Young Gulf Arabs more likely to boycott brands over politics

DUBAI — More than a third of young Arabs in the Gulf states – and almost 60 percent of youth in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest market – would consider boycotting a brand for political reasons, according to a finding from the 2016 ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey. That is more than for Arab youth as whole, with 38 percent of GCC youth saying they would boycott a brand, against 29 percent for Arab youth across the region. In the GCC states, 13 percent say they would not boycott a brand, while 40 percent said ‘maybe’, with the rest saying they did not know. In the Levant, only 21 percent said they would boycott for political reasons, similar to North Africa with 27 percent. In Saudi Arabia, 57 percent of young Arabs said they would boycott a brand, against just 8 percent who said they would not. Young Arabs are also conscious of where their favored brands hail from: 52 percent of all young Arabs say a brand’s country of origin matters to them, while 44 percent say it does not. This is most pronounced in GCC, where 58 percent say origin does matter, and least in Levant, where a similar number, 55 percent, say it does not. “These findings reveal that young Arabs really think about where a brand comes from, not just in terms of perceived quality, but also in terms of the politics of the country of origin,” said Sunil John, chief executive of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller. “The Arab world, with its 200 million youth, is an increasingly important market for today’s multinationals, but in today’s globalized world, the power of that demographic can see them shut out of large parts of this market over developments beyond their control.” US brands are the most popular among Arabs as a whole, with 17 percent putting the US at the top of a list of favored countries of origin, followed by Germany, France, Japan, Italy, China and South Korea. However, while this view is pronounced in the GCC and North Africa (21 and 23 percent prefer US brands respectively) in the Levant US brands are viewed extremely unfavorably, coming 6th on the list with just 6 percent picking US brands, putting them behind those from Germany, France, Japan, China and Italy. This contrasting view is borne out by a more pointed question, which asked: ‘What is your general attitude towards American brands?’ While the overall figure revealed 41 percent of young Arabs view US brands positively, more than half of Gulf youth (54 percent) have a favorable view of US brands, with 18 percent having a negative view, while only 23 percent of young people in the Levant see US brands in a positive light, with more than a third (36 percent) viewing US brands negatively.