MTV’s Strategy in the Middle East

Abstract

MTV Networks (MTVN) had over the years developed a reputation for its ability to provide localized content without diluting what MTV stood for.

However, the company faced the most challenging test in late 2007 with its launch of MTV Arabic in the Middle East, which some experts considered as the biggest launch in the channel’s history. While the market in the Middle East offered MTVN with huge opportunities due to its huge youth populace, MTV’s controversial content that was known for angering religious, political, and conservative communities could easily backfire in the conservative environment prevalent in the region. On the other hand, too much localization to suit the tastes of the region could dilute MTV’s global brand.

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The case discusses in detail the strategy adopted by MTVN to enter and expand in the Middle East and also the challenges faced by the channel. 1 SWOT Analysis 2 1. Experts felt that one of the biggest challenges faced by MTV while launching MTV Arabia was the prevalent culture in the Arab world. Discuss the Arab culture. How is it expected to pose a challenge to MTV? The Arab world stretches from Morocco across Northern Africa to the Persian Gulf. The Arab world is more or less equal to the area known as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

It can also be defined as those countries where Arabic is the dominant language. Arab countries are religiously and ethnically diverse with Islam being the dominant religion in most countries. 22 Arab countries/areas: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Arab Culture is divided into three main parts, the Urban Culture (Al-Hadar), the Rural Culture (Al-Reef), and the Nomad Culture (Al-Badow).

Typically, countries like Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Morocco are considered Rural Cultures, while Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Libya, Mauritania and Jordan are considered Badow (Bedouins), while finally the Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria are considered Urban, yet most of the Arab Major Cities are recognized with Urban Cultures, like Cairo, Rabat, Baghdad, Alexandria, Damascus, Marrakech. The Arab countries are religiously and ethnically diverse. The Arab world is a location of several world religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.

However, the predominant religion is Islam and Arabic the dominate language. To be an Arab, like an American, is a cultural trait rather than racial. An Arab worldview is based upon the below concepts:

1. Atomism: Arabs tend to see the world and events as isolated incidents, snapshots, and particular moments in time. Westerners tend to look for unifying concepts whereas Arabs focus on parts, rather than on the whole.

2. Faith: Arabs usually believe that many, if not all; things in life are controlled by the will of God (fate) rather than by human beings.

3. Wish Versus Reality: Arabs, much more than Westerners, express emotion in a forceful and animated fashion. Their desire for modernity is contradicted by a desire for tradition (especially Islamic tradition).

4. Importance of Justice and Equality: Arabs value justice and equality among Muslims, and to a lesser degree to others. All actions taken by non-Arabs will be weighed in comparison to tradition and religious standards.

5. Family versus self: Arabic communities are tight-knit groups made up of even tighter family groups.

Family pride and honor is more important than individual honor.

6. Paranoia: Arabs may seem paranoid by Western standards. Many are suspicious of any Western interest or intent in their land.

7. Shame and Honor: Admitting, “I don’t know” is distasteful to an Arab. Constructive criticism can be taken as an insult. Be careful not to insult. And women wear headscarves as a show of respect, even if wearing Western clothing.

8. Family: Family is the center of honor, loyalty, and reputation for Arabs. And males are always the head of the Arab family.

9. Personal Space: Most Arabs DO NOT share the American concept of “Personal space” in public situations, and in private meetings or conversations. It is considered offensive to step or lean away! Women are an exception to this rule. DO NOT stand close to, stare at, or touch a woman.

10. Socialization and Trust: When conducting business, it is customary to first shake the hand of all males present, taking care not to grip too firmly. Allocate plenty of time for refreshment before attempting to engage in business. It is important to first establish respect and trust.

Arab Perspective vs. Western Perspective Arab Western Family Considered the foremost, where the father is patriarchal Important, but not as central to the life of the individual Friends Part of life, but considered more periphery Core to a few, but mostly important in life Honor very important amongst Arabs. Honor will be protected and defended all costs. Typically not as important ShameAvoided as much as possible, especially in relation to family, where gossip, insults and criticism taken to heart typically not as important time less rigid.

Approach to time is much more relaxed and showed than that in Western cultures. Very structured, deadlines must be met. Religion is central to all things varies with individuals, very personal, not discussed in polite conversation. SocietyFamily tribe is most important individual rights. Government Most governments are secular, but still emphasize religion. Purpose is to protect rights and improve standard of living. Age and wisdom honored. Youth and beauty praised. Wealth respected. Some of the key differences identified are given here: Western youth were found to be generally pessimistic about the future, while Middle Eastern youth were generally optimistic.

