10. Describe your average working day in less than 50 words

Up, shower, look in mirror, remember Bob Fosse “ It’s showtime!”. Coffee, diary, phone, e-mail, client meeting, back to office, creative brainstorm, scheduling session, phone, e-mail, write proposals, client calls, remember to breathe, head out of window, wow there’s life out there!, client meeting, what d’ya mean it’s 9pm??

A day in the Life. Or why, what, how and when. Questions and answers with Anthony Ryman.

Brand Qatar. To "B" or not to be? Should Qatar have a country brand?

Brands are created as a promise of quality and consistency and when the promise is met in the eyes of the buyer, it results in a favourable, or at least a balanced image where the buyer believes in the company and will be more open to accept other products from that company. In the case of country branding, the product is the country, which includes the people, the government (including its institutions) and the business sector. For country branding to work one has to engage with and enrol these three major stakeholders and ensure that their efforts towards national image building are coordinated to deliver the desired positioning and differentiation. And this is where the challenge begins.

Marketing a country as a tourist hideaway where the pace of life is slow and the life simple may not suit the interests of those who are trying to promote the country’s budding industrial, IT or energy infrastructure to international investors. Or perhaps a country promoting its beaches and resorts as a tourist haven might not suit that country’s more traditional culture and morals.

In Qatar’s case, the first question to ask is “does Qatar have a brand?”. The answer while complex is both yes and no.
There is no doubt that the many carriers of Qatar’s flag across the globe are all doing a sterling job in their own right to promote Qatar. The government through its embassies worldwide and its trade missions overseas, Qatar Tourism Authority, whose job it is to promote Qatar tourism worldwide and Qatar Airways which has marketed itself more than any other institution, placing an emphasis on luxury, prestige and modernity combined with tradition. Al Jazeera was voted the 5th most influential brand in the world in 2004. Qatar Foundation founded in 1995 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa
Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, has gone a long way to promote progressive education, research and community welfare and its flagship Education City which hosts branch campuses of some of the world's leading universities, as well as numerous other educational and research institutions is fulfilling it promise of delivering international standard education to the people of Qatar and beyond.

In commerce, there is RasGas, Qatar National Bank and Qatar Petroleum among others, paving the way for Qatari companies to take their rightful place in the International business arena. And finally, as it’s nearly upon us, the Doha Asian Games is doing its best to promote Qatar and link the values of sportsmanship, participation and fun, while creating a legacy for sporting events and the transfer of skills to its citizens for the benefit of Qatar. But there is no doubt that there is no one single consistent message or coordinated “Look and Feel”, which is the first element of a successful brand. I asked several people in Qatar, whose job titles would indicate their understanding and awareness of branding and marketing whether they thought that Qatar had a brand and their answers were unanimous:

“There are sub brands that are gaining international currency but they do not form a cohesive whole. More importantly there is no single strategy for promoting and defending the Qatar brand.”
“No – internationally people know very little about Qatar. Those who do, see it merely as a wealthy emirate as a result of its gas reserves.”

The next question to ask is “does Qatar need a country brand?” To answer this, I reverted to two sources of information.
The first was my interviews with marketers and communication specialists in Qatar and the answers here were again quite forthright:

“ Even though Qatar does have a clear vision of where it wants to be, it is quite shy about some of the details. Qatar has a positive and dynamic story to tell, and it could be telling it more coherently and diligently.”
“ Yes, look at the successful branding of Dubai. Qatar could create a successful country brand but it needs greater internal communication”.

My other source of information to answer this question was to research other countries that have undergone or are undertaking country branding and analyse the benefits of undertaking such an exercise.

According to Simon Anholt, author of Brand America: The Mother of All Brands, a select group of countries have national images ''so powerful and so positive'' that they amount to ''megabrands.'' Other countries have successfully turned around, or repositioned, their national brand in recent years. Still others are actively working to polish their brand identity.

MEGABRANDS Countries effortlessly synonymous with a number of valuable attributes:
FRANCE: ''chic and quality of living.''
ITALY: ''style and sexiness.''
GERMANY: ''quality engineering.''
SWITZERLAND: ''purity, wealth, integrity.''
JAPAN: ''technology, entertainment, design.'

TURNAROUND BRANDS

SPAIN: Once thought of as a European backwater, Spain capitalized on the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to successfully rebrand itself as a hip Mediterranean playground (think of the Joan Miro sun symbol). The resulting rise in inward investment, property development and tourism has lifted Spain to an economic powerhouse within Europe.

IRELAND and SOUTH AFRICA rebranded themselves as countries on the move, based on their economic and political turnarounds, respectively. And the resulting increase in GDP, especially noticeable in Ireland, coupled with the rise in inward investment and standard of living has lifted Ireland to the top levels of healthy economies in the European Community

BRANDS TO WATCH

BRITAIN, having already positioned London as a cosmopolitan, investment-savvy style capital, it now wants to extend the image to the rest of the country (‘Cool Britannia’), coordinating efforts across government agencies.

SLOVENIA's brand strategy has focused on transforming its image from that of a post-communist state to the new crossroads of Europe, building highways, lowering trade barriers, promoting foreign investment, and selling itself as an alternative tourist destination for those tired of Italy and France.


