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GLOBAL VILLAGE
centres. International brands abound. from abroad, but people pay more for A modern shopping ?
But some – such as UK-based retailer customs and shipping. This is why new mall in Amman
Marks & Spencer and clothing brands [local] services like CashBasha have PHOTOS: GETTY/GALLO IMAGES
George and F&F – have pulled out of arisen; they facilitate purchasing from competing with the likes of Al Ghad, the
Jordan due to high operational costs, international stores such as Amazon first independent Arabic daily national
rentals and taxes. Those brands that do and deliver the goods to your doorstep newspaper, published in Jordan.”
thrive typically tap into young Jordanian in Jordan,” he says.
consumers’ hunger for ‘cool’ brands. Jarad says that both international
MEDIA AND ADVERTISING and local advertising agencies are
That said, Jordanians are not thriving and advertising quality is good.
completely sold on mall culture. “The Privatisation has seen the media “The campaigns that deliver a lot of
pattern of shopping at outdoor markets and advertising sectors grow and buzz are those that are really creative
or in family-owned mixed retail shops diversify in recent years. And, for and show thinking outside the box, as
has remained largely unchanged, with the most part, Jordan follows global well as those that use local celebrities,”
Jordan’s top five organised retail chains trends in these industries. he tells the IMM Journal of Strategic
accounting for just 5% of the market, Marketing. “There are few constraints
says Abdul Hadi. “Non-print media has played the when it comes to advertising, but
most impactful role in Jordanian agencies are generally respectful of
? culture,” notes Abdul Hadi. “Television local culture and traditions.”
Social networking is production, in particular, has thrived
extremely popular due to high-quality acting and Murad says the main challenges
among Jordanians interesting storylines that challenge facing agencies are fierce
and critique contemporary society. competition within a small market
Murad adds that, although the The most-watched local TV stations and comparatively low advertising
Jordanian market is small, it is are Ro’ya TV and Jordan TV, although budgets compared to the larger
characterised by high demand and international news entities such as markets of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
competition is fierce. A little-known fact Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) “Telecommunications companies
is that many garments made by the and BBC are popular as well.” used to be the big spenders and their
likes of Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Calvin campaigns are probably the most
Klein and Macy’s come from Jordan. Yet print media continues to play a
Garment exports make up about 20% large role in Jordanian culture – Al Rai,
of the country’s GDP, according to the Addustour and Al Ghad are the most
website Business of Fashion. Because widely read of the Arabic language
Jordan imports labour from countries newspapers and the Jordan Times
as far afield as Bangladesh, India, Sri is a popular English-language daily.
Lanka, Myanmar and Madagascar to “Print can be said to be [diminishing],
work in the garment industry, there although newspapers and business
is obviously a market for serving the magazines still do well,” observes
needs of migrant workers too, albeit Murad. “Radio, TV and outdoor media
a small one. are popular, with online starting to
dominate. Social media is huge.”
Khaled El Ahmad, a Social Media
Consultant and trainer at social El Ahmad agrees. “According to Pew
media specialist company DigiArabs, Research Centre, Jordan takes top
says a recent trend is to buy from spot globally when it comes to social
local online stores because customs networking, which is most prevalent
charges on imported goods are high. among online adults (90% of Internet
“There are attempts to buy online users in Jordan make use of social
platforms). Social and digital media are
receiving more of an [allocation] from
companies’ overall marketing budgets,”
he says. “Online news sites such
as Khaberni and Ammon News are
54 strategicmarketing August–September 2016
