UAE: Booming food sector creates new opportunities in GCC’s job market

Filed in Food Manufacturing, Food Service, Middle East & Africa on 12/08/2010 with no comments

The food sector is poised to serve as one of the catalysts for growth in the GCC job market as food investments continue to surge in line with efforts to attain self-sufficiency. GCC countries currently import up to 90 per cent of their food with the UAE expenditure alone reaching up to USD 6.78 billion in 2009[1].
Recent figures from the Dubai World Trade Centre shows that there are now at least 150 food processing plants in the UAE as the country continues to aggressively promote food investments, with the UAE Government leading the way by committing a total of USD 1.4 billion in investments. The influx of international fastfood chains, which are moving away from recession-hit markets into high-growth destinations such as the GCC, has further strengthened the food sector.
The halal food market is another key growth area for specialised manpower services. With increasing demand from 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide, UAE companies are now positioning themselves as major suppliers of the halal food industry, which has been estimated to generate between USD 632 billion and USD 2.1 trillion[2] annually.
The food sector is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing industries in the UAE and the rest of the GCC. It is also one of the most HR-intensive industries because of the rapid expansion initiatives being implemented by food companies. The Ramadan season is particularly important for the industry with demand for food and food-related services sharply increasing at this time of the year, creating a corresponding need to hire more people.
Valerian D’Souza, Head of Manpower Services, DULSCO HR Solutions suggests that, ‘Outsourcing is an excellent option for food companies to satisfy their immediate employment requirements without tying down their HR or administration departments on activities such as employee recruitment, visa procurements, and the deployment of administrative support to new employees.’
Dulsco HR Solutions pool of 5,000 experienced manpower can be swiftly and seamlessly deployed to any workplace environment. The organisation has augmented its standby workforce to include capable food and special events industry practitioners, who are also equipped with the required licenses and documentation for the industry.
In today’s highly competitive markets, outsourcing provides an effective means for food and packaging companies to streamline their business and stay ahead of the competition.
“Many companies use Human Resource outsourcing as a strategic tool to ease their HR burdens and allow them to focus on their business. HR outsourcing offers numerous benefits, such as reduced operational costs, access to well-matched skills, and enhanced employee relations, which are all very attractive for companies that are expanding in the region and are looking for an efficient way to recruit the right people,” concluded D’Souza.
[1] Business Monitor International
[2] Halal Journal

EU: Volys Star Belgium Resumes Exporting to the UAE

Filed in EU, Europe, Halal Integrity, Meat & Poultry on 13/08/2010 with no comments

After two long years of waiting, Belgium based Volys Star NV is able to resume its exports of Halal Premium Poultry Products to the United Arab Emirates.
The U.A.E. maintain very strict rules when it comes to approving Halal Certifying Bodies. For a considerable time no Halal Certifying Bodies were approved in Belgium. The one instance which got approved two years ago unfortunately did not possess sufficient expertise in Halal meat production. As at the same time the U.A.E. did not allow to work with non-Belgian Halal Certifying Bodies, meat exports of Halal meat products from Belgium to the U.A.E. came to a halt.
As Market Leader in Premium Halal Poultry Products, Volys Star is proud to say that it has recently been granted permission by the U.A.E. Authorities to resume its Halal Premium Poultry exports to the U.A.E.
We are honoured by the U.A.E. Authorities’ trust in our company and wish to express our gratitude for this decision. We would also like to thank our importers/distributors and customers for their patience and continued loyalty.

EU: Halal Holidays in the Sun

Filed in EU, Europe, Travel & Hospitality, Turkey on 13/08/2010 with no comments

By Shaimaa Khalil
BBC News, Alanya

If you see a veiled Muslim woman sitting on a beach watching her husband and children splashing in the waves, don’t assume it’s her religion that keeps her from joining in the fun.

Muslim women can often be seen swimming while veiled – though they may not want to on beaches where most women are wearing bikinis.

The problem also occurs in some resorts in Muslim countries with an international tourist trade.

Expensive hotels in some Arab countries actually ban veiled women from their pools so that Western guests feel at home.

One answer for Muslim families who want to play in the water together is Halal tourism.

The idea took off several years ago, as hotel companies witnessed the success of the Sharia-compliant banking and investment sector and saw their opportunity.