NEW ZEALAND. On the back of the successful worldwide smash hit Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Zealand launched a successful tourist campaign which has made the country the “in’ place to visit and immigration and inward investment has soared as a result.

According to Wally Olins, one of the foremost branding gurus of my generation, some nations develop a national brand in a kind of controlled or formalized way, but with others it happens almost spontaneously. “If you look at what is happening in India today, and the perceptions around India, none of these are controlled. India has emerged in the last five years in terms of perceptions in a quite different way from the way it was perceived ten or fifteen years ago. It was spirituality and poverty, and now it’s software; it’s highly educated people. And in some countries, Indian clothing — textiles and fabrics, are fashionable.… None of this is managed. It’s all spontaneous.” However India has recently launched a very powerful and dramatic tourist promotion which really encapsulates the essence, sprit and beauty of “Incredible India”. Surely a sign of its increasing sophistication and power.

There is no doubt therefore that a coordinated, holistic process to create and develop a brand ‘story’ to deliver a unique positioning and differentiation for Qatar which is meaningful, believable and true, supported by a rich visual language delivered across all communication channels in an integrated manner would be highly beneficial and reinforce a sense of identity, unity and purpose. To achieve the aim of creating a positive Qatari Brand there must be a brand champion at the highest level of government to take up the mantle of responsibility and cajole, coordinate, persuade and order all the relevant stakeholders to work together. It is imperative that the public are represented at every stage of the dialogue in order to achieve buy-in and enrolment in the vision and delivery of Brand Qatar.

It is advisable therefore to find a dynamic and creative agency with an understanding of the distinct culture and traditions of Qatar to create the process of concept creation, coordination between stakeholders, delivery and monitoring of the brand building both nationally and internationally.

In terms of process, this is a long-term project which would take no less than a year to research and develop followed by another year of brand delivery and monitoring.

The mission is to communicate the “BIG IDEA’, the soul of the brand, the essence of Brand Qatar in its simplest and most powerful glory as part of a coordinated marketing campaign to help the government achieve its diplomatic objectives, the country to increase trade, investment and promote tourism and the people to feel even more proud of their country in the knowledge that they know who they are and what they stand for. Because, if you know what you love, you’ll love what you know.

Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful and refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands. Successful clients include Alaqaria, Carnegie Mellon, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Harley Davidson Qatar, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, International Bank of Qatar, Qatari Diar, Qatar National Hotels, Ritz Carlton Doha, Ramada Hotel Doha, Sharq Village and Spa, Weill Cornell.

For more information please go to http://www.growqatar.com or email at anthony@growqatar.com

Brand Qatar. To "B" or not to be? Should Qatar have a country brand?

Country branding: Qatar. An Interview

Anthony Ryman, Managing Director of grow interviewed by Charlie Jackson University of Southampton about the thesis on "Country Branding and Qatar."

CJ: Ok, the first question I’d like to ask you, could you please detail to me what the term ‘country branding’ means to you?
AR: Well, what it’s not is company branding. A lot of people think that if you can brand a company or a product then you can brand a country, but actually it’s a very different ball game. The reason why it’s different is because it’s a nation, and a nation is made up of people, and people tend to gravitate towards interest groups. And you get different interest groups, and all these interest groups need to be heard, in order to really ascertain what the essence of the nation is all about. So it’s a much more complex process than branding a company or branding a product. If you want to tweak a company’s product or change it or take it off the shelves, it’s quite an easy process –you can’t do the same for a country. In essence country branding really expresses the DNA, the soul, the spirit of a country, and then it’s expressed through visual collateral and identity.

CJ: Ok, and why do you think it’s important for countries to create a national brand?
AR: Well I don’t think every country can create a country brand, I think countries reach a cycle in their development process, in their growth where, if you like, the planting of the flag in the sand as an expression of identity is an important part and aspect of their development. I think it helps on various levels: I think internally it helps with motivation, pride and recognition. I think if a nation is in touch with its identity, its history, its heritage, its roots, with what makes it tick - the national pulse, then they can come together, they can align themselves towards a vision or a future direction.
So I think internally it has the capacity to galvanize and bring together people from disparate religions, different genders, different thought processes and belief systems, and unite them under one flag. Externally, it allows a country to, depending on their philosophy and rationale, seek investment, in terms of foreign direct investment; it allows the country to add a premium price to their exports, it allows the country to increase their inbound tourism.
So it has a lot of knock-on effects in terms of trade and commerce, as well as diplomacy, because other countries can recognise your country as having this or that viewpoint, and propagating a set of values, so that’s why I believe that it is important. And more countries are using the platform of country branding to communicate with different countries, with different interest groups, on various levels where countries interact with each other.

