By Shaikha Alkhyeli
DUBAI — Max Stanton is entrepreneur, who is originally from the United States but lives in Dubai. Max studied in the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and always has passion towards entrepreneurship. He also feels that it is an outlet of his personal passion and creativity. Max is traveler who claims that he has fallen in love with the Middle East. Due to his parents’ background, he managed to start exploring the world at a very early age. He moved to the UAE in 2007 and decided to continue his life here in the UAE. Managing to speak Arabic with an Emirati dialect is what makes Max stand out. He learned Arabic from his Arab friends, who he claims that they have been very patient with him.
Max has been through many things before opening up his own business and becoming a successful entrepreneur that he is today. He became a well-known figure in the Arab Gulf few years ago due to his fluency in Arabic with an Emirati dialect. He uses social media to reach out to the people and he has over 533K followers on Instagram. His account is called @MaxOfArabia. It created a hype in the Arab world and this helped him with his business drastically. He owns a business called One8.co. It is combination of a street wear brand and wearable art that has a local mix.
Max’s strategy of success in business relies in three focal points. Being independent and not to partner with others to avoid conflict of interest, knowledge of the youth taste culturally and technically. He came up to this business plan after years of experience. He first worked as a consumer market knowledge manager at Procter and Gamble for four years. Then he co-founded a local pop-culture clothing brand for three years until he ended up selling his stake and creating his own brand. His business is basically a regionally focused street wear brand that turns tradition into wearable art through ethically sourced and locally designed clothing.
“We live in a region with a large population of youth, has high disposable income, and a strong cultural base. This sets the stage for a business like mine to thrive, as we appeal most to young Arabic speaking consumers who still want to hold onto the culture while not necessarily wearing traditional clothes,” Max states.
The use of social media is Max’s way of marketing his business and he believes that if it were not for technology, his business would not exist. He uses his profits wisely to reinvest in his business to become more successful and gain more credibility.
Max’s business is embodiment of the intercultural Arab American communication. His fluency of the language, especially the Emirati dialect, knowledge of the Khaleeji culture and utilizing the social media are the main causes of his success. His business is not only reflection of the combination between modernity and tradition, but also the beauty of mixture of cultures.
This story was originally published on May 2, 2017. It was re-uploaded on Jan. 1, 2021.
