Paper Example on UAE: A Journey From Oil Exporter to Economic Diversification

Introduction

Before the UAE forming the UAE, Economic Outlook, which helped lay their plans to invest their oil money in building investment cities, the country was majorly an oil exporter. It imported the majority of food and cash crop due to a lack of fertile land for cultivation. Carrying out any business in this country was impossible due to lack of diversity in the industry as most of its people were nomadic. In the 1980's the UAE president Sultan AL Nahyan started the diversification of their economy by first developing a ship and logistic centre in both Port of Jebel Ali, and Port Rashid as well as the Dubai International Airport (Gbadamosi, 2019). Afterwards, Dubai started experiencing the rise of the real estate market which was halted by the 2007/2008 global financial crisis since they had to bail out Abu Dhabi (Gbadamosi, 2019). The restart of Dubai real estate market was put on hold due to the current market condition which appears to be challenging to make it skyrocket to its initial position. The later focus shifted from Real estate to tourism as the new president of UAE Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum initiated the UAE Economic Outlook which seeks to bring in investors.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

What societal level changes are introduced?

In every societal level like family or learning institution, the western culture is greatly influencing and impacting changes taking place primarily in Emirati society. In many family's gender roles have been changing over time due to the rising education level among the family members. Another factor that shows the change in societal level includes a focus on attitudes towards family, love marriage the same as women's participation in workplaces has changed (Tezcan-Unal, 2019). Other factors like mate selection, family size, and polygamy have been decreasing in recent years. These changes came along with the rapid economic growth in the UAE which forced most of much Emirati society to change to accommodate most of these changes.

How the use of technological advances has helped in this transition.

When the UAE president was presiding over the UAE Economic Outlook Event in 2017, he promised that Dubai's growth would surpass the previous year growth of 2.7% to 3.1% by attracting foreign investors (Alserhan, 2017). The country invested immensely on technological infrastructure that made the UAE the second highest internet penetrated region in the world with 96% of the population use the internet (Alserhan, 2017). Also, the country has invested heavily in construction the required power grid system while generating enough electricity through the oil extracted. Through massive investments, most people in Dubai can use phones as their primary payment method to pay for their bills. The development of proper infrastructures like roads, airports and ports has helped change how the Emirati people commute as most of them use cars, aeroplanes and ships to commute instead of their orthodox methods like camels and carts.

How have customer preferences changed?

Due to the advanced technology in the country, the Emirati people have started changing their preferences to adopt the western style. The wealthiest families of the UAE want to relate to rich people in the west of countries hence buying products from most of the reputable companies like Apple, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Armani. They start eating western foods like Apple pie, Hamburger, Pizza and Barbecue thanks to the availability of money to spend on them (Tezcan-Unal, 2019). A city like Dubai receive a lot of tourists, and foreign worker comes with their culture which is adopted by the Emirati people.

How the company's marketing strategies have changed?

Since Dubai aims to attract foreign investors, their marketing strategies need to change to attract the right people. Marketing has evolved from knowing people to accommodate for people coming from outside to work in within the UAE. Since the majority of people use smartphones, the company needs to change to suit these people and also abroad marketing is essential to attract foreign buyers.

Marketing strategies before and after changes?

The marketing previously was held in close relation to the infrastructure build in the urban cities to assure investors of their quality hospitality and availability of resources for their business. However, the marketing strategies have shifted to brand based incorporated with models due to the increased popularity of significant cities of the UAE (Gbadamosi, 2019). And good internet connection promotes online advertisement for jobs in these organisations.

Changes in the marketing mix?

The promotion of foreign investment in the country has made the UAE market diverse with service companies, manufacturing companies, tourism companies and logistics companies and many others have launched, and they are operating in the country (Alserhan, 2017). The changes in the market mix is brought about the diverse world market.

Action program changes?

Changes to action plan programs were essential to target corporations from other developed countries mostly from the west. The changes in these action program need to be regular and metric in measurement to become more efficient and sustainability to both the government and local companies as well as the foreign companies.

References

Burcu Tezcan-Unal. 2019. The Experience of Quality in Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates: In Times of Rapid Change and Complexities. Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Foreign Language Education, pages 93-110.

Gbadamosi, A. (2019). Contemporary Issues in Marketing: Principles and Practice. SAGE Publications Limited.

Alserhan, B. A. (2017). The principles of Islamic marketing. Routledge.