CJ: And what do you see as the major strengths or selling points of Qatar?
AR: Well, it depends who you’re talking to. Look at Qatar objectively. Qatar has made enormous quantum strides in the last 10 years. It has invested in its infrastructure, it has invested in its natural resources of oil and gas, it has developed a financial system to pay off debt and reinvest proceeds internally to build up the country. I think Qatar has realised that they have this amazing resource which is the Qatari people - a very young population which need to be educated and brought into the workforce.
One of the strengths of the leadership is that they have identified education as being one of the key areas to invest a lot of money. The other tenets, or 'pillars' include the healthcare system - ensuring there’s a world class medical system to cater and cope with the growing population which will explode exponentially as the youth reach marriageable age and then have children of their own. Then the economy, investing in paying off debt and investing in infrastructure, oil and gas, and investing in reinforcing diplomatic relations with neighbours and internationally.
CJ: Right, it seems through branding that countries are attempting to promote an immediately recognisable image of themselves in terms of maybe the culture, history and values for example. What would you describe as the immediately recognisable image of Qatar?
AR: Well I think it's forming, it’s in process. What you’ve got in Qatar is definitive interest groups: you’ve got the airline and tourism, flying the flag of Qatar, using the symbol of the Oryx, an endangered species which has been nurtured and allowed to prosper here in Qatar. You’ve got the economy looking for inward investment, building bilateral relationships with Asia, Europe and of course the United States. I think recently Qatar has recognised that its future lies more with Asia, in terms of being a bridge to Asia for the West, taking advantage of its geographical location, and it’s building relationships at that end. Historically Qatar was much more associated and aligned with Europe and America, but as the power shifts towards the global titans of India and China and the Tiger economies, Qatar is moving much more towards Asia. I think Qatari’s are very enterprising, I think many have been educated in the West and have realised that it’s “game on” time as it were. Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, so I think they would like to be seen as forward thinking, I think they’d like to be seen as progressive, I think they’d like to be seen as moderate, I think they’d like to be seen as retaining their culture and heritage and yet looking forward to the 22nd century with a clear vision and determination.
CJ: Now I read your article ‘To B or not to be’, in which you said that Qatar had no single consistent message, rather that there are sub-brands that are gaining international currency but they do not form a cohesive whole, could you perhaps elaborate on that statement?
AR: That was actually a quote, as part of my research into the Qatari brand. I couldn’t rely solely on my own perception and analysis, so I went and challenged prominent marketers working in leading international and Qatari organisations to provide their viewpoint - this was a direct quote from an experienced marketing executive in a Qatari organisation.
My understanding of what he said was that you have the financial community propagating one message and agenda, the economy and commerce propagating another message, education propagating another message, tourism propagating yet another message, so you’re getting different messages, not necessarily aligned in their thinking, because interest groups have their own agenda and I think the take on that was; what is needed is a national agenda, a national consensus of opinion and direction.
If you take it to the extreme, let’s say you’re incredibly successful bringing in huge numbers of tourists, and then you’ve got people walking around the city in their shorts and t-shirts - that will upset a lot of traditional people, so there has to be a balance somewhere. It’s the same with industrial development,
Qatar is very keen on developing manufacturing facilities in Qatar, but you have to take into account the environmental impacts because it’s a small peninsula and they have to examine the environmental and social impacts of having XYZ factory, be it aluminium smelters or similar. What effect will that have long term on the population and the eco systems?
So every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but what needs to happen is a dialogue with key stakeholders, obviously the population at large, represented by the Municipal Committees and appointed individuals, to the Chamber of Commerce, tourism, and then of course the Government. There has to be a dialogue to establish, and this is why country branding is so good as a catalyst, who is it that we are? Who is it that we want to be? And what is it that we stand for in terms of our value system? At present you’d be looking at the path where we came from and also the future direction, and then you could develop a road map to achieve a natural balance between inward investment, manufacturing and tourism to benefit the economy and commerce and it’s all working together with a bias towards sustainable and environmentally responsible development. Obviously you can’t build a perfect world so you’re going to have people upset in one direction or another, but at least the ship’s going in one direction which has been established according to the vision of the leadership and the input of key stakeholders.
CJ: OK, and moving away from Qatar for just one minute, in your opinion, why has the branding of Dubai has been such a success?
AR: Dubai was very clear in what they wanted to do, and they initiated their development programme by developing tourism as a springboard to promote Dubai across the world and it worked very well. There you have the different elements, you have obviously the diplomatic agenda working together with the airlines; they opened up tourist offices around the world which Qatar hasn’t really done yet. And then they developed, only recently, a very strong broadcast network Dubai One, which has got a very strong following. They have a different rationale, a different agenda. Qatar doesn’t really have to go that far that fast, they can learn from the mistakes that Dubai made. I presume that one of the key reasons that Dubai can go down that road is because they realised that their oil was going to run out very soon, they needed to develop other revenue streams. By opening up tourism, that had a knock-on effect, like throwing a stone in a pond and seeing the ripple effect - it then opened up Dubai as a tourist destination, which then opened up the whole infrastructure of hotels and service industry, which opened up the whole construction industry, which therefore opened up the whole real estate industry, so it is having a very strong knock-on effect.