It encompasses the main aspects of Sharia-compliant living such as no alcohol, Halal food, separate mosques for prayer and modest dressing.

And with nearly 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, the potential market is huge.

I find it very alarming – cultural racism or religious racism, which is what this to me is, is saying there is no common humanity Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Mizan Raja, his wife Nazma Begum and their four children travelled this summer from the UK to Alanya, on Turkey’s southern, Mediterranean coast, for a beach holiday.

They had been to British resorts before – such as Brighton and Southend-on-Sea – but Nazma was could only watch while the others played.

“I really thought I was missing out to be honest, like I was held back from doing something that was really fun and enjoyable.

“But here, everybody has been getting involved and having lots of fun,” she said.

Women-only facilities

Large screens in the reception area of the family’s four-star hotel advertised the hotel’s facilities, without using female models.

Between enjoying the beach, the restaurants, the segregated spa facilities and pool areas, guests hear the call to prayer five times a day.

THE BURKINI The term burkini (or burqini) was used by Lebanese Australian Australian designer Aheda Zanetti for a swimming suit she introduced for Muslim women in 2006-7 It is a word made by joining together parts of burka and bikini Today it is also used informally to describe home-made swimming costumes that cover the body except for the face hands and feet

Another feature that many women consider the highlight is an open-air women-only swimming pool on the sixth floor, at the very top of the hotel.

Even the elevator accessing the pool is for women alone.

Before Nazma and I got into the pool we were both checked for cameras and mobile phones.

Nazma’s experience of women-only pools in England was quite different, she said.

“I’ve actually been to a women-only pool session and all of a sudden a man walked in and he was going to be the lifeguard, which contradicted what it was all about,” she said.

A remarkable thing about the women-only pool area is how relaxed the women look.

Most of the women in the hotel were covered. They either wore a headscarf (hijab) or full-face veil (niqab).

In the ladies’ pool however, none of the women were covered, and some were wearing regular swimming costumes.

“One person, the other day, I didn’t recognise her!” Nazma said. “She was wearing the burkini but she looked so different because she (normally) wears the niqab.

“I could see her face and she was smiling. You could tell she felt safe and secure in this environment,” Nazma added.

Growing market

On the beach I met Thuraya Al Haj Mustafa, a Palestinian-German who has been coming to Turkey with her family for the past five years.

They were one of the first families to try the Halal beach holidays.

“What I enjoy myself is being able to go to the beach with my whole family, not just my husband, to go to the sea. I can go as well. I can swim with my children,” she said.

“I can have fun with them… you know in Arab countries like Palestine it’s normal for ladies to sit by the beach but not to swim. Here I can do everything I like,” Thuraya said.

With countries like Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia leading the way in Halal tourism, the Middle East has yet to exploit this young, growing market.

Halal tourism brings people together, argues Thuraya Al Haj Mustafa (right)

Only a handful of Sharia or Halal hotel developments have so far materialised in the region – yet the World Tourism Organisation says Gulf travellers spend $12bn (£7.7bn) annually on leisure travel.

Abdul Sahib Al Shakiry, an Iraqi tourism expert and founder of Islamic Tourism Magazine, said that a good chunk of this money could be channelled into the Halal tourism industry.

“People want to spend money and if you give them what they want, they’ll spend money in this direction and there will be business,” he said.

But while some welcome the arrival of the Islamic beach holiday, others see it as a form of isolationism.

‘Double standards’

“I find it very alarming,” says Muslim writer and columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

“Cultural racism or religious racism, which is what this to me is, is saying there is no common humanity. That we have to, even on holiday, be apart from the rest of you.

“You can go on holiday anywhere in the world and you don’t have to drink, nobody forces you to drink.

A sense of freedom: Burkini-wearing is the norm on a Halal beach holiday

“I accept the Halal food argument but there are always other thing you can eat.

“How would we feel if there were Christian-White only holidays advertised?” she said.

“We would be appalled. You can’t have double standards.”

Thuraya, on the other hand, said that such holidays are not isolating but rather bring people together.

“You see Muslim people from all over the world. You have Muslim people from China, Russia, Belgium, France.

“The other thing is that when I go to any other normal vacation or hotel they wouldn’t accept me wearing the burkini,” she added.

“They don’t make me feel comfortable so why should I go there?

