United Arab Emirates and Arab Culture
Shihui Guo
IB315-01
Prof. Mamoun
Assignment#1
1. Expert 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?
Compare to Western countries like US, the Middle Eastern world holds more conservative stand and is culturally sensitive. The Arab culture consisted with huge population of youth and young adult that are rich and diverse. Also the Arab culture is known as reacting negatively towards controversial content. According to the article, the key challenge would be the cultural differences. MTV is well known by airing more sexually explicit images and that is accepted by open minded western culture, while as conservative as Arab culture, the conflict cannot be ignored. Also the Arab culture is extremely diverse; the culture accepted in one specific region may not be accepted in other neighborhood region. Although MTV focused on localization, the cultural conflict makes it so hard to satisfy everyone. What’s more, a company like MTV already has what it stand for, but over localization for adapting to Arab culture will losing the true value of the brand. Furthermore, there are still anti-American sentiments among large population in Middle East because the US invasion in Iraq and other sensitive political reasons.
2. Critically analyze MTV’s strategy in the Middle East comment on its entry strategy and also its strategy of providing mixed content to the market. Do you think MTV will be able to succeed in this
IB315-01
Prof. Mamoun
Assignment#1
1. Expert 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?
Compare to Western countries like US, the Middle Eastern world holds more conservative stand and is culturally sensitive. The Arab culture consisted with huge population of youth and young adult that are rich and diverse. Also the Arab culture is known as reacting negatively towards controversial content. According to the article, the key challenge would be the cultural differences. MTV is well known by airing more sexually explicit images and that is accepted by open minded western culture, while as conservative as Arab culture, the conflict cannot be ignored. Also the Arab culture is extremely diverse; the culture accepted in one specific region may not be accepted in other neighborhood region. Although MTV focused on localization, the cultural conflict makes it so hard to satisfy everyone. What’s more, a company like MTV already has what it stand for, but over localization for adapting to Arab culture will losing the true value of the brand. Furthermore, there are still anti-American sentiments among large population in Middle East because the US invasion in Iraq and other sensitive political reasons.
2. Critically analyze MTV’s strategy in the Middle East comment on its entry strategy and also its strategy of providing mixed content to the market. Do you think MTV will be able to succeed in this