Ahmed Itani, Founder and Chief Advisor, Cicero & BernayThe Middle East has a voice. Unfortunately, brands in the region have chosen, for too long, not to use it.
Companies across the region have been working under unspoken rules to stay respectful and say nothing that could offend anyone. On the surface, that instinct might make sense. Relationships here are built slowly, and trust is hard-won. A single misstep in tone can undo years of work. So safety became the default, and in choosing it, brands surrender the one thing that makes them worth remembering: a point of view.
Competitive positioning has long been treated as an American export, fine for billboards in Florida but out of place on Gulf highways. There’s truth to that. Cheap shots and manufactured provocation don’t belong here. But somewhere in rejecting that culture, the region threw out something valuable alongside it.
Immaturity and competition are not the same thing. One is a company taking a public jab for attention. The other is defining your ground so completely that rivals become an afterthought.
Spend a decade advising government entities, global brands and cultural institutions, and one thing becomes impossible to ignore: the organisations that leave a mark know exactly what they stand for. And audiences feel that conviction.
Taking a public stance remains the exception rather than the rule, and the reasons go beyond culture. Regulatory frameworks in the Middle East are stricter, and corporate communication is subject to greater scrutiny. Those are real constraints. The deeper issue is a learned tendency to equate visibility with risk.
As a result, businesses hide behind language that sounds important but commits to nothing: premium, innovative, customer-centric. The industry ends up full of names that look different on the surface and feel identical underneath.
Sameness erodes relevance. Standing out requires tension, and tension requires a committed position. Some people will look elsewhere as a result, and that is a worthwhile cost. Audiences pay attention to companies willing to accept it, and in this market, they reward it.
Gulf audiences in particular have always rewarded depth over volume, which makes philosophical competition a natural fit. Frame the argument as a declaration of worldview rather than a challenge to rivals. Not “we are better than Brand X” but “there are two ways to see the world, and this is ours.” That framing alone is enough to set an organisation apart.
Glimpses of this already exist. There are campaigns in the region built around meaning rather than message, and platforms that focus on building an identity instead of chasing reach. When a brand knows who it is, customers choose it consistently and come back on their own terms.
True rivalry is not about attacking opponents. It is the discipline of knowing what an organisation stands for and refusing to blur that line for the sake of broader appeal. That kind of focus is not a Western import. It is simply good strategy.
Politeness gets you in the door. Distinction keeps you in the conversation.
By Ahmad Itani, Founder and Chief Advisor, Cicero & Bernay