“I’m not searching for isolation but there’s no other possibility for me as a Muslim lady,” she said.

Whether or not Halal tourism drives people apart, or brings them together, one thing is for sure – Mizan, Nazma and their children had a fantastic time on this beach holiday.

On their last day in Alanya, Nazma told me that the one thing that has given her a sense of freedom she had not had before, is the burkini.

“I’m not held back any more. I’ve been able to go in the sea and take part and not think twice.

“Everyone I’ve seen has been wearing burkinis, so I don’t feel like the odd one out,” she said.

“It’s been a really good experience and something that we want to come back and enjoy next year.”

The Ramadan Effect: Muslim Stock Markets Rally in Month of Fasting

Economists have long known that moods, weather, even religious beliefs can affect investor behavior.  Now, a new study shows that stock returns during the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, vary significantly from those at other times of the year. 

Ahmad Etebari is a Professor of Finance and chair of the University of New Hampshire Department of Accounting and Finance.  He is also lead author of the paper, “Fast Profits: Investor Sentiment and Stock Returns During Ramadan.”  Reporter Cecily Hilleary asked him to explain the so-called “Ramadan Effect.”

Etebari: During the Holy Month, we find that on average, stock returns are almost nine times higher in predominantly Muslim countries than during other times of the year.

Hilleary: That is a tremendous difference—how did you conduct this study?

Etebari: The time period covers 1989 to 2007, and the countries include – there are fourteen countries, just about every country for which we could collect the data included in the study:  Those which were predominantly Muslim countries.  We set the bar to have at least 50% Muslim population, and on average, they have about 90 or 91 percent predominant Muslims in the countries [sic]. 

Hilleary: Are there any other factors that could explain these findings, and did you look at these factors?

Etebari: That’s an excellent question, especially looking into factors that affect the return-generating process in the stock market—in other words, factors that affect the stock prices in a conventional sense:  Market liquidity, length of the daily fasting period, especially contrasting summer months with winter months when Ramadan coincides with one versus the other, with the length of day being really longer during summer months.   We controlled for that.  We controlled for liquidity.  We controlled for other well-known fixed calendar (we call them Gregorian anomalies), notably, “day of the week” effect, like Monday, “January effect,” “Halloween effect,” and none of those factors explained results.

We also looked at the impact of foreign exchange markets where their currencies were causing that. That did not explain the results either.

Hilleary: How do you explain the findings?

Etebari: Ramadan is really a fundamental shared experience by Muslims.  In a sense, it gives Muslims a sense of social identity and it is embraced by just about everyone.  The rituals enhance their satisfaction with life and create optimistic beliefs.  So, essentially we borrow from research in psychology that shows that religion affects believers’ moods, happiness and risk-taking attitudes.

Hilleary: So happy Muslims make good investments?

Etebari: I would say happy people could undershoot—underestimate--risks.

Hilleary: Obviously there are implications for investors.

Etebari: Indeed.

Hilleary: Are you saying that this could be used as a formula for making some big profits in the market?

Etebari: Always looking into the rear view mirror, you can always make money.  But once these opportunities are discovered, it will be harder and harder to detect again, because opportunities get arbitraged out of the market.  But the basic implication is that if the past repeats itself, if one could replicate the past, the implication is as follows:  Those seeking to gain fast profits, they should try and profit from the [Ramadan] fast, buying shares prior to the start of Ramadan and selling them at the end of the Holy Month or, preferably, immediately after Eid al-Fitr, where our results begin to decline.

Hilleary: There are no guarantees—you’re not handing out guarantees?

Etebari: There’s no such thing as guarantees in finance.  This is really what has happened in the past, and any opportunities in the market could close out once they are known by one person or in one market, as I said these opportunities could quickly get or be arbitraged out.

Rising Purchasing Power Among American Muslims

Rising Purchasing Power Among American Muslims

The holiday also means special foods. “Based on the example of the Prophet Mohammed, Muslims are encouraged to break their {daily] fast with dates,” said Hashemi. “Probably these people don’t eat a lot of dates during the year, but date consumption skyrockets [during Ramadan], as do certain special sweets eaten during the Eid festivals.”

In the U.S., the market for halal-certified foods (permitted by Islam) has soared in the past decade. The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) recently estimated an 80% growth in the market for halal-certified ingredients and food products since 2005. “This increased interest for U.S. halal market ingredients and products,” according to the IFANCA statement, “may reflect the overall estimated $170 billion U.S. dollar purchasing power of American Muslims.”