CJ: Ok, and do you think that Qatar is basing its branding strategy on that adopted by Dubai?
AR: Oh not at all, I think it’s like water and chocolate. Qatar has a very enlightened leadership, I’m not saying Dubai doesn’t, but in Qatar they have the blessing of many hundred years of gas revenue, they have a much smaller population. Yes they’re moving fast, but they’re moving in a very orderly fashion, and they’re looking at Dubai and saying; this element of Dubai we don’t want to be and that element of Dubai we don’t want to be, and they’re very much proceeding in a fashion which reflects who they are as a people, so the national identity is evolving, it is coming out in some of the landmark projects that are being developed. But I definitely don’t think Qatar is looking at Dubai and saying ‘we have to imitate that’.

CJ: On your website it says that you were the Fitch London Client Director for the Doha Asian Games Brand Image and Look programme, what did this job entail?
AR: Developing the brand for the Doha Asian Games, and how that manifested in terms of not just the logo itself, but all the sub brands; the volunteer programme, the torch relay, the youth camp and Asian village - all the sub brands that are part of the Asian Games. Then developing the Look and Feel - how do these identities manifest in print, on the website and in all 2D and 3D communications- signage, vehicle livery, uniforms, TV branding, stadium branding etc. It was a very holistic and large-scale programme to develop an identity and Look and Feel to reflect the passion, the ambitions of Qatar, linking the heritage, tradition and aspirations of the country to the values of sport. We also developed a new typeface for them - the “Spirit of Doha” font and all graphic elements which culminated in the development of a comprehensive set of brand guidelines for all 2D and 3D communications.

CJ: Ok, excellent, and what do you think the Asian Games did for Qatar in terms of creating international awareness?
AR: I think it actually did more than create international awareness. The Doha Games had a potential TV footprint of 1.5 billion people - so that can only be good for Qatar, secondly, you’re talking 45 countries and 39 sports, 10,000 athletes and NOC officials and the Olympic Council of Asia, so you had a lot of people coming into Doha and Qatar who were able to see Qatar more than just a name, so that can only be good for the country, because then they go back and say; “oh it’s a really nice place, it’s very hospitable” etc. So not only do you have broadcasting, you also suddenly have 10 – 20,000 visitors coming into the country.

I think the legacy is what’s important. Yes the perception of Qatar is hugely important, but for me it was what it did for the people, putting sport onto the national agenda, developing the youth of tomorrow, the potential sport stars of tomorrow, getting them interested, and galvanized, committed and focused; developing the infrastructure in terms of stadiums and roads and transport networks, signage etc. - you know it’s huge.

And then, most importantly is the transfer of skills, putting on the second largest sporting event in the world required an enormous influx of knowledge and this is what’s going to last for the long term, whether it’s security, transportation, events, logistics. So there was this quantum leap in information and knowledge sharing, and this is what I think is going to build the framework of Qatar for the future. It also provided tremendous confidence –‘if we did that, then we can do more’. But I think more than just international awareness it was about national pride and confidence.

CJ: So bearing all that in mind then, how important do you think that sport and in particular the Asian Games is to Qatar in terms of the branding process?

AR: Well, I think it’s lifted the bar for real creativity, strategic thinking and quality service and most importantly, the power and importance of branding. People looked at the Doha Asian Games and said, ‘Wow!’; this has set a benchmark for what a brand can actually deliver. Building an International brand in 3 years with enormous reach and potential has shown the business community what can be achieved with a powerful brand.

It has set a benchmark for strategic thinking and creativity; people appreciate much more that a brand is more than just a logo, and they want more of it; so from that perspective it certainly made waves, in terms of positioning Qatar on the world map. It’s another step in the right direction, a very useful exercise.

Money wasn’t the object, I don’t think that when they went for the Asian Games they were looking at it as a profit and loss exercise. I think they wanted to find a project worthy of their ambitions and they took something which, potentially, could have been too big to handle, but they took it on. Yes mistakes were made; the CEO of Qatar Airways recently stated that the marketing was poor - I tend to agree with him, more could have been done sooner, especially with Orry the Mascot and promoting him internationally - but you know, when all is said and done – they made it happen, it was successful, they’ve got the infrastructure to do more, it made the people very happy, they’re very proud and this has had a good knock-on effect. From my perspective as a brand specialist, I can see that people are opening their eyes to what is possible.

CJ: Finally then, looking at the branding process in a holistic light, what do you think is the best way or the best strategy to create an international brand awareness of Qatar, or instant recognition of the Qatar brand, I mean if there are any?

AR: I don’t think there’s a quick fix solution. There is a tried and tested branding process. I think it needs to be adapted to Qatar’s particular characteristics and sensibilities - bringing stakeholders together, having a dialogue and establishing what the present reality is in terms of perceptions internally and externally. it is about establishing what the future holds or what your ambitions are, how you want to be perceived and positioned, and then of course it is present reality versus future aspirations and then researching the gap analysis and creating the systems and processes to move the present reality to the future reality.

