Social Brands: the future of Branding?

Abstract

Specialty Coffee Market in the United Arab Emirates UAE is undoubtedly becoming a mecca for specialty coffee culture in the Middle East region. With the unprecedented growing demand for specialty coffee, the GCC region and Dubai in particular has seen rapid growth in local and foreign investments in various business models within the market and swiftly became a hub for the coffee industry in the past 5 years (Maspul, 2021a). This significant cultural shift in MENA has seen a considerable increase in consumption of specialty coffee, with sales growing twice as fast as the global average (Comunicafe, 2019). By 2021, the coffee industry in the Middle East is expected to grow to $44 billion, according to Euromonitor International. With the pandemic bringing historic changes to the socioeconomic situation in the world, the coffee industry in UAE has shown high adaptability to the new challenges as demand went into e-commerce. In 2020, the e-commerce market in UAE for coffee hit a record $3.9 billion-a strong increase of 53% and constituted an impressive 8% of the total retail market share, according to Dubai Media Office (Dubai Media Office, 2021). This proves the customer loyalty and strong purchasing preferences of the UAE coffee consumer. Meanwhile, the specialty coffee community continued its consistent growth among both, local and ex-pat communities. As the public is getting informed and enthused by the art and culture of specialty coffee, the increasing sales of various machines and accessories for brewing confirm that this trend isn't going anywhere. Specialty coffee has become a staple in the modern lifestyle as an anchor in terms of remote work or social setting, hobby, or cultural pastime (Maspul, 2021b).