In the Muslim world, Ramadan also brings with it new clothing and special entertainment. “Television scheduling is very much geared around that,” says Khan. “Programming for the Ramadan month is specifically made for the huge audiences that watch it. Soap operas [and other] types of programming are very, very popular.”

But like Christians who bemoan the commercialization of Christmas, many within the Muslim community are concerned that Ramadan is losing its meaning and becoming a commodity. “Many people fear the original reason of the fast has been lost,” says Khan. ” These things have given away to, in some cases, overindulgence in the evening and overnight. People stay up all night and they overeat. In some places food consumption goes up two or three times. . .and people actually put on weight during Ramadan, which defeats the purpose of it. People are inverting their days and finding an easy way out and then overdoing it.”

A Time to Buy

Ramadan ends with Eid Al Fitr, a celebration of feasts and gift-giving. Like Hanukkah or Christmas, Eid and other Muslim holidays have become major sales opportunities for retailers. In fact, Best Buy (BBY) came under criticism from some organizations last year for a line on one of its ad circulars wishing Muslims a “Happy Eid al Adha.” A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the Best Buy ad “makes perfect business sense to acknowledge and celebrate a holiday that one out of four people celebrate.”

Muslims parents in the U.S., says Hashemi, often see Eid Al-Fitr as a way of compensating for their children celebrating a holiday other than Christmas. “They will use that as a way of reminding young Muslim-American kids that they will be able to exchange gifts. They’ll buy their young children the equivalent of what a Christian American family would buy their young children on Christmas Day. So they won’t have a tree, but they’ll use that day to go buy significant gifts to make their children happy.”

“You can think of it as parallel to Christmas,” says Khan, “in the sense that it’s definitely families coming together, people hosting each other, the exchange of gifts. Kids love it because they get their presents, and they get a lot of attention.”