But the first stage is dialogue, to reach clarity as to where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, what we stand for and what makes us special and unique. And once all the stakeholders have enrolled into the vision, the design process can begin. So the strategic thinking process at the beginning evolves into a design process much later down the line. Once you’ve got the enrolment, and this is the important word, it’s not about buying in or selling in, it’s getting your key stakeholders to enrol in the vision. I quote Oliver Cromwell, ‘My army won because they knew what they were fighting for and the loved what they knew’. So it has to come from them to be owned by them and lived by them. It’s an evolution, in terms of personal identity, but on a national level, it’s larger! And there’s an organic process to it, there’s a strategic process to it and there’s a creative process to it. All the elements have to be right and led by a holistic agency that understands most importantly the sensibility of the country, how they think, how they work, how they feel, and then the strategic and creative processes should be able to bring it to its natural conclusion.

Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful and refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands. Successful clients include Alaqaria, Carnegie Mellon, Commercialbank, Doha Bank,
Harley Davidson Qatar, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, International Bank of Qatar, Qatari Diar, Qatar National Hotels,
Ritz Carlton Doha, Ramada Hotel Doha, Sharq Village and Spa, Weill Cornell.
For more information please go to http://www.growqatar.com or email at anthony@growqatar.com

Country branding: Qatar. An Interview

Qatar's dreams of greatness, by design.

“Go East young man!” The Middle East is now on everyone’s radar for growth and investment. So what about Qatar? Many people (still) haven’t heard of Qatar, although the Doha Asian Games in 2006 raised people’s awareness as the Games were beamed into 1.5 billion homes, with 10,000 athletes from 45 countries visiting Doha. This has certainly lifted perceptions of what can be achieved in corporate and product branding and many companies are investing in their brand in order to compete on the world stage.

Qatar, a peninsula adjoining Saudi Arabia, next door to the UAE – that’s is all I knew when I first came here 3 1/2 years ago as a consultant and then client director to Fitch London working on the Doha Asian Games Brand, Image and Look Programme with our client DAGOC (Doha Asian Games Organising Committee)

I had no idea that one day I would be running grow - a refreshingly creative and successful Doha-based branding and advertising agency. There was a seminal moment in the transformation of my fortunes from UK-based employee to expatriate partner and owner.

I presented to a very senior official who, in a moment of quiet reflection, told me that the Ruling Family were committed to putting Qatar on the world map. They were tired of the revolving doors with agencies walking in and out again, leaving little or no legacy, much less any transfer of skills or knowledge. That was my ‘Eureka!’ moment. I had been working in London for some of the most imaginative, innovative and original agencies, developing creative solutions for many of the world’s leading blue-chip companies in their respective fields. I knew that I could help Qatar and Qatari companies articulate and express their positioning and differentiation locally and internationally, but I would need to be based here, in order to succeed.

I recount this story because it’s probably the most important principle that companies need to consider when looking at Qatar as a business opportunity. The country is growing rapidly and is looking for long-term partners to share in this growth. The commitment must be both financial and offer a transfer of skills and knowledge in order to succeed.

41 hotels are being built over the next 3-4 years. The Government is investing over $100 billion in infrastructure projects by 2012. Qatar is planning to be the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2012. The ruler’s foreign and domestic policies reflect a remarkably open and progressive attitude. Education, health, sports and premier tourism are the country’s key investment priorities after oil, gas and infrastructure, naturally.

But this is just touching the surface. There’s a huge youth market with over 50% of the population under 25 years of age; highly literate, brand aware and flush with cash to spend on gizmos, cars, watches and the latest fashion accessories.

Qatar development projects are increasing exponentially. There’s Lusail, a new city for 200,000 people – see http://www.lusail.com - also Al Khor development, a US$ 5 billion development project to house over 80,000, plus the massive Pearl Qatar project - see http://www.thepearlqatar.com. In all these developments foreigners can own property with permanent residency.

There is much work to do in Qatar to inform, educate and raise perceptions about the value of good corporate design and integrated branding. Yes there still is the cry of “I need a logo” for as little money as possible; some clients are still price-driven, rather than understanding how a strong brand can add a premium value to their company and reputation.

At grow, we believe that at the heart of every company, there has to be a “BIG IDEA” or brand story, which communicates the essence or soul of a company. It must be at the centre of your communications and it must match your customer’s experience of your brand, resonating with their desire for new and different experiences that define who they are or want to be. We ask our clients to define their brand – are they transaction-led or relationship-led? This will clarify whether they have won the right to dream in their customer’s world, whether they understand the needs and motivations of a fast-moving and brand-aware audience, in other words, whether they are standing still or growing with the times.

Forward-thinking clients are willing and receptive to understand how the creation of a brand that is campaignable and has longevity is more than just about the logo. Our clients want to hear how we can add value to their brand by creating effective and unique positioning and differentiation which will, in the long run, increase their market share, their profitability and lower their customer acquisition costs, while giving them a platform to launch new products and/or services as part of the brand development. These companies understand that what differentiates a great brand from merely an ordinary brand is how the product or service is communicated and perceived at each stage of the customer journey.

While Qatar makes its great leap forward onto the world stage, there are many Qatari companies working hard to articulate their positioning and establish communications - from tone of voice to look and feel - that are integrated, convincing and believable.

The same is true for advertising campaigns, corporate brochures, CSR, CRM – clients want holistic, integrated communications that are going to deliver on the brand promise as well as on ROI.

