Ahmad Itani, Founder and CEO of Cicero & Bernay, shares his perspective on why the era of localisation is over, and why brands must now build from the ground up for the Gulf

There was once a time when a brand only needed to win once. Build something that takes off in the USA or Germany, then expand globally. Localise as you go. And it worked, until now. 

It’s increasingly clear that entering some markets requires more than just translation. Especially those like ours, rich in heritage and shaped by real diversity. But more importantly, audiences have moved beyond their nascent desire for Western imports and now expect solutions made with an understanding of their culture.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other GCC countries have built communication ecosystems so cohesive and economically powerful that the market no longer rewards surface-level localisation. Now, the only thing that works is designing for the region from the start.

Adoption, Not Adaptation

Integrating culture creates a better product experience, endearing a brand to the local population and helping it achieve the holy grail of positioning, giving it that ‘homegrown’ sentiment.

It begins with something deceptively simple: language. Not as a translation exercise, but as the framework of how people think, ask questions, and expect responses. 

There’s no easy way to do this, and there isn’t meant to be. Dialects and communication nuances evolve across generations, transcending vocabulary, supplemented by tradition and heritage. 

Twenty years ago, launching in the GCC felt straightforward. Translate the messaging and adjust pricing. That was acceptable when the region was still emerging, and when consumers were curious about global brands. But the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the accompanying digital transformation fundamentally changed consumer intelligence and psychology. People now demand products that understand them from inception.

I’ve watched companies learn a hard truth, that earning loyalty requires genuine cultural adoption. When an organisation gets this wrong, everything that follows feels hollow. Get it right, and a relationship is born.

This is especially evident when language is a core component of the offering. Take Amazon’s Alexa. The company rebuilt its native architecture from the ground up to ensure that connection, even across dialects. According to a 2025 survey, 78% of UAE and Saudi users reported that Arabic voice assistants better understood their requests compared to English alternatives, with 82% saying they preferred using Arabic for home automation tasks. 

When Function Follows Culture

Sometimes, markets need solutions that feel inevitable in hindsight. When industries design for their primary audiences first, real needs elsewhere go unmet. Gaps that don’t exist because demand is too small, but because no one asked the people what they actually needed.

The past decade amplified this dynamic, with the GCC’s growth far exceeding simple economic metrics. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become attractive hubs for expats, a transformation driven by record-breaking urban initiatives, global events like Qatar’s World Cup, and the UAE’s Expo 2020. People from around the world are making the GCC their home, becoming cultural participants and absorbing norms. They celebrate National Day with as much fervour as natives, and they identify with regional values.    

The outcome is striking. Many long-term residents in the UAE align closely with Emirati norms, often in ways friends back home would find surprising. When brands design around these Khaleeji cues, these expats respond as strongly as locals. The GCC ecosystem became so coherent and self-reinforcing that everyone inside it learns it and embodies it. This is why a surface-level rewrite approach no longer works. The cultural pull is too strong. Products must be built for it from conception. 

Nike’s intensive development of a performance hijab proves this. Working directly with Emirati athletes who’d spent careers with improvised, inadequate solutions, the company decided to engineer an entirely new category from scratch. It was athletic innovation that demanded deeper understanding to deliver.

Starting Over Wins Customers Over

Six in ten Saudi consumers now prefer homegrown names, and that number is rising. In the UAE, where over 80% of the population comprises expatriates, demand for culturally authentic experiences is strengthening. When companies build from scratch for the Gulf, they show respect for the culture. More importantly, they are creating products that perform better and understand their users more intimately than any adapted version ever could.

Spending decades in this industry reveals patterns invisible to newcomers. Twenty-five years ago, translation was the strategy. Ten years ago, regional tweaks seemed like progress. Today, both approaches can fail before they launch. Winning players in the Gulf don’t have the largest localisation budgets or the most cultural consultants. They have the clarity to abandon global playbooks entirely and ask a different question: what would we create if we started here? This is a full rethink of product development and brand building, not simply better marketing. The Gulf stopped rewarding adaptation years ago. Brands either rebuild for that reality or become irrelevant.