Halal Ads Hit French TV — And France Eats Them Up

Filed in Europe, Media & Events, Retail on 02/09/2009 with no comments

By Bruce Crumley / Paris
A pack of shoppers swarm supermarket shelves, cheerfully
snapping up packages of prepared lasagna, ravioli, and paella as they
sing the products’ praises. Sounds just like a normal evening TV ad.
And it is, only this one features ethnic Arab actors in a commercial
for halal food in France. A first in its own right, that ad is already
a remarkable sight on French TV. But even more surprising is the
reaction it’s gotten — or, rather, hasn’t gotten. In a country that’s
usually quick to burst into outrage over the spread of Islam into
secular society, these halal food ads have been playing without a peep
from the public.
The ad campaign by Panzani-owned, Lyon-based food brand Zakia Halal
is the first ever mass-market promotion of halal food to France’s
estimated five million Muslims. The TV spots kicked off on Aug. 17 to
coincide with the start of the holy month of Ramadan, and have been
running on most of France’s largest television channels since. The
$430,000 campaign will be put on pause Sept. 2, then resumed as Ramadan
comes to an end later this month and the feast of Eid el-Fitr
approaches. Thus far, the spots have gotten a mostly supportive
reaction from Muslim shoppers and the French media, with the daily Le Parisien trumpeting “Halal Takes A Spot On TV”. (See pictures marking the end of Ramadan.)
What’s astounding is how long it took for any of France’s numerous
makers of halal food products to embrace this kind of mass marketing.
Studies done by ethnic marketing consultancy Solis Conseil in Paris
estimate that French Muslims currently purchase around $5.7 billion
worth of specialized foodstuffs and related products — a market that’s
been increasing by around 15% annually for nearly a decade. Solis has
also found that nearly 94% of all Muslims in France with North African
roots — by far the largest group of Muslims in the country — buy
exclusively halal food. A recent poll by the Ifop agency found that 70%
of Muslims in France are observing Ramadan this year — leaving little
doubt as to the thinking behind the timing of Zakia Halal’s
ground-breaking ad campaign. (Read: “Soccer Star Benched for Fasting During Ramadan.”)
“Even though people have to fast during the day, Muslims tend to eat
more — and better — when they can eat during Ramadan, which is why it
is traditionally a period of peak consumer activity,” explains Abbas
Bendali, director of Solis Conseil. “Zakia’s timing makes good sense
because people tend to be short on time during Ramadan, and will use
prepared dishes along with fresh food for meals. And when you consider
the size and value of this demographic, using mass-market methods to
promote halal products becomes logical, too.”
But it’s also potentially inflammatory, given the tendency of the
French to view overt manifestations of Islamic faith as a threat to the
nation’s tradition of secularity. After all, France is the nation that
felt obliged to protect itself against the supposed spread of Islam by
passing a 2004 law prohibiting students from wearing religious symbols
in public schools — a measure primarily aimed at Islamic headscarves.
Earlier this year, legislators demanded a legal ban on burqas,
a form of apparel that President Nicolas Sarkozy also damned as “not
welcome on French territory.” That legal prohibition was regarded as
overkill, however, when a police intelligence study estimated that less
than 370 women in the nation of 65 million people actually wear the
complete head, face, and body covering.
Even so, the French media worked itself up into a lather in July
when one woman demanded the right to swim in a burqini — a one-piece
that resembles a wet suit — in a public pool that denied her entrance.
Given that, it’s little wonder that the approval — or disinterest —
that the French public has shown the Zakia Halal ads has been a source
of contentment and relief to many French Muslims. (Read: “Halal: Buying Muslim.”)
“So much negativity has recently been attached to so-called Muslim
topics that there’s a certain satisfaction that ads for halal products
are being greeted as normal,” Bendali says. “After so many years of
being ordered to integrate into French society and culture, Muslims are
interpreting the reaction to these ads as a sign that integration may
finally be working in both directions. It appears the rest of France is
starting to regard things like halal food as part of the new mix.”
In fact, it has been for quite a while — though marketers and
distributors have tended to keep quiet about it. For most of the last
decade, France’s main supermarket chains have carried halal food to
keep up with demand from consumers. That has increased so much, that
those supermarkets have recently launched their own halal brands to
rival those of food groups — and are beginning to display them in
dedicated halal sections as they have kosher food for years.
Still, don’t expect to see the shelves stocked with Western
versions of traditional North African fare, like microwaveable couscous
or ready-made tagine. Those are things French Muslims still prefer to
make themselves. Instead, what they’re snapping are more exotic dishes
like lasagna, beef, bourguignon and hachis Parmentier — à la halal bien sûr.

Halal product sales on the increase in France

Filed in Europe, Retail on 23/08/2009 with no comments

PARIS – Ramadan, started this weekend, has
become in recent years an important event in France for the sale of
Halal products in retail, which considers this market as promising, but
still sensitive.
  
The Halal food, which means “allowed” or “lawful”, has been little
statistical account in France, according to the generally accepted
figure, five million Muslims.
    But according to a recent
study by the agency Solis specializes in “ethnic marketing”, the market
is valued at nearly four billion Euros in 2009 and its annual growth is
estimated at 15%, a boon in these times of crisis.
    The
study also notes that over 93% of the North African population and 55%
of those from sub-Saharan Africa buys Halal products.
    “For
many years the supply was limited to Halal meat and charcuterie and a
few groceries available in the traditional market,” says Abbas Bendali,
director of the agency Solis.
    But in the past ten years,
large retailers began offering Halal products “because there is a
market with the arrival of new consumers, the second and third
generations of immigrant origin, whose power Purchasing is often
higher,” he says.
    These consumers have different requests, the offer was therefore developed.
  
Soups, ravioli, pizza, hacis parmentier: major national brands (Maggi,
Herta, Fleury Michon, Panzani, for example) were launched at the market
with dishes. The volaillers as Duke have also invested the sector;
Muslims households eat a lot more meat than the national average.
    The chain Casino has launched in early August its own products under the brand Wassila.
  