Religion was seen to be “enormously important” to Middle Eastern youth when compared to their Western peers. National identify and traditional values were extremely important to Arab youth, but not to their peers in the West.

For Arab youth, “loss of traditional values and culture” was identified as one of the top three biggest challenges facing the world today, along with rising cost of living and corruption in government. Arab youth generally admired political, religious, and business leaders, while Western youth do not. Arab youth wanted to “make a difference”, while Western youth mostly wanted to “get ahead”. Middle East and Western male youths had very different opinions about gender equality in the workplace, with less than y in Middle East males favoring it. MTV and the challenges posted by the prevalent culture As a result the Arab culture is known for reacting, and some think over reacting negatively to controversial content. The Middle East offered a huge population of youth with a rich and diverse culture.

In an effort to adopt the strategy of “Think Globally, Act Locally” MTVN (Music Television Networks) executives made it a point to learn the cultures and make shows that relate to the cultures as oppose to exporting the American culture. In order to achieve this goal the channel adopted a decentralized structure and gave commercial and creative autonomy to the local staff. This venture was considered to be one of the biggest launches in MTV’s history because of the potential audience. MTV hoped to provide a culturally unifying agent within a region that has been known for its political tensions.

Also, this channel may correct some misconceptions of the region and reduce tensions. The target audience for the channel would be the Middle East youth; providing them with access to music via mobile, broadband, and television. The challenges MTV expected to encounter included: the reputation of MTV airing sexually explicit programs and images in direct contrast of the socially conservative culture of the Middle East. Adjusting content to be suitable for each region may prove to be very challenging. For example, what is acceptable in Dubai may not be acceptable in other parts of Saudi Arabia.

MTV also had to be careful not to lose the vision of their brand in its attempts to conform to localization. 5 In addition, issues such as the US invasion of Iraq complicated relation among the Americans and Arabs. There were also competitors that had already created a niche for them in the region. So, it’s not particularly difficult to see why MTV had a major challenge on its hands. Its content (music, videos and reality shows) could offend the cultural sensibilities of people in the Arab world especially in terms of

Too much skin show

Intermingling of genders

Use of disparaging or swear words References to alcohol

Discussion on religion or politics

Unaccepted gestures such as finger pointing, showing the soles of feet, etc.

Another challenge before MTV was that the Arabs were generally considered paranoid by Western standards and they tended to be suspicious of any Western interest. MTV, in a way, stood for what the Arab world most reviled about Western / American culture. While MTV might argue that the values that it stood for were relevant to youth throughout the world, it may still be perceived as something contrary to Islamic ideals and the Arab culture.

The launch of MTV in the Arab world could easily be perceived as an imposition of Western culture. Fanatics, or those who pretend to be guardians of Islam, could easily rake up the issue and create a lot of trouble for MTV. To complicate matters, the anti-American sentiments prevalent in a section of the Arab world too could pose step challenges to MTV. One may argue that with globalization and the advancements in information and communication technology, youth across the globe share similar aspirations and consumption behavior. And that a section of the youth population in the Middle East did want MTV.

However, ignoring the cultural differences is fraught with danger, as the Arab youth consider religion “enormously important “and “loss of traditional values and culture “as a key challenge. MTV’s Strategy in the Middle East . Do you think MTV will be able to succeed in this market? Our team was required to analyze MTV’s strategies in the Middle East and anticipate its success in this market. We believe that the company will do well due to its scientific approach to overcome the major challenges faced in the region and efficient managerial decision making.

Firstly, it was a good start to establish profitable relationship between AMG and MTV, where each of the sides will benefit from its correlation in terms of earnings, great name and people that provide MTV Arabia with a lot of resources. Secondly, Arabs have different tastes and preferences compared to US audience. These differences in taste transfer to all areas including music networks. However, MTV had taken the decision before launching new products to population of the Middle East to adapt the product to fit local taste.

Thirdly, the extensive market research was conducted by the company in order to minimize the risk of failure by the determining the needs of the population and developing the product that will satisfy their needs. Same research revealed that Islamic biases toward Americanization will not affect development of the company within the region since majority of the participants’ associated MTV brand with other countries rather than US. In addition, the study helped to find vacant niche that could be served to attract larger part of the population and generate more profit.