Leading companies are already flying the flag, albeit with their own agenda and not necessarily as part of a BIG IDEA country brand positioning. But nevertheless, companies such as RasGas, International Islamic, Qatar Islamic Bank, QAPCO, Mowasalat, Qatar Steel, Qatari Diar and Alaqaria have all introduced new corporate identities as part of their plan to own a distinctive positioning and communications space and are actively shouting from the rooftops.

The tide is turning. Once we have achieved critical mass in understanding, the dam will break. Rupert Sheldrake called it the Hypothesis of Formative Causation, or the 100th monkey principle to us normal mortals. When enough members of a population incorporate a pattern of thinking or behaviour into their lives, there’s suddenly a quantum leap in consciousness and those habits are inbred into the system, so to speak. Then, strategic branding and creativity will achieve their rightful place at the top of the management thinking pyramid, and grow can fulfil its mission to create powerful brands and creative advertising campaigns for leading global players whose home is Qatar.


Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful and refreshingly creative advertising and design agency focused on brands. Successful clients include Carnegie Mellon Qatar Campus, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Harley Davidson Qatar, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, International Bank of Qatar, Qatari Diar, Qatar National Hotels, Ritz Carlton Doha, Ramada Hotel Doha, UDC, Weill Cornell Qatar.

For more information please go to http://www.growqatar.com

Qatar's dreams of greatness, by design.

Creative

cre·a·tive (Krëe_ä’tiv) adj.

1. Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals.
2. Productive; creating.
3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing.

To be creative implies originality and expressiveness in whatever is being created.

The concept of creativity cannot be dampened by rules because any exercise in creativity is governed by physical limits whether it is human or the materials being used to create. Even in art, one can say that oil painting is not really creative because the expression can be limited by the colours available in the oil media or the drying time of the paint. So if we are talking about the limitless potential of creativity, then we can say that humans cannot really be creative because their potential of perceiving the existing colours and sounds in the universe is limited by what the human eyes, ears and brain can process which is scientifically proven to be inferior to other members of the animal world. So, if we use the premise of the question that creativity is limitless and unfettered, then we, limited humans cannot be creative in any sense.

But, if we say that creativity can be found in any human endeavour, then we are constantly creative. From the moment of conception we create every moment of our lives through the ability to perceive new solutions and think original thoughts, our natural state is creative, in order to survive and grow in consciousness and awareness.

In advertising we are given the golden opportunity to think creatively, even through the confines of client briefs, structured and sometimes blinkered thinking. We are limited only by the corridors of our imagination, time pressure, client budgets and our own laziness to create, to distil to the essence of the communication, to push the boundaries of inspiration, to arrive at original creative thought. The “Aha!!” moment.

Our birthright is creative, our industry promises creativity, the rest is up to us.

Creative

Branding for the ME Generation

When they look back at the history of our culture in the 21st century, cultural anthropologists might point to Reality TV in the form of Big Brother as the first proponent or manifestation of the “ME” Generation; in other words that moment when our mundane lives became more interesting than the lives of those 10 metre bigger than life characters we view at the movies.

You must admit it is strange, in the here and now, that the lives of normal people with a streak of exhibitionism running through their veins should so captivate our lives with their inane blatherings on the meaning and purpose of hair extensions or coloured grouting.

Because in case you hadn’t realised it, this is the century of ME – from personalised Ipod’s and celebrity music selections to updating your blog. For the first time in the history of our still evolving planet and societies, tens of millions of consumers are pro-actively telling and showing each other, and you, what they're feeling and doing in the broadest sense of the word, and we can’t have enough of it. There is a blog created every second, the fastest-growing category, never mind video sites (vlogs), or podcasts. It’s never been easier to talk about yourself, your personal rants and likes/dislikes, to showing the world your latest digital pictures of your trek in the Himalayas, or the birth of your grandson. Recently, talking about births, a couple webcast the birth of their baby, for all too see – he became the youngest celebrity in the history of celebrities.

So how come this rise of the “ME” generation. Brands are now the single greatest gift that commerce has ever given to culture. Brands have become a shorthand for expressing ourselves. By mixing and matching Adidas shoes with Diesel jeans and Tommy Hilfiger shirts while we stay at W hotels, we’re saying to the world –look at me, I’m a successful architect, designer, actor, entrepreneur. Or the perfectly coiffed lady with the Hermes bag, Ralph Lauren suit coming out of the Ritz in London is also making a statement about who she is. Within six seconds we make a judgement call about someone we meet –so the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the places we stay say a lot about our aspirations. They’re our way of saying “I’ve arrived”, “I’m successful”. The art of validation and justification communicated through the outward trappings of material possessions. We are the brand and we are communicating who we are, what we do, how we do what we do and what we stand for – our ethos, just like a true brand should, only this time it’s about ME. And now with the convergence of digital technologies and the quantum leaps in available free memory space, our whole life is out there for all to see.

There is a method in all this madness. It’s human really, human beings (fuelled by a need for self-worth, validation, control, vanity, even immortality) love to collect and store possessions, memories, experiences, in order to create personal histories, mementoes of their lives, or just to keep track for practical reasons. And with the experience economy still gaining ground - with consumers more often favouring the intangible over the tangible -- collecting, storing and displaying experiences is ready for its big moment.

