Music Television Network: The Arabian Challenge - Case Study Example

Case Study: MTV MTVN launched MTV Arabia in 2007 as part of its global expansion strategy, with the aim of reading one of the largest MTV audiences outside the US. The Middle East was appealing because it has a huge young population and the Arabic language covers a whole host of countries which could be targeted by MTVN, but there were a number of challenges involved in the launch. Additionally, the entire region is “awash with petrodollars” (Tyson, 2010, p274), making it an economically appealing prospect. Perhaps the most striking was the culture difference between the US, where the networks originated, and the Middle East, which will be discussed below. There are also a number of religious and socio-political concerns to consider when making a move such as this. The main aim of MTVN was to provide a similar service in the Middle East as they had in the US, by targeting young people and their own unique culture, whilst maintaining relevancy in the countries in this area and being acceptable for mainstream broadcasting. There are a number of other challenges that were associated with MTV Arabia, with some experts suggesting that it would be highly difficult for an American company to move into such a business arena. There were a number of ways in which MTVN dealt with the problem, initially by signing a deal with an existing Middle Eastern partner, the Arab Media Group (AMG). This was the start of several important strategies that MTVN used to move into the area, including their aim to use mixed content. These entry strategies will be explored in more detail below as part of an assessment of how well MTV Arabia could be expected to do in this local arena. Experts 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? MTV and the resultant MTV Networks were started as a venture into music television with “operations primarily confined to the US” (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p191). It was aimed towards young people between the ages of 12 and 24 and their music and lifestyle choices, meaning that the original MTV began showing rap and heavy metal music (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p191), which was not found often on existing TV networks. MTV then began to evolve and eventually show programs such as The Real World and other lifestyle programs. These were evidently aimed at satisfying the viewing needs of the American target population, and therefore involved things that were considered to be culturally relevant in this country to these consumers. Evidently, one of the main aims of a marketing strategy is to be relevant to the target audience to have an impact (Meyer et al, 2010), which means that much of the content and marketing for MTVN is not suitable for places outside of the US. Where the culture is considerably different from that of the original, such as the Middle East, it is a challenge to ensure that the content remains culturally relevant. Perhaps the biggest challenge to MTV Arabia concerning the culture is the religion. Islam is by far the dominant religion in the Middle East (Tyson, 2010), whereas the US is a Christian country. Islam has a number of important rules which are very important to Muslim followers, which has given it the “conservative culture” described by the case study (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p193). This means that some of the content from the original MTVN were not appropriate, particularly the “explicit hip-hop culture”. MTV also had to be careful with the religious festivals, with MTV Arabia actually dropping music videos during Ramadan to comply with cultural and religious rules (Tyson, 2010). Additionally, there are a number of rules concerning the way that people present themselves in public which are rooted in Islam, so a number of the clothing choices and fashions found in the original MTVN could also be considered culturally insensitive (Tyson, 2010). Islamic rules also extend to the way that business is done in this culture, which means that those working on MTV Arabia have to be culturally sensitive to business deals, negotiation and other economic aspects of the deal. MTV Arabia would have to complete transactions in this way and there would be involvement of local banking systems (Barry, 2011) which means that it would be appropriate to hire culturally sensitive and culturally aware people to deal with finance. There may also be issues with the timing of transactions during religious festivals which differ from those in the US, which again requires sensitivity and awareness. It is also suggested that MTV was known for featuring “sexually explicit and provocative programmes” (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p192), which would not be taken well in the Middle East. It is suggested that these kind of features are an example of “what the religious, conservative cultures of the Middle East would most revile about Western pop culture” (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p194). This means that the programming could not be simply transferred with subtitles, but would require serious adaptation and some formats may not be appropriate for the new network at all. An example of this is Pimp my Ride, a popular show about changing the way that cars look. The word pimp is not considered to be appropriate for more conservative audiences who may be offended by the sexual connotations of the word (Tyson, 2010). The actual format of the program is less offensive, although it does promote some consumerism which again could pose a challenge for MTV. Perhaps MTV’s unique selling point is that it is an edgy network aimed at impressing young people and being relevant to their lives. It is a challenge, therefore, for MTV to retain this edge whilst being culturally appropriate. One of the ways in which MTV tackled this is with its flagship show, Hip Hop Na, which is an exploration of local hip hop. This way, MTV can still show culturally relevant music which is appealing to the target demographic whilst still providing something that their parents would not necessarily want to access. William H. Roedy suggested that the “programming mix on this one is going to be a little more local in normal” (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p193), referencing the fact that most other MTV International networks showed the US shows because they were still relevant and acceptable in countries like Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Western Europe (Bradley, 2010). Roedy is perhaps referring to the fact that much of the content on MTV Arabia has to be new to deal with the cultural sensitivities and ensure that it is appropriate and relevant, as with shows like Hip Hop Na. It should also be noted that there are a wide variety of cultures in the region, because it encompasses so many different countries. What may be culturally acceptable and relevant in Egypt, for example, may not be considered so in Saudi Arabia. This adds another dimension to the cultural challenge for MTV because they have to tackle this problem whilst remaining tactful and having the MTV vibe (Arango, 2008). Many of these countries also have a strongly anti-US vibe which means that any American company may struggle to find acceptance in the area, particularly when considering the Israel-Palestine