Lipton Brand Appeal Cuts Across Religion

By: Marcus Chhan, Malaysia

Published: May 20, 2010

OGILVY & MATHER   OGILVY NOOR   BRAND INDEX   ISLAM

• Lipton top of new brand index charting appeal to Muslim consumers
• Developed by Ogilvy and TNS
• Is part of today's launch of Ogilvy Noor - global specialist practice focused on Islamic branding 
  

Global - Lipton has scored the highest on a new brand index developed by Ogilvy which aimed to benchmark the appeal of specific brands to Muslim consumers.

The release of the survey results today is part of Ogilvy & Mather's launch of Ogilvy Noor - a new global specialist practice focused on Islamic branding.

The results are published in a new Ogilvy Noor report on Islamic branding titled Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer.

The survey, done with TNS, ran across Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia which were the four culturally distinct majority Muslim markets that Ogilvy believe represent four key stages in the level of consumer development.

The index averages the composite scores per each of the four markets, and as a global average ranking can be taken as indicative of how appealing these brands are to Muslim consumers relative to each other. The numbers (below) represent the percentage agreement with the statement "this brand is completely halal or Shariah-compliant" averaged across the four markets.

The scores are on a 100-point index, where brands above 100 are perceived by consumers as being more Shariah-compliant and brands below 100 are seen as less so.  

mentioned spontaneously in the qualitative research phase, as well as other Ogilvy said the 35 global brands picked were to test quantitatively the ones regularly brands in the same category to provide a measure of comparison. 

Interestingly, Etihad Airways scored in the low half of the index along with a handful of financial brands like Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, and RBS.

In total, there were five main categories researched in the Noor Global Brand Index - Beverages, Food & Dairy, Personal Care, Financial Services, and Aviation.

"A market of 1.8 billion people that has scarcely been tapped, Muslim consumers offer enormous potential to businesses around the world - but only if their values are fully understood. While there are vast and colorful differences among the populations surveyed, we identified behavioral trends and insights that would be valuable to marketers in developing meaningful relationships with this emerging global constituency," said Miles Young, O&M's global CEO.

According to Ogilvy, the global Muslim community stands at almost 1.8 billion people. It said by 2050, more than half the world's population will be Muslim.

Also, an increasing number of Muslim countries represent some of the most affluent consumers in the world.

In April, beverage giant Coca-Cola publicly backed a new initiative by the US State Department which intends to foster healthier relations with Muslims around the world.

Coke's ranking on the Noor Brand Index was in the lower half of the table.