“With a potential of 10 to 20% of Muslim customers in our stores” Halal
products represent a growth market, admits Stéphane Renaud, buyer
“Products of the World” at Auchan.
    Ramadan is a period of
“very heavy expenditure” and for the occasion, the channel does not
hesitate to multiply by ten or fifteen, the stores dedicated to Halal
food. Sales of ‘feuilles de brick’ (filo pasrty) are multiplied a
thousand, cites the example of Mr. Renaud.
    Supermarkets
“dream to conquer the Muslim customers,” but “they are not ready to
assume their choice” regrets for his part Kimouche Fateh, founder of
Al-Kanz.org for Muslim consumers.
    Most of the spotlights,
he said prefer to focus on “Flavors of the East” or “Spice Route”
rather than explicitly mention Ramadan.
    “In a context of
limited knowledge of Islam and Muslims, Halal can be scary and large
retailers can keep the same irrational reflexes as part of the public”,
said for his part Jean-Christophe Despres, Director Sopi of
Communication, specializing in “multicultural” communication.
    “We want money from Arabs, but not their image. However, it should be noted that some are beginning to assume,” he notes.
   Retailers do not know this market and do not know who to deal with it”, said for his part Mr. Bendali.

France: Growing halal market

Filed in Europe, France, Retail on 25/08/2009 with no comments

France: Growing halal market

24 August 2009

During the month of Ramadan, drinking, eating and
smoking are prohibited, but it’s still possible to go shopping. The big
names in distribution have understood they can profit from this annual
period of fasting by offering more halal products. In recent years
Ramadan had become a high point for sales of these products in
supermarkets. Auchan, for example, doesn’t hesitate to give ten or even
fifteen times as much shelf area for selling halal food.
According to a recent study by the Solis agency, which specializes
in ‘ethnic marketing’, the halal market (in France) is valued at close
to 4 billion euro for 2009, and is estimated to grow at annual rate of
15%. According to Solis, 93% of North Africans and 55% of sub-Saharan
Africans buy halal products.
While the supermarkets diversity their offering: soups, ravioli,
pizzas, baked dishes, precooked meals. The large retailers established
their own brands: Reghalal for Carrefour, Wassila for Casino. Stéphane
Renaud of ‘products of the world’ of Auchan says that there’s a
potential for 10-20% Muslim customers in their shops and these products
represent a promising market.
Muslim consumers are more inclined to buy at supermarkets offering
halal, and the supermarkets have significantly expanded their product
offerings over the past five years. Auchan, Leclerc, Super U and Casino
have special halal shelf area during the Ramadan period, but also
during the rest of the year. At Carrefour they explain that Ramadan is
an important commercial opportunity. The company has been offering
halal products for the past decade, but it recently developed its own
brand, Reghalal, which offers turkey cuts and poultry sausages, and
which is sold at its low-cost Ed stores.
Supermarket giant Casino offers more than 400 halal products, 3-4% of the total offerings. In August they launched their own brand
(Wasilla) in order to compete with traditional manufacturers. The
Systeme U stores, the smaller chain, also entered new territory over
the past three years.
Spokesperson Thierry Desouches says that it’s a small sum of the
total, but that in certain stores, for example in Strasbourg, Mulhouse
and the Parisian suburbs, it’s a growing market. and progressing
consumers.
Halal supermarkets arrived in the 80s. But the products were
initially kept only to certain stories in areas with large Muslim
populations. Today, thanks to sophisticated techniques of consumer
profiling, particularly through loyalty cards, stores can effectively
know the habits of consumers in different place and times.
Jean-Daniel Hertzog of Isla Délice, one of the main producers and
distributors of halal products in France, says that all the
distributors realized the importance of the Muslim consumer, also
beyond Ramadan.
Philippe Moati of the Center of Research for the Study and
Observation of Living Condition (CREDOC) says that distribution now
increasingly targets niche consumers. It adapts to the heterogeneity of
consumers, and Muslims are targeted just like consumers of
bio-products. Though halal foods are not a recent phenomenon, the
staging of these products in stores during Ramadan is new.
For these stores the objective is not to pass by a business
opportunity. Georges Chétochine, a consultant, says that in certain
areas the Muslim population represents 30% of the clientele and
products specific to Muslims can reach a turnover of 6-7%. Distributors
try to seduce people who until now turned mostly to traditional shops.
According to a study by Solis, most of the halal consumers (95%) still
prefer grocery stores and butcher shops over the big supermarkets (43%).
Since Islam remains a sensitive topic, distributors advance
cautiously. Chétochine says that in a secular country like France, they
do not want to offend the non-Muslim consumers. They therefore use as
neutral a language as possible – “Flavors of the Orients’ or the ’spice
route’ instead of talking explicitly about Ramadan.
Fateh Kimouche, who in 2006 founded the site Al-Kanz.org, the portal
for Muslim consumers, says that while retailers dream of conquering the
Muslim clientele, they are not ready to accept the consequences of
their choice. Distributors keep to cliches, and talk about the ‘Orient’
and a thousand and one nights, in order to avoid speaking about
Ramadan. Kimouche says that Ramadan is entering the French lifestyle,
but it is still far from commonplace.