conflict which is still on-going (Arango, 2008). These are all incredible challenges for MTV which need to be successfully approached for it to be successful in the region. Critically analyse 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 market? Considering the problems associated with launching MTV Arabia, MTV needed a specific entry strategy into the Middle East which took account of the concerns outlined above. One of the ways in which MTV aimed to offer a new, exciting and culturally relevant type of programming was to offer mixed content to the market. To do this, it was to be that MTV Arabia showed 60% international music (featuring artists such as those found in the launch, Akon and Ludacris) and 40% local music. This helped to both get rid of some of the cultural problems associated with some of the more traditionally American music being shown in the area. For example, it meant that they could offer music from a wide variety of backgrounds but avoid some of those with swearing and inappropriate references. MTV Arabia was also free to ban some songs that would be shown on the US network, such as offerings from Lady Gaga which happened in more recent years that are considered to be culturally irrelevant or offensive (Tyson, 2010). MTV also offered mixed content in that the shows aired were to be both locally produced shows and subtitled versions of the US shows. Again, this allowed the network to choose those which are appropriate to the area and are in line with the cultural feel of the area, whilst still offering something that MTV is known for. It also helps to avoid the problem of cultural references in some cases, as viewers in the Middle East may not be familiar with all of the US content and vice versa (Williams, 2010). This is a good strategy for many reasons. First, it allows MTV Arabia to provide employment and put funds into the local area by funding local programming. This also allows MTV Arabia to stay culturally relevant and keep the youth market interested, which is the primary audience (Navia & Zweifel, 2006). However, questions could still be asked about whether some of the shows that did manage to crossover from the US network should have done so, with many people in the local area finding the programming inappropriate at times (Barry, 2011). Additionally, it could be suggested that MTV is still a Western company with many Western ideals and therefore may still be offensive to those living in a more conservative environment. One of the ways of dealing with this for MTV was to target the programs to ensure that it gained people’s respect. To do this, it is explained that there are ‘culturally sensitive editors going through the content of the programming” (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p194), which should eliminate some of the problems and allow for censoring and alteration of the shows. This gives the network a feeling of being made by Arabs for Arabs, which is important to overcome some of the anti-US sentiment in the region (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p194). However, the expansion in youth culture in the area meant that there were already a huge number of music channels available so MTV would have huge competition in the area, meaning that it would still need to maintain its individuality whilst being both local and international. The challenge of trying to compete with an already existing local market was complicated by the fact that many of the local music artists had already signed deals with existing channels (Peace & Robinson, 2009, p195) and there were creative concepts already going on in the music video industry. To overcome this, MTV proposed a platform for the young people of the region to voice their opinions and as a way of new artists coming to the fore, as it was in the US (Zweifel, 2006). This was a good way of standing out from the existing crowd, as well as ensuring that MTV still remained a viable part of the MTV brand. Considering this, it seems highly likely that MTV Arabia will continue to flourish in the Middle East as it has continued to do since launch in 2007 (Meyer et al, 2010). It is important for a new product to have a unique selling point in any arena, so targeting this early on in the expansion plan means that MTV Arabia has tackled one of the biggest problems with launching a new brand in an existing market and therefore lends itself to success. Another way in which MTV was different from the other existing music channels in the area was the international nature of the brand (Barry, 2011). In this way, the discovery of new talent would mean that artists had a way of reaching not only all the other countries in which MTV Arabia is broadcast, but an international stage (Zweifel, 2006). Again, the mixed content approach comes into play here, meaning that the programming was both new and original and perhaps provided something that Arab youth were interested in but could not access in other places (Bradley, 2010). Again, this is something that makes the brand highly likely to succeed in the area, because it offers something new and exciting for young people, as is the MTV way, and therefore we can expect that MTV Arabia will continue to prosper in the area because of all the work that has gone into promoting it as a unique and interesting brand for the viewers. To conclude, it would seem that MTV Arabia faced a lot of challenges in the launch of the channel, particularly with regards to content and being sensitive to cultural concerns. However, it seems that a lot of effort has been made to take these things into consideration and tackle them efficiently and carefully, which makes it highly likely that MTV will survive in the region. The offering of mixed content is perhaps the most important aspect because it remains MTV Arabia’s unique selling point, important to any brand trying to break into a market, and therefore again we see that MTV has a huge strength in trying to promote itself in this area. References Arango, T. ‘World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America’. New York Times (2008): n. pag. Print. Barry, W. A. ‘Global Communication Models and Formats: A Case Study of the Sustenance of the Media Industry in the Arab World’. Journal of Arab &# 38; Muslim Media Research 4.1 (2011): 23–39. Print. Bradley, J. R. Behind the Veil of Vice: The Business and Culture of Sex in the Middle East. Palgrave MacMillan, 2010. Print. Meyer, L. M., C. O. Prowse, and T. V. Tuohey. ‘Alternatives to Music Education: East Meets West in Music Education’. Alternative Approaches in Music Education: Case Studies from the Field (2010): 131. Print. Navia, P., and T. D. Zweifel. ‘I Want My MTV: Media, Freedom of Information and Democracy’. Midwest Political Science Association (2006): n. pag. Print. Pearce, John A., and Richard Braden Robinson. Formulation, Implementation, and Control of Competitive Strategy. McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009. Print. Tyson, Janet. Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and Cultures. Marshall Cavendish, 2010. Print. Watenpaugh, K. D. Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class. Princeton Univ Pr, 2006. Print. Williams, A. ‘“We Ain”t Terrorists but We Droppin’Bombs’: Language Use and Localization in Egyptian Hip Hop’. The languages of global hip-hop (2010): 67. Print. Read More