KUALA LUMPUR: ISLAMIC businesses were advised to tailor products to the new Muslim consumers, who are young, innovative, aware and proud of their religion, without necessarily neglecting non-Muslim consumers.
Participants of the Sixth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) heard this yesterday during a session on “Islamic Branding: Reality or Myth”.
John Goodman, president of Ogilvy Group Southeast Asia, said that the new Muslim consumer is emerging they are young, innovative, aware and proud of their religion.
“Brands wanting to be successful in the Islamic world must see this important development. It is tempting to view younger Muslim consumers to the wide prism so favoured by global marketers, but the new Muslim consumer is fundamentally different, precisely from strong faith,” he said.
Goodman said that global brands can forge highly successful relationship with the Muslim consumer if they approach it with a sensitive and consistent approach which is similar to Islamic beliefs.
Dato’ Seri Jamil Bidin, CEO of Malaysia’s Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), said the concept of halal itself has to be rebranded and it is important that halal become inclusive as opposed to exclusive and purely for Muslim consumers.
“Halal should be universal as it promotes healthy and cleanliness in all its products. This is something we’d like to promote to non-Muslims. There is a narrow perception that halal is for Muslims. It’s very unfortunate,” Dato’ Seri Jamil said.
Another misconception, he pointed out was that people think halal is only food, when it also covers non-food goods and services.
“The market for halal is US$2.1 trillion. It’s huge and one of the fastest-growing industries. That is because the Muslim population is growing and there is a growing awareness amongst non-Muslims that they should look to halal products because of quality, safety and cleanliness,” he said.
Dr Paul Temporal, associate fellow at the Oxford University’s Said Business School, said that by the year 2050, 30 per cent of the global population under the age of 18 will be Muslims.
This is why Islamic businesses must understand the importance of branding before aiming to become a global brand, he said as he stressed that Islamic branding is vital.
Dr Temporal pinpointed branding as a potential problem in comparing why sales of halal products were behind sales of kosher goods.
Dr Abdulrahim Abdulwahid, CEO of Media Hub International LLC from the Middle East, said that Islamic branding has a good future in the long run and agreed with Dato’ Seri Jamil that the key is to consider non-Muslim consumers.
Martin Roll, CEO of Singapore-based Venture Republic, however, said that Islamic businesses had failed to understand the importance of branding and for now, Islamic branding was still a myth.
“To ensure that Islamic branding becomes a reality, innovation and leadership must be emphasised by Islamic brands and a progressive mindset has to be created in the businesses to ensure its relevance to consumers,” he said.
Roll believed that there is a lack of communication between businesses and their marketing departments. He suggested that companies take more chief marketing officers seriously in major discussions.
He said that good Islamic branding would in turn improve the image of the Islamic nation itself. He cited South Korea and the fact that no consumers purchased Korean products 20 years ago, but today brands like Samsung have transformed consumer mindsets.
“In fact, Samsung did not want people to know they were Korean, like how Lego didn’t want the world to know they are a Danish product,” he said.
To ensure that Islamic branding becomes a reality, Roll said innovation and leadership must be emphasised by Islamic brands and that a progressive mindset be created to ensure relevance to consumers.
All agreed that there is much scope for improvement as at the moment, no Islamic brand makes the top 10 list of products globally. The Brunei Times
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