“The best thing about 2008 is that it’s over,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s US sales unit told Bloomberg on Monday. “We’re in the middle of the most challenging, volatile market we’ve ever faced.”
The Japanese car makers, like the rest of the global auto industry, have been very badly hit by the recent economic slowdown. Toyota’s sales fell 15 percent in 2008, its first such decline since 1995. And Honda, which has not posted a drop in the market since 1993, fell by 7.9 percent in the year.

Honda cut its annual operating forecast by 13 percent and also recently announced its withdrawal from Formula One because of the global financial crisis. “Market conditions have turned much worse than we had anticipated,” Honda executive vice-president Koichi Kondo told a news conference in Tokyo in October last year. “Next year (2009) is going to be very difficult to read.”

History
Toyota was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 in Japan, two years after he built his first car. The company began to produce cars, trucks, vans and SUVs, expanding rapidly through the years. One of Toyota’s notable achievements was the creation of the high-end luxury brand, Lexus.

Its rival, Honda, came a few years later. Soichiro Honda first established the Honda Technical Research Institute in 1946 to develop and produce motorbike engines. In 1948, Honda Motor Company was founded. Honda then joined forces with finance expert Takeo Fujisawa to build up the company.

Toyota’s mission statement is “to sustain profitable growth by providing the best customer experience and dealer support,” while Honda’s mission is to maintain a global viewpoint, and remain dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction. It says.

Environment
The transportation sector is one of the main reasons for the production of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to global warming. In the hopes of preserving the environment, Honda has introduced a new generation of gasoline engines that have “extremely low emission levels and increased fuel efficiency,” and three types of “environmentally friendly” cars. One runs on compressed natural gas for near-zero emissions, another runs on electricity, and the third is powered by fuel-cell technology.

Like Honda, Toyota has also produced hybrid vehicles and cars run on fuel-cell technology. The company implemented its five-year Environmental Action Plan in 2005, which aims to reclaim and recycle products at the end of their life.

Originally introduced in 2000, the Prius is the company’s most popular hybrid car.

Presence in the Middle East
Honda and Toyota are available everywhere in the Middle East and have done well winning over drivers in the region. North America, Europe and Japan are facing high energy prices that have greatly affected the automobile industry, but according to the latest figures, automakers are doing very well in the Middle East.

Toyota recorded January-to-June 2008 sales of 260,000 units in the region, up 31 percent from the previous year (and making it the best-selling car company in the Gulf). The latest count of units sold by Honda is 50,000 units in 2007. Honda expected sales of 65,000 units of “passenger-car vehicles” in the Gulf in 2008.

While we were still trying to figure out how the bank got our number, we found out that another colleague had got a similar call, and discovered that somebody from our company had given the bank our details.

It still left us wondering why a bank would try to push us a credit card during the current credit crunch? Citi even offered one of us 20 percent extra credit.

We did ask the bank why they are doing this, and we are still waiting for their response. In the meantime, any ideas?

We wrote about this, explaining the “doom and gloom” which, thanks to the current financial crisis, does exist in Dubai.

So we were again surprised (and shocked), when we found a mail in our inbox from Dubai’s Damac Properties, announcing that “Property boom is back with a bang!” And why? Because the company claims it is offering waterfront offices in Business Bay at the launch price of 2007.

Property buyers in Dubai are rapidly turning into sellers even as they struggle to find an interested investor. More than 1,000 people have been laid off in the real-estate sector, developers have cancelled projects, and property prices have fallen drastically.

While property ads in the region have fallen – The National newspaper has just one property ad on Tuesday – a developer talking about a “property boom” or a “lack of gloom” in the current scenario does seem jarring.

Rather than trying to pull in new investors, a better idea for developers might be to provide good customer support to the existing ones.

The number has a “wonderful tone to pronounce and a swift dialing style” says the seller. It has managed to tempt 16 bids so far.

Another similar number from Al Shaba, 9939969 has got fewer bids so far at 12, and is currently commanding a price tag of AED1,850.

055-5208888, a “great Du number” from Fujairah’s K_Alk has proved to be more enticing; the current bidding stands at AED5,000. A used number, it has been on auction since mid November 2008, and has attracted 15 bids so far.

