JEDDAH, 11 December 2007 — Sending a message to the region’s business community that innovation is the key to continued and sustained growth, Gulf Marketing Review Magazine has organized the 8th Annual Gulf Marketing Forum to be held in the newly refurbished Ramada Plaza Hotel, in Doha, Qatar. The two-day event starts today and includes workshops, panel discussions and presentations from some of the most popular names in marketing from the region and abroad.
The event with the theme “Sustaining Innovation in Marketing” will discuss, examine, and challenge the entire scope of innovation and provide insights into what can be done to improve innovation in business throughout the region.
“The concept of innovation isn’t so much about new things but instead has become a radical new way of thinking,” Siobhan Adams, executive editor of Gulf Marketing Review magazine said. She added that innovation particularly within marketing is often confused with product development but since it’s a well-known fact that 95 percent of all product launches fail within their first year, it is clear that businesses cannot sustain growth based on new product development alone.
“The fact that company’s are increasingly seeing the appointment of chief innovative officers (CIO’s) illustrates the critical role that innovation will play in the future of business and that it is a key strategy that must come from the top-down and permeate every aspect of an organization,” she said.
Recent research has also proven the point showing that even government entities perceive innovation as the main driver of economic growth and view it as vital to competitiveness and thus social well being across nations.
Two-thirds of company executives also consider innovation as important making it a top three priority.
67 percent of which are planning to increase spending on innovation in the coming year. The research study further showed companies that more closely align their innovation model with their company’s corporate strategy perform better, with a 40 percent higher operating income growth and twice the shareholder returns over the previous three year period.
Said Aghil Baaghil, marketing strategist and creative mind behind Logic Holding Company in Jeddah, the company responsible for such businesses as Fork -n- Knife, a kitchen- to-home concept, Blush café’ and Utlob restaurant delivery service, explained how he used innovative techniques to expand his company.
“Whatever brand a company produces, I believe innovation should be the key. Logic Holding Company’s success in less than two years time proves that innovation and looking at the consumer’s need and filling the gap of demand is a way that the region can not only cater to the local market but on a global scale, as well.”