Does Islam matter in Marketing or IS it just Prophet4Profit?
in the next Future, we can not speak just about the Four Ps. The marketing discourse will adopt the Four Fs: Faith, Food, Finance and Fashion.

Advertisers Seek to Speak to Muslim Consumers

KUALA LUMPUR — Thick waves of hair cascade over a woman’s shoulder. She gives a flirtatious flick of her locks and tells viewers that they too can get such a luxurious mane — if they buy the shampoo she is holding up to the camera. That is the script for your standard shampoo commercial.

Enlarge This Image

Unilever

This Sunsilk commercial for “Lively Clean and Fresh” shampoo features a woman wearing a type of head scarf worn by many Muslim women in Malaysia.

Cut to the television spot for Sunsilk’s Lively Clean & Fresh shampoo. Another young, smiling woman is the star, but there is not a strand of hair in sight. Her tresses are completely covered by a tudung, the head scarf worn by many Muslim women in Malaysia.

The pitch? Lively Clean & Fresh helps remove excess oil from the scalp and hair — a common problem among wearers of tudungs, according to Unilever, the manufacturer. The company says the product is the first shampoo to speak directly to the “lifestyle of a tudung wearer.”

For decades, many Western company failed to appreciate the unique needs of Muslim consumers, marketing experts say. Worse, some companies offended potential customers by not understanding religious sensitivities. But as the Islamic population has grown in size and affluence — there are now 1.57 billion Muslims worldwide — more multinationals are seeking to tap into the market.

Instead of simply importing products and advertising from the West, companies are increasingly developing marketing campaigns — and formulating products themselves — with Muslims firmly in sight.

“Islamic marketing,” some experts say, is the next wave in branding, and now, as the holy month of Ramadan begins, activity is surging.

“For the last few years, it’s been China and India,” said Paul Temporal, an associate fellow at the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. “The next big market is the Muslim market. There’s this huge group of people who have been relatively untapped in terms of what they want and need, and they represent a tremendous opportunity.”

John Goodman, Ogilvy & Mather’s regional director for South and Southeast Asia, is more blunt: “It’s like being in 1990 and telling people that China doesn’t matter. Twenty years ago you might have said that, but now you’re being foolish.”

With Muslim-majority countries spread from Southeast Asia to Africa, and Muslims speaking numerous languages and adhering to varying standards of dress and other customs, approaching the group as consumers can be complex. But as with all marketing exercises, experts say, rule No.1 is to avoid causing offense.

Nike committed a legendary error when it released a pair of athletic shoes in 1996 with a logo on the sole that some Muslims believed resembled the Arabic lettering for Allah. Given that Muslims consider the feet unclean, “producing shoes with the name of God on the soles of the feet is not a good idea,” said Mr. Goodman, who converted to Islam in 1999. “They recalled 800,000 pairs of shoes globally.”

Describing the Nike episode as a “wake-up call” for companies, Mr. Goodman said it had also been a turning point for Muslim advocates, who realized that “if they make a noise, companies would listen and change, that they had economic and social influence.”

Unilever says the Sunsilk Lively Clean & Fresh shampoo, which is sold in Malaysia and Singapore, was created for people who suffer from oily scalps after wearing any head covering, be it a baseball hat or head scarf. After company research showed that many women who wear the tudung complained of oily scalps, it introduced the television commercial aimed at them.

The ad begins with a young woman saying that now she can do what she wants because she no longer has to worry about itchiness, before she goes on to kick a goal in a coed soccer game.

Other companies are taking steps to reassure consumers that all of their products — not just food — are halal, or permissible under Islam, by having them officially certified.

Colgate-Palmolive, for instance, claims to be the first international company to have obtained halal certification in Malaysia for toothpaste and mouthwash products. Some mouthwashes may contain alcohol, which would be forbidden under halal guidelines.

Colgate’s products now bear the halal logo, which also is featured in the company’s television commercials.

