Saturday, July 22, 2006

Arabs and Marketing, an Oxymoron

It is well known that the American public opinion is in support of Israel. For some religious Americans the support of Israel is due to religious reasons related to end of times prophesies and the second coming of Jesus Christ. For others, the support is based on a poor understanding of the Israeli Arab conflict which shows Israel as the sheep that is surrounded by the Arab wolfs who want to devour it. And therefore see most of Israel's actions as a form of self protection and self defence.

What further does not help the matter, is the view that Muslims are suicide bombers. We have Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quada in Iraq to thank for such an Image.

In order for Arabs to "win the marketing war" and increase the American public support, several things need to happen:

•Suicide bombings in Iraq and everywhere have to stop.
•Any talk about exterminating the Jews on the part of Hamas and Iran should be criticized as westerners are very sensitive to the issue of extermination.
•Arab spokes persons should have a huge image make over to make them more appealing to the American public. The first thing to go should be the beard and the moustache. If they can got a hot women to be a spokes persons, that would be even better(and she sure would have no beard)
•Any talk targeted towards the American people by Arabs in English or in Arabic through instant translation should be accent free or even have an American accent. And the tone should be free of emotions as much as possible. Americans are very sensitive to accents and emotional outbursts usually do not get any sympathy.
•The Arab mantra should be very focused on 1-2 issues and not more.(Currently there is no Arab Mantra, and the Arabs seldom talk about any important issues)
•I know that a lot of the Arab bloggers are doing a good Job. But I get really pissed off when someone writes something about Nazis, Zionists, extermination, conspiracy, and Jews in the same sentence. Each one of them is a sensitive issue for Americans and putting them in one sentence further aggravates things. This sort of approach does not appeal to Americans and I know for sure that it back fires.
•Arabs should try to counter misinformation by always trying to point out the larger context. It would seem that after 55+ years of the conflict, people forget how it all started.
•Arabs should abandon talk about this being a religious conflict. So the conflict is and should be view as a conflict between the Palestinians who want their state and Israelis who are refusing to give them their state.
•Many people in America think that the war between the "Muslims and the Jews" has been going on for thousands of years. Arabs should focus on making it known that the conflict is modern and is less than a hundred years old.
•Muslims in general should work harder on their image. The current image is not good at all. And this is justified.

Knowing how Arabs are phobic to good marketing, I know that what I write is mainly for myself. I wish that our people and leaders went to marketing or communication schools in American, so that they would better understand how to approach the American audience.

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