Strategies used by MTV: 1) Segmentation strategy: (a) Geographic segmentation: Targeted region: Middle East Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Palestine and Syria. (b)Demographic segmentation: Targeted Population: About 65 percent of the Arab population consisted of youth under the age of 25. (2) Targeting strategy: Before launching the channel, the extensive survey of the region was conducted to understand what people wanted. The survey team targeted people in the 18-24 age groups and travelled around the region to schools and universities canvassing opinions. (3) Positioning strategy: During MTV’s 25th anniversary, the company said that it would provide the audience in the region content that would be different from that offered by popular Arab music channels. Though, the Arab market was crowded with more than 50 channels, none of them provided a global platform to export the musical talent of the local youth. (5) Niche strategy: To overcome competition, the channel proposed to establish itself as a platform wherefrom the Arab youth could voice their local concerns as well as advertise their music talent.

For instance, MTV Arabia’s flagship show “Hip Hop Na”, where the winner from each city would get a chance to record a track for a compilation CD produced by Fred Wrecks. (6) Product strategy: Product provided: The channel’s programming was to have a mix of music videos, music-based programming, general life-style and animated programs, reality shows, comedy and dramatic series, news specials, interviews and documentaries where the key is obviously the language. About 45 percentage of MTV Arabia’s content was too produced locally, with the rest translated.

New products were developed: MTV Arabia designed new shows in Arabic to cater to pan-Arab youth audience. There would be a localized version of popular shows such as “Made”( Al-Helm) and “ Boiling Point” (Akher Takka). (7) Promotion strategy: Celebrity attraction marked the launch of MTV in the Middle East. The launch featured performances by eminent stars as Akon, Ludacris and Karl Wolf along with local hip hop group Desert heart. (8) Distribution channels strategy: The Middle East had the potential to offer MTV numerous media like mobiles and the Internet to reach its end consumers.

MTV Arabia wants to provide Middle East youth with the opportunity to watch MTV on mobile, on broadband, and on television. 8 (9) Technical innovative strategy: Products such as MTV Overdrive in which the user could download the video at broadband speed, and MTV Flux in which the online users could create their own TV channel were expected to help in luring the various Internet service providers in the region. (10) Market’s Entry strategy: MTV entered Middle East by tying up with a local partner; the Arab media group (AMG) (11) Investment and control strategy:

The channel MTV Arabia was formed as a result of a licensing arrangement between MTV and AMG. MTV would earn an estimated US $10 million annually in licensing fees from AMG for 10 years. (12) Hybrid approach Refers to company’s ability to fit in local environment with its culture, traditions values, and perception of the reality. MTV Arabia was there to entertain people within the limits of Arab traditions and had no intention of showing disrespect to the local culture. It would be a channel for the Arabs and made by Arabs, where the launch team comprised a mix of Saudis, Palestinians, Emiratis, Iraqis and Lebanese.

Conclusion This case gave us an understanding of the issues and challenges in entering and expanding operations in new markets which were culturally different from the organizations home/traditional/existing markets, Understanding the pros and cons of entering a new market with a standardized/adapted product to suit local preferences and made us go further in analyzing MTVN’s strategy in the Middle East, identify challenges and explore strategies that the channel could adopt in the future.

This case was very useful it made us realize how MTV and other channels experience in global markets. And how localize strategies in various markets. The challenges MTV faced while launching in the Middle East also were disclosed we analyzed those challenges it faced in expanding its operations in the region and the strategy adopted by MTV in the Middle East. 9

References:

http://www. arabianbusiness. com/the-revolution-will-be-televised-197356. html http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/middle_east/7100252. stm ttp://www. businessweek. com/stories/2007-10-21/online-extra-mtv-presses-play-in-the-middle-east https://www. inkling. com/read/international-management-helen-deresky-7th/chapter-5/part-ii-comprehensive-case-4 http://www. businessweek. com/stories/2007-10-21/online-extra-mtv-presses-play-in-the-middle-east www. mtv. com WWW. mtvme. com http://www. arabianbusiness. com/ WWW. hrbusinees. com www. cnn. com www. bbc. com www. businessweek. com www. icmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/ www. hollywoodreporter. com

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