beyondbrics

It’s not everyday that a conservative Gulf state is accused of copying American rapper and entrepreneur Dr Dre.

But wealthy Qatar is making waves with a branding exercise that has kicked up a social media storm.

Qtel, the powerful state-backed Qatari telecoms company has re-branded itself as – the somewhat difficult to pronounce for non-Arabic speakers – ooredoo meaning “I want” in classical Arabic. While in its classical form it could be understood across the Arab world, “I want” would typically be spoken in a different dialect in each country.

Linguistics aside, among some of the first social media responses related to the new font’s likeness to the logo of Dr Dre’s highly successful headphones brand beatsbyDre. When considering a new ad jingle for ooredoo, I’m not sure Dr Dre’s classic Housecalls sets quite the right tone.

Photo: Qtel (left), beatsbyDre (right)

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chairman, of ooredoo explained the new branding in a press release yesterday: “We have chosen an Arabic word that means ‘I want’, to reflect the aspirations of our customers and our core belief that we can enrich people’s lives and stimulate human growth in the communities where we operate.”

He expands on the philosophy:

We believe that young people should be given the life chances that mobile technology can provide; that under-served communities should be able to access the Internet; that every woman should have an equal opportunity to use a mobile phone; and that entrepreneurs and small businesses should be able to receive business services tailored to their needs. Our new brand reflects these beliefs.

I doubt Dr Dre would disagree with any of the above. But back to telecoms.

Ooredoo is not to be sniffed at. Backed by gas-rich Qatar, the company’s reach is already quite impressive, with a global customer base of more than 89.2m and a presence in markets including Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, the Maldives and Indonesia.

Having already increased its stake in Iraq’s Asiacell as part of the Iraqi operator’s $1.24bn initial public offering, it is also competing to acquire Maroc Telecom, in what could be one of the largest telecoms acquisitions in recent years.

But the social media outpouring to the re-branding was something to behold. Dohanews, a local news site collected some of the responses:

One Twitter user wrote: “If I was in power, and Qtel was a person. I would have exiled him.”

Another wrote: “Foreigners will look at it as RED and two circles on both sides, that’s terrible and embarrassing.”

Another said: “Ooredoo is a tantrum in the making.”

Host of the world cup in 2022 and sponsor of Barcelona, Qatar never misses any opportunity to cross-promote its businesses and on Monday in Barcelona at a major telecoms conference it also announced that Lionel Messi would be the new brand ambassador for ooredoo.

But now, let’s get back to that Dre track: “Hello this is Dr Dre. I’m not in right now, but if you leave your name and number at the sound of the beep, I’ll be sure to give you a call as soon as I return.”

Related reading:
Qtel eyes Vivendi’s Maroc Telecom stake, FT
Premium on Iraq telecoms IPO, FT
Qtel moves to take ownership of Wataniya, FT