But “VVIP number” 9222233 from Etisalat has proved to be very lucky for Sonia123, its seller, who has so far received 28 bidders. The price for the new number currently stands at AED22,000.

Others haven’t been quite as lucky though. The “VVIP Etisalat number” 050-9899988, for which the seller has demanded AED80,000, the “Du VVVIP number” 055-5445757, for which the seller wants AED50,000, and “Etisalat’s most elegance number…once used by a famous football star”, 050-5566X66, which is demanding AED15,000 have not yet enticed any bidders.

How much do you value your mobile phone number? And what’s the maximum amount that you would be willing to pay for it?

In addition to being a networking site, Facebook is also a marketing and advertising tool for corporations around the world. The millions of subscribers are inescapably confronted by targeted ads that appear on their own, and their friends’ profiles. Log on in Dubai and you’ll see information for holidays to Beirut or dating websites for Muslim singles; access your page from Europe and you’re bombarded with details of club nights in your nearest city. Advertising is certainly a big part of the world’s fifth most visited website.

But can Facebook be considered a serious tool for those who make their living in the marketing game? At first glance, it would appear not. Absent from the site’s incessant ad flashing are many of the world’s largest and most recognisable brands. You won’t see a Coca Cola banner, or adidas’ newest product range when you check which one of your friends has poked you. You’re more likely to see ads for services in your area than wide-reaching advertisements.

What’s more, the majority of the site’s marketing potential is used up by very small, very simply designed blocks of text. Within five minutes, and with very little technological know-how, businesses can submit advertisements for consideration by the site’s moderators. The ads will run at a daily flat rate of $1, plus 1 cent per click. Given that the lion’s share of the Internet’s unclaimed marketing real estate may soon be at a premium (it’s estimated that by 2012, internet-heavy countries like the UK will spend around GBP5.07 billion – AED27.9 billion – each year on online advertising), small businesses can’t believe their luck.

But the question remains: can Facebook be taken seriously as a marketing tool?

Well, sort of. Companies who can’t afford serious advertising budgets can enjoy a little exposure on the networking site, although the ads won’t be as targeted or as relevant as they need to be to make a significant impact on the market.

But with the credit crunch threatening to erase advertising budgets in 2009, alternative forms of advertising, like those found on Facebook, may soon become the only option for millions of struggling businesses.

It is produced by Hydra Properties, a real estate developer in the UAE, and All 4 Media, and the 28 episodes will be aired on Showtime Arabia, Infinity TV, Emirates TV and RETV.

The 16 contenders will face a series of real-estate challenges, and the lucky winner will get their own business venture, worth $1 million. Filmed entirely in Abu Dhabi, ‘Hydra Executives’ will be hosted by Sulaiman Al Fahim, CEO of Hydra Properties, and also features appearances from Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter Ivanka, both of the ‘The Apprentice.’

“’Hydra Executives’ is more than just a reality show. The show is a creative project, not confined to the traditional but rather looking at the diversity of doing business in interconnected societies,” says a press release on the show’s site. Al Fahim says one of the main aims of the show is to boost the reputation of Abu Dhabi in the global market.

“We would like to position this competition as the Olympics of business,” Ziad Battal, one of the show’s developers, told ‘Gulf Marketing Review’ magazine.

But will the show manage to do that?

The ‘Hydra Executives’ group on Facebook has only attracted 23 “fans” as yet, although one of them has asked when the show will air in the US.

Hydra Properties is also planning spinoffs of the show, including executive retreats, seminars and VIP clubs. And that will probably draw a few more followers.

The second season of the show, which is currently being produced, includes teams of Indian and Pakistani entrepreneurs. That could create another potential audience.

But do you think the show will be able to create a market in the region and across the world? Will you watch it?

With news of the global financial crisis and the drying liquidity in the market filling up media reports, it does seem slightly absurd to see the region pulling in these expensive performers. It does imply that there are people in the region who are still willing to shell out money for some entertainment, and are not yet tightening finances.

It also means that many jobs are still secure, that many lives are going on as usual, and that it is not all “doom and gloom.” Right?