THOUGH the nature of any business is what defines its marketing strategy, the market to dictates some requirements from it. The Saudi Market is in reality unpredictable for a foreign entity. It can respond in any way at any time. But, the Saudi market gives one thing that no market in this world may give – respect where it is due.

To gain business in Saudi Arabia, a company must first gain respect. As strange as it may sound, market intelligence in Saudi Arabia is very high. Companies often make the mistake of underestimating its intelligence.

What matters in the end is the quality of service and the sincerity in its offing. If these two factors are missing, no matter how big the marketing campaign is, the company will undoubtedly fail. I can give a list of existing companies that have failed terribly for this reason alone. No matter what the argument maybe, successful service providers are those that maintained these two things: quality of service and sincerity. We are, of course, talking only about foreign companies, and not the local ones. Nothing much can be done about services that one is forced to take – good or bad.

Foreign companies must realize two things. First: Though wealth is in abundance here, consumers are no longer ready to spend on just about anything.

Second: The expatriate population is very large now. So, the combined market of Saudis and non-Saudis has created a collective atmosphere that is not only money conscious, but also demands high standard of service for the money it pays. Thus, a marketing campaign worth millions of riyals will alone not do the trick. Success will never be immediate, no matter what the brand name maybe. It will be gradual, but definite.

Investments should first be on quality of service/product, good human resources, better management and research systems, and then on reasonable marketing campaigns. The advertisements should be there to remind people of the quality they already have experienced. This will add to word of mouth promotion and will be more effective than mere descriptive and flashy advertisements that are worth millions of riyals.

Companies that do not adopt the right approach may find success, but it will be short-lived. Then to cover for losses, they start marketing aggressively, which further destroys their image in this market. The difficult part of the Saudi market is that it will never give you an immediate feedback. It will patiently play along with services one may think are selling like "hot cakes." But it will suddenly put a halt to all activity if enough time passes by without improvement. So, initial feedback means nothing. Companies have to go deep into research to understand correct results and the feel of what is to come. The quality of staff matters a lot.

Another serious mistake some foreign companies have made in the past is they get into competition with local establishments with similar services. It is better to adopt the cooperate-and-not-compete policy in Saudi Arabia, if not around the world. The perception of company owners and their marketing strategists needs to change. To perceive someone providing a similar service as a competitor results in aggressive marketing and corporate wars that never do good for anyone. It is better to share the market and services where possible. To give an example, let's compare the three main telecom service providers in the kingdom: STC; MOBILY; and ZAIN.

The STC is a local company with national backing. It is well-established and strong. The other two companies should not consider competing with STC. Here is why: They will never win with STC period. Among the two foreign companies, Mobily was smarter. It started small and focused on its services, its systems and customer satisfaction.

During the launch of Mobily, its website too was not fully functional. And it did not spend such a huge amount on marketing. Its marketing was reasonable and matched the launch. As the company grew, and as its services gained reputation, it increased its marketing. Now it is well-established and enjoys a good share in the Saudi telecom market.

Consider ZAIN. Its marketing campaign was huge. It was all over. There were thousands of Zain promoters with flashing t-shirts all over the kingdom. Result: Good initial response, but gradual decline. Its service was not competent. The service neither matched the launch nor met the customer expectations.

Bottom line: Come with a perception based on sincerity and care for the Saudi society more than mere love for money. You will find success for sure in Saudi Arabia.