Trade and promotion are booming in Qatar due to the country’s prosperity. With investors from all over the world looking for business opportunities here, there is no dearth of mega projects.
We have become more and more accustomed to skyscrapers, foreign labour and skyrocketing property prices. All this is understandable, as success comes at a price. But we hope that foreign labour will not affect our national identity and culture. But hope alone is not enough. All of us, individuals and civil society groups, should contribute to the preservation of our identity and culture, lest we wake up one day to find that our country has changed beyond recognition. One should not underestimate the threat of Westernization.
This is just an introduction to what I want to say. The promotional methods used by businesses are well known to everybody. Of course, every businessman has his own mindset and promotion tactics. There is nothing wrong with any tactic that does not violate religious, ethical or legal norms. But some businesses use peculiar, and provocative, methods. In the beginning, we condone them out of courtesy. But as such violations persist, our courtesy gets exhausted and we tend to become as rash as the promoters themselves.
Spas and beauty salons, which have seen a boom in this country, are adopting provocative promotional methods. They send messages via cell phones offering the benefits of all their treatments in one session.
Of course, some women would give it a try. And as soon as the session begins, these women give out the phone numbers of their relatives, colleagues and lady friends. Why do they do so? Because whoever is in charge of these spas and beauty salons says they will give these relatives and friends free sessions as a special gift on their behalf!
Unfortunately, their commercial skills go even further. Some salons call people to confirm appointments that were never made. When the customer says she had never made an appointment or even heard of the spa, the caller boldly insists that a session has been booked for her.
One wonders how these callers give themselves the right to annoy people in such an offensive manner. Is it legal to solicit customers through such behaviour? And if it is legal, why do we let them exploit us?
“There is money in every inch in Qatar,” one of the residents here said to me once, and the words still echo in my mind. Foreign businesses in this country use their promotional skills in good or bad faith. Our decision makes us a partner in their business. Therefore, it is up to us to choose to be exploited or not. We must be cautious and make sure that the goals of any promotion serve the best interests of our nation, and never let greed get the better of us.
