First published 2020
MINDS IN BATTLE takes the reader on a continuous historical journey of the power struggle between genders—from their youth, to their divorce—, detailing the ways in which the genders are taught to seduce one another, and how they all-too-often mistake infatuation for love. It discusses, empirically, how the choices and decisions made by the genders are biased, being the result of misconceptions, gender stereotypes, cultures, parents, peer-pressure, media outlets, amongst many other factors.
This is an analysis of why we are overconfident; why we are distracted by short-term emotions; why we are self-deceived into thinking our own experiences will be better than others’.
It is only when our decisions and choices turn to chaos that we come to discover how flawed our brains are—and that we are, indeed, no better (or worse!) than others. And yet we unfortunately make the same mistakes, and only through painful experiences do we come to learn the answers to life’s critical questions.
Because the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.
The Kingdom of Social Arabia
Today’s Saudi consumers have embraced the digital technology to its fullest. The penetration of internet, smartphone, and social media platforms or applications are on a continuous rise year over year. The integration of the digital tools into all facets of the country’s life is on the rise. Consequently, many organizations in the private and public sectors try to respond to this phenomenon by entering the digital world to co-op with the trend. Saudi consumers are the ones who lead the country’s digitization development. On the other hand, still, the public and private sectors have not yet fully embraced the digital opportunity . As measured by the ‘digital consumer adoption’, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Bahrain are among the top countries in the world with more than 100% smartphone penetration and more than 70% social media adoption – even higher than the USA.
Creating a Deal-prone Consumer in The Low-risk Product Categories
The aim of this study is to understand the impact of the different tools that the retail chains adopt to alter the consumer purchase decision. These tools include the implementation of the frequent price discounts on national brands, and the expansion of their private label brands (PLBs) at the cost of national brands, mainly in the low risk product categories. Consequently, the manufacturers operating in the low risk product categories suffer the dilution of their brands’ competitive advantages, they squeeze their profit margins to offer discounted prices, over time they risk diminishing shelf space to the favor of PLBs, and they are always dragged into price wars to regain their lost volumes. All these factors have created a promotion-driven consumer who is mainly seeking lower prices. Therefore, the market became a flat market that depends mainly on price discounts, with little or no difference between brands regarding the brand equity.
CONNECTING DOTS 