A new year has dawned and it seems already it is moving at breakneck speed, there has been hardly any real pause although some of us have been lucky enough to enjoy the holiday season in the last two weeks of December. 2018 was as busy as ever for SIMPA (if that is a good thing!) and on reflection with all its challenges, 2018 was a very good year. We saw strong come back from old traditional clients in the telecom and retail fuel sectors for example as well as new ones in areas like health care.
In the last year, just like the previous three years, there has been a trend among large diversified business groups to look at new areas of business to grow into as they witnessed a slowdown in their older sectors. This has been good news for market research because, unlike what used to happen a decade ago, businesses now do seem to do much more groundwork before entering a new market. Gone are the days where GCC companies would just accumulate brands and products just for the sake of becoming their ‘agents’, we now we see that they are more thoughtful in their approach and the more progressive local businesses do indeed look for market gaps first before seeing which international or regional brands they can tie up with to fill that gap. And why not even create a homegrown brand? This is a good sign and a shift we have been very pleased to witness first hand.
2019 will no doubt will be as unpredictable for many as was 2018 which means whatever this new year turns out to be we hope you will give us the privilege of helping you navigate the way forward.
Wishing you all the success for the coming year!
Khalifa Al Mukheini and the SIMPA team