 So a giant avalanche of 'personal content' is being collected, and waiting to be stored to allow for ongoing trips down memory lane and more importantly, to share with the world, instantly. We want to connect, to share, to create, to show off and what you end up with is a completely new way of observing, of keeping a finger on the global pulse, a way to connect in a world increasingly separating itself from the reality of human connectedness in favour of online chat rooms, online dating, online shopping, and soon in a neighbourhood near you, online living.

Cashing (or should I say caching) in on this boom are the software and hardware providers.
SO we have Nokia with its Lifeblog service: software that automatically arranges all messages, images, notes, videos and sound clips that people capture with their mobile phones.

Microsoft has developed a wearable camera to capture every moment of every second, for those people who want to experiment with a life diary.

Google shifted the boundaries, offering 2 gigabytes of free online space, so you need never throw another email away. Other search engines have now caught on and are offering larger online space. Memory sticks, now available in 2 gigabytes (and this is only the beginning) is the new Asian fashion accessory: consumers can (and do!) wear their entire 'digital life files' around their neck, from music to movies to documents to photos to presentations. It's LIFE CACHING going mobile: with sticks, MP3 players and camera phones boasting increased storage capacities, functionality, and quality, consumers will soon be able to show, play and share their entire LIFE with whoever they want and whenever they want. 
And last but not least, let's not forget Apple's mega-popular iPod: the new one has 60 gig of storage space, which means even the biggest music fans will be able to forever build, store and carry their entire life collection of music and video and data. With photography, publishing, video, music, SMS, instant messaging, search, blogging, cell phones, email, memory sticks, there’s enough out there to store your life and communicate it to the world. And that’s what we are doing, in droves.

SO what does this all mean and how does it relate to us as growing, evolving human beings.
In the cut and thrust world of ‘business means business’, where the work/life balance is skewed heavily in the wrong direction, are we trying to reach out and touch someone, anyone, in order to hear, see or be heard? Or are we alienating ourselves even further into our own created world of video games and online diaries?

Or is it just another manifestation of man’s incredible need to innovate, to create, to invent?.

As Andy Warhol predicted with "15 minutes of fame", hundreds of millions of individuals are craving immortality, or at least some public attention. Whether it’s blogging, participating in Big Brother, having a character in a novel named after you, or adorning your car with personalised license plates, the masses want their names out there and they want to be seen, preferably by the whole planet. This obsession of normal people wanting to leave ‘something’ behind in print, voice or image, preferably in the public domain, points to a singular need to be heard, understood or listened to. We have reached the point of no return where the ability to share and reach out and touch someone is giving way to us wanting to be heard and seen by everyone, right here, right now.

The proliferation of mass branding has allowed us to use the medium of brands to brand ourselves and communicate Brand “ME” to the world.

Anyway, enough about ME, what do you think about me?

Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful Doha-based creative advertising and design agency focused on brands. Acknowledgment to trendwatching site and human observation.

Branding for the ME Generation

“Don’t look at my finger, see where it’s pointing!”

grow has been “growing” and expanding exponentially in Qatar for 18 months now.
One could wonder how a small creative agency can make it in this sea of big media players… well it takes more than a name to win accounts; service, knowledge, understanding, strategic and creative excellence are the keys! And grow knows this all too well. As a locally-based creative branding and advertising agency with many years of international experience working for some of the world’s leading agencies and most powerful global brands, grow is committed helping Qatari companies to articulate and express their positioning and differentiation on the global stage.

In addition to expertise gained from working for some of London’s leading international branding and advertising agencies, Anthony Ryman, grow Managing Director also writes articles in the GCC press on the latest marketing trends.

Rico de Guzman, Creative Director is one of the only creative heads based in the Middle East to have won advertising awards in both the USA and Japan, further cementing grow’s credibility as a refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands.

His extensive experience working for some of the world’s leading brands, plus a growing team of 14 professionals from around the world will only assist grow in delivering best practice standards, systems and processes in branding and advertising solutions to renowned customers both in Qatar and Internationally. The number of new accounts is increasing at a phenomenal rate, and includes First Investor, Government of Rwanda, INFDEX, Qatar Glass Industry, Dana Club, Qatar Insurance Company, Sharq Village and Spa and Weill Cornell to name but a few of the recent clients who have joined grow as partners to deliver consistently powerful communications. We thank you for the trust and belief in us and we relish the opportunity to deliver powerful, focused creative work for you!

grow will keep on strengthening its positioning in the marketplace to constantly exceed clients’ expectations and stay ahead of the competition by reinforcing its value proposition.

It looks like grow will continue its pace of growth in parallel with the growth of Qatar.
What else to wish for!

“Don’t look at my finger, see where it’s pointing!”

Is change as good as rest? The marketers guide...

Change forms an inextricable and inevitable part of our lives. We are born, we live, we die. This is a fact. To a greater or lesser extent, we accept, reject or embrace change as it affects us moment to moment.

