The other day, I was researching a guest for my radio show-The Entrepreneur’s Journey and as I looked at stories and articles that had been written about this person, I stumbled upon a blog that had her photo for a wedding she attended in Dubai.

I could not resist looking at the pictures because they were gorgeous.  As I scrolled down drinking in the beauty of the wedding pictures, I got to the end and the comments popped out to me. Lol!

Men…. some of these commentators have no chill, they go for blood..

So here I am, ‘minding my business’ doing my research and I am drawn into the world of celebrity wedding and comparisons. They were calling the name of another celebrity who had her wedding in Dubai at the same time and yapping her for doing a shabby wedding compared to this other person. Aren’t people supposed to cut their coat according to their size abi their fabric? Lol..

This reminded me of my last two trips to Dubai and how I actually found out there were actually two sides to what is supposed to be the ‘most beautiful’ Arab city..

My first trip

On my first trip in 2012, I went for a business meeting with a friend who was into real estate investing. I was going there as an advisor to give my opinion on investment decisions. When we landed, I was impressed by the gold plated airport bars that shimmered at me as we waited to get our passports stamped..

By the time we got past immigration, our host already had signs waiting to receive us and we were smoothly ushered into the luxurious SUV that was waiting to pick us up. I could get used to that life……

Our host proceeded to show us some of the sights on our way from the Airport to the hotel and I kept awing and oohing because it was so magnificent to me. I kept turning to ask my friend; is this for real with awe in my eyes? I felt like Alice in wonderland!.

We were then taken to our hotel which was a 5 star hotel on Sheik Zayed road. The mall of emirates was just a stone throw from our hotel. Don’t let me get into the gist of the hotel o….Just know it was luxury at its finest..

The next day, we went for our first investment meeting at the Armani Hotel. OMG! They made Armani seem common from the furniture to the cobble stones……

Suffice to say, the trip was an experience but because it was a business meeting, we were done in two days and had to come back, but I made up my mind that I was going to come back again for a personal trip..

My Second trip

After the first trip, I was itching for a reason to go back again, and the perfect reason came in 2014 when my parents were celebrating their wedding anniversary. We decided to gift them with tickets to Dubai and accompany them so it would be a family vacation..

I was beyond excited to continue my Alice Adventure…….

When we wanted to select a hotel, I told my siblings that it had to be on Sheik Zayed road again because of the proximity to the mall, but my Mum who had been a seasoned Dubai market woman said she preferred Deira because it was close to the market..

I reluctantly agreed. At least the vacation was because of them not us right? Plus I thought as beautiful as that place was, everywhere must be that beautiful…..

We made the trip and started taking pictures as we got to the Airport. As we got past immigration there was not fanfare this time, we chartered a taxi and went on our way. As we went, I kept wondering why everywhere seemed a bit different…… Yes I saw a few beautiful sights, but as we approached Deira, I was wondering if we were going to Oshodi market (A busy market in Lagos)..

When the Taxi got to the hotel, I was a tad disappointed. The ground floor of the hotel had shops and the reception was on the first floor. The rooms were still quite beautiful, but nothing like the hotel I stayed two years ago..

I compensated myself with the fact that my Mum seemed very happy and was even greeting some people she knew from her previous trips. She promised that we would have a wonderful adventure around the area and that we would visit the gold souk..

The shopping once again reminded me of going to Yaba or Balogun market and being hassled by my Igbo Brothers. We went to this particular store and I immediately took interest in their wrist watch collection. My face lit up when I saw a wrist watch I always wanted at a fraction of the price. I grabbed it immediately because I thought I had found a steal. Suffice to say I later found out it was a copy!.

My second trip was not as memorable and I left feeling like I had gotten enough from Dubai to last me a really long time………

Where am I going with all this rambling?.

The power of packaging! One city, two different perspectives because of packaging and presentation..

Have you ever gone to a store that sold what another store in another area sells at twice the price and people still tell them how affordable they are?.

You might even be in a similar situation where your products and services are even better than your competition, but people don’t value it as much because you don’t have the brand name that your competition has..

Don’t hate the player….Learn the game..

I am excited about the marketing master class on Thursday 28th July and I will be teaching strategies and tactics to help attendees play better..

The registration is now closed and I ‘tried’ to show you the invaluable benefits of Up-leveling your marketing game..

If you registered great! We will have an amazing time and put your dancing shoes on, because we will be doing some dancing. Wink..

If you did not register and are interested in getting the recording, email hello@talealimi.com and we will send you details.