The mobile phone industry has also started focusing on Muslim consumers, with the introduction of a number of applications, including religious calendars and Koran downloads.

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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 12, 2010
An earlier version of this article misstated when Nokia began giving cellphone customers a choice of Ramadan applications as this year, rather than last year.

Nokia made a concerted effort to appeal to Muslims starting in 2007, when it introduced a phone for the Middle East and North Africa markets that came loaded with a number of applications, including an Islamic Organizer with alarms for the five daily prayers, two Islamic e-books and an e-card application that lets people send SMS greeting cards for Ramadan. Starting last year, the company has been giving customers the choice of which applications they want, rather than loading them all on the phone.
Mr. Goodman, whose company recently completed a study of Muslim consumers in Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and released an index benchmarking the appeal of certain brands to Muslims, said Nokia was rated favorably by Muslims. One Egyptian respondent said Nokia had “Islamic values” and offered products to suit the Egyptian consumer.
“Nokia is seen as being a very good corporate citizen and very sensitive to the local market,” Mr. Goodman said.
Muslim consumers are increasingly becoming a focus of research for the marketing industry and academics.
An international conference at Oxford in July on Islamic branding and marketing, which organizers said had been the first of its kind, attracted 200 people from Western and Muslim countries, as well as academics.
Mr. Temporal is leading a major research project on the topic at the business school, which has started offering courses for companies wanting to expand in the market.
Ogilvy & Mather recently established a new arm, Ogilvy Noor, which the company describes as “the world’s first bespoke Islamic branding practice.” Ogilvy Noor is led by employees in Muslim markets in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. (Noor means “light” in Arabic.)
The company has also introduced the Noor index, which rates the appeal of brands to Muslim consumers. The index was formulated on the basis of how consumers ranked more than 30 well-known brands for compliance with Shariah, or Islamic law.
Lipton tea, owned by Unilever, topped the list, followed by Nestlé.
Nestlé was one of the first multinationals to pursue the global halal market, worth an estimated $2.1 trillion annually. Eighty-five of the company’s 456 factories worldwide have been certified halal, said Peter Vogt, Nestlé’s managing director for Malaysia.
Surprisingly, respondents to the Ogilvy poll ranked Emirates — the upscale airline based in Dubai and considered one of the most successful brands to have come out of the Middle East — near the bottom of the list, 27th among 35.
Mr. Goodman attributed Emirates’ low standing in the ranking to the fact that the company had tried to position itself as a global, secular brand, through characteristics like a multiethnic work force.
“It also serves alcohol, which almost all airlines do, but this is not seen as being Shariah-compliant,” he said. “It’s a fantastic brand in many ways, but for Muslim consumers, it’s not seen as a particularly Muslim brand.”
Meanwhile, brands that originate in Muslim countries are beginning to use sophisticated marketing to challenge Western multinationals. Some of these home-grown brands are savvy about using religious images in their advertising. Olpers, a Pakistani milk brand introduced in 2006, has been seeking to compete with Nestlé. Its television commercials for Ramadan in 2008 and 2009, developed with JWT, mention the beverage only briefly at the start and end.
Most of the commercials’ time is devoted to showing Muslims in prayer at mosques; Muslims at work in countries including Turkey, Pakistan and Morocco; and Muslims doing good deeds like helping the elderly.
Ogilvy says the commercial aimed to “situate the modern Muslim in the context of the Ummah, or the global Muslim community, reminding them of their larger interconnectedness and giving them an enormous sense of belonging.” The commercial also emphasizes the ideas that “all are equal in the eyes of God” and “brotherhood is a crucial component of success” by equating the work of, say, a craftsman in Brunei and a scientist in Egypt.
The 2009 spot navigates between tradition and modernity by featuring Atif Aslam, a Pakistani pop singer, and Dawud Wharnsby, a Canadian songsmith who converted to Islam. “We have a message of peace for the earth,” they sing.
Such choices reflect research by Ogilvy showing that young Muslim consumers are different from their Western “Generation Y” counterparts in that they believe that by staying true to the core values of their religion, they are more likely to achieve success in the modern world.
Experts say multinational companies will increasingly need such insights as they expand in Muslim countries. With the market growing rapidly and consumers becoming more astute, Mr. Temporal and others say time is of the essence.
“The first-mover advantage is always there,” he said.