Companies are made up of people and are living organisms, changing, growing and implementing new actions and activities as a response to change. Some of these changes are huge: as a result of a merger of takeover for example. Other actions signal change. I think that we’re all aware and somewhat petrified (for the younger generation read ‘excited’) at the speed of change taking place in this society we call Earth. Not only does time appear to go faster, but many of the rules that were sacrosanct seem to be breaking down or disappearing altogether, with new rules being created and then broken in rapid succession.

Take a job for life: In the good old days after the second world war, you started an apprenticeship with a company and by the time you got to 65, you got the gold watch and were put out to pasture. These days statistics tell us that the average lifespan of a CEO of a major multinational company is 1-2 years, and job hopping for middle management is seen as work experience.

Take trust in a company’s products and their reputation. In the good old days you had bellweather stocks (IBM, AT&T, Bethlehem Steel) and people trusted these companies to deliver and walk the talk. These days you have downsizing, restructuring, mergers and takeovers and of course, not forgetting Enron and their accountants Arthur Anderson –so you can’t believe what companies say or even do anymore (take Shell and their less than exemplary environmental record in Nigeria, or overstating their oil reserves as a case in point). And these days with the all-knowing, all-seeing Internet and its latest manifestation Web.2, people are taking the initiative and the rise of consumer power – blogs, podcasts, video phones and video recorders, text messages and the imminent convergence of telecoms and media mean that the balance of power is shifting. Pressure groups are becoming increasingly more vocal and active and control of the flow of information is passing from those who manufacture and create products and services to those who use them – i.e. you and I.

If you equate this observation to the human population, there is cause to believe that society is moving to a higher level of consciousness, awareness and sophistication. Consumers are saying “no” to being constantly sold to by advertising agencies. Consumers are saying “no” to being lied to – witness the demonstrations against the Iraq War in the UK and to the collapse of Enron and the subsequent enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act which forces companies by law to tell the truth on their balance sheet or face punitive consequences.

So how is an H.R.Manager and indeed his boss, the CEO, supposed to react to these fast-changing events and lack of allegiances and trust in companies in general, especially when seeking to attract graduates. Let’s look at some facts and statistics to see the lie of the land. In a recent study among 1000 school leavers in the UK, when asked the question: “what are you looking for in a job?”, 82% said that they were looking for a job that was “personally fulfilling”. Furthermore, 62% said that they were looking for more of a “balance between work and life”, i.e. more time for themselves. So the days of offering more rewards by way of money, status or perks are just not working anymore with an increasingly educated, aware and sophisticated population.

More and more these days the battlefield where companies compete against each other is fought less and less on price and more and more in the hearts and minds of consumers. The most visible manifestation of this is the increasing importance that brands and branding are taking in the boardrooms. Companies are realising that their brand represents everything in the minds of consumers: not only a promise of consistency and quality, but also a shorthand and an expression of their needs and aspirations. Brand and branding is now centre stage, not only reflected as a line item in the balance sheet, but also increasing a company’s share price (or vice versa) depending on whether companies have invested in their positioning and differentiation which is accepted as being believable and true and resonating with consumers’ belief systems and what they deem to be important and relevant as part of their life and lifestyle.

Companies are increasingly aware that brands are the only key differentiator between their offer and their competitors – as the saying goes: “a hotel without a brand is just a bed for the night”. And more importantly that staff are the brand ambassadors of a brand being the closest touch point to the customer. So the question now is how does one motivate staff to fully endorse and believe as well as communicate the brand values to customers?. Not being an H.R. professional, I don’t have the answer by way of best practice standards and systems. I do however lead a ‘growing the brand’ seminar for companies to provide the bridge for thought leaders and middle management in organisations to integrate their company’s vision, mission and values and understand how to live these day to day.

What I mean by “how” is that truly enlightened companies that attract the best people and constantly hit the top ten companies to work for, realise that they stand for something that is more than just about the money or product or service on offer. They have embraced a value system (e.g. Apple – ‘think differently’, or H.P. with ‘Invent’) that resonates with our desire for “meaning” or “being” – a sense of purpose. Here we as consumers are looking for honesty, integrity and a value system we can believe in that resonates with our desire for meaning, truth and authenticity.

Companies are increasingly taking over from Governments and the promise of a welfare state is rapidly losing its potency as the benefits of mass production and our increasingly ‘global village’ environment take effect. Companies have to be seen to “care” in word and especially in deed. So the all-important “values” are taking their rightful place as companies embrace their responsibility to give something back – whether it is by way of charity, work in the community, adding value to their offer, or providing their staff with training programmes, motivational and team-building events, flexi-time work structures or crèches for their children.

How you communicate and indeed ‘live’ your brand both internally, at point of origination, and on its journey to the customer and what it stands for is what makes the difference between ordinary brands and truly great brands. Enlightened companies are seeking more and more to empower their staff so that they not only agree to represent the company in a ‘job’ but, more importantly truly endorse the company and its products or services as co-owners – this is becoming the rallying cry for HR managers. Let the brand ambassadors represent the company. Everything else is process.

Is change as good as rest? The marketers guide...