Although luxury has become a promising industry in the UAE, its potential may be limited. In such a market, religion is a strong aspect of everyday life. For instance, the calls to prayer give rhythm to people’s daily life and religious symbols can be seen at every corner. While nearly all religions promote values of modesty, humility, and even frugality, luxury products and services appeal to people’s desire to live a materialistic lifestyle and indulge themselves through conspicuous consumption. Thus, the extent to which consumers adhere to religious values may interfere with how they respond to appeals to experience luxury. Given this apparent contraction, how do people living in the UAE reconcile religion with luxury? And what future is there for the luxury industry in the UAE? To complete this assignment, you need go through the first steps of the marketing research process.
That is, you first need to define the problem and research objectives. Next, you will need to search for and interpret existing information relevant to the research topic. (refer back to the powerpoint) Each student is to present their findings in a research report of no more than 1000 words (references excluded from word count). Your report should use between 12 and 15 secondary resources including published sources (e.g., Bloomberg, The National), government statistics sites (in UAE), academic journals (minimum of 4 ), and the Euromonitor database, and should take the following format: • Introduction (10 marks) o Briefly introduce the topic area and industry o Consider including any statistics you can find about the size of the market, or anything else that conveys the importance of the industry and of the topic. • Statement of the research problem (30 marks) o Use the five-step process studied in class on a draft. In the report, write a paragraph whereby you state the research problem and detail the research objectives. • Analysis of existing research (40 marks) o Luxury in the Middle-East, and the UAE more specifically o Drivers of luxury consumption o What existing research says about the relationship between religion and luxury/ materialism/ conspicuous consumption? To what extent are they antithetical? Are they circumstances/conditions where they are not antithetical?
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