Islamic Branding

Islamic Branding – Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer inShare WEBWIRE – Monday, July 12, 2010
Built on a bank of rigorous bespoke research conducted in key Muslim markets by TNS
Built on a bank of rigorous bespoke research conducted in key Muslim markets by TNS, this study offers detailed branding recommendations on how to forge stronger bonds with the new generation of Muslim consumers, through every aspect of branding, from business practice and philosophy to visual identity and customer service.
The ‘Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumers’ Report serves as the launch pad for Ogilvy Noor, a multidisciplinary global Islamic Branding practice that aims to help brands better engage with Muslim consumers worldwide. The Muslim market is viewed as a critically important playground for marketers, with the halal segment alone worth $2.1 trillion, and growing by $500 billion annually.
Research conducted in four key Muslim markets – Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, has identified the New Muslim Consumer as a critically important development for brands hoping to build successful relationships with the Islamic world. In doing so, the report debunks many of the stereotypes that surround Muslim consumer attitudes towards brands and their marketing communications. For example, halal stickers, while important to showcase certification, are no longer sufficient to persuade the New Muslim Consumer of a brand’s belief in Islamic values.
The research revealed that core Shariah values resonate with all Muslims - values such as honesty, accountability, community, peacefulness, respect and humility. We argue that any brand based on these values builds a strong ethical foundation for the future.
This report is based on up-to-the-minute facts and figures, with most of the research having been conducted in early 2010. With most businesses looking to regenerate themselves and their practices after the global economic crisis, there can be no timelier moment to look at the world of tomorrow’s consumers through this fresh lens.
The report is on sale for $9,450/-, plus shipping and handling. It can be purchased through the Ogilvy Noor website - www.ogilvynoor.com
Why Islamic Branding?
The Muslim consumer market, at 1.8bn people, is undeniably the next important (and largely untapped) global opportunity. The halal market alone is worth a staggering US$2.1 trillion a year and is growing at US$500bn a year due to the growth of the global Muslim population.
As China and India have captured the attention of the world’s marketers in recent years, a quiet but enormous business potential lies largely untapped in the global Muslim consumer market today, justifying a shift in focus to what Vali Nasr in Forces of Fortune calls the ’3rd one billion’. In recent years global marketers have started to enthuse over the size of this prize and ruminate on the importance of cracking it - but we believe the challenge is in managing it knowledgeably, sensitively, and profitably for the long term.
‘Islamic Branding’ is a relatively new concept, and at the birth of this new field of learning, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide announced the launch of Ogilvy Noor, a pioneering consulting service for marketers seeking to appeal to Muslim consumers.
This Report has enabled Ogilvy Noor to formulate an effective definition for Islamic branding: ‘Branding that is empathetic to Shariah values in order to appeal to the Muslim consumer, ranging from basic Shariah-friendliness to full Shariah-compliance in all aspects of the brand’s identity, behaviour and communications.’
Brand, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer’ report provides invaluable insight into Shariah values, from the perspective of consumers and marketers, clearly explaining how businesses should navigate this area. Significantly, it finds that Shariah practices are closely aligned with the existing universal ideals of good business practice.
The study analyses the factors that drive beneficial relationships with Muslim consumers, distilling the findings into an eight-step toolkit for branding success and an invaluable list of do’s and don’ts.
1. A brand’s role in the community: including all aspects of a company’s corporate citizenship
2. Product: including both the range of offering, ingredients and manufacturing processes
3. The brand story and its PR strategy: focusing on the tactics brands can employ when talking about themselves, to better appeal to the New Muslin Consumer
4. Corporate business practice: every aspect of how the business is run internally
5. Visual Identity: the specific needs of the Muslim consumer when it comes to visual information and appeal
6. Brand communication: a success guide built on decades of Ogilvy experience in Muslim markets
7. External endorsement: who to partner with and who to avoid
8. Customer service and delivery: why getting this right is so important and how to do so.
Noor Brand Index
The groundbreaking Noor Brand Index benchmarks the appeal of specific brands to Muslim consumers, by ranking consumer perceptions of their Shariah-compliance. Chief among its findings are that global brands can forge highly successful relationships with Muslim consumers if they approach the task in a sensitive, honest fashion that is consistent with the core values of Islamic Branding.
The first Noor Global Brand Index throws up some fascinating questions. Why do Nestle, Lipton and Kraft all appear among the top five ranked brands? And why is Emirates, the flagship airline and pride and joy of the United Arab Emirates, in the bottom ten? Answers are to be found in sensitive analysis that starts from an understanding that Islamic Branding is not like any other kind of branding. The report reveals that branding success is less about provenance, and is instead based on whether brands can fundamentally empathize with the needs of the new Muslim consumer through tailored offerings and communications.
The Noor Category Index provides a similar analysis of category appeal to Muslim consumers, including such important areas as food and finance.
About the Research
Given the intricacies and varied interpretations of Islamic branding, we took a holistic approach to ensure we explored all possible angles. We started with extensive desk research to explore existing knowledge, hypothesis and interpretations on Islamic branding. Using these broad hypothesis and themes, we designed the primary research program which included qualitative and quantitative modules.
The qualitative module included 24 focus groups, 24 consumer safaris and 14 expert interviews across four key markets - Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The quantitative module focused on validating some of the qualitative hypothesis while identifying additional elements crucial for the success of Islamic branding. The quantitative sample size comprised 2,644 face to face interviews, conducted in key centers across the four markets listed above. Within this module, we were able to explore a total of 62 categories – consumption as well as service categories – to understand the different nuances and levels of importance in terms of Sharia compliance. We further tested a comprehensive list of local and international brands across those markets and measured their degree of Sharia compliance. This was used to develop Noor Brand Index and Noor Category Index.
The sample included Muslim consumers from different life stages, ranging from young individuals at 18 years to older families at 65 years, across different socio-economic backgrounds.
Ogilvy Noor is a multidisciplinary practice focused on Islamic branding, drawn from across the breadth and depth of Ogilvy & Mather Group’s global network. It is the world’s first bespoke Islamic Branding practice, offering expert practical advice on how to build brands that appeal to Muslim consumers, globally. For more details, visit www.ogilvynoor.com
Ogilvy Noor is led by a core team of experts based across our key Muslim market offices worldwide in Dubai, Pakistan, Malaysia and the UK with key contacts highlighted below. A wide network of communications professionals supports the core team across all the Muslim markets in which Ogilvy operates across 450 offices in 171 markets.
The ‘Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumers’ Report was developed based on the research conducted in partnership with TNS Middle East & Africa.
TNS Middle East & Africa was established in 1980 and is the largest full-service custom market information company in the region with regional servicing hubs in Dubai, Riyadh, Cairo and Casablanca. Going beyond traditional research TNS has taken a number of initiatives to connect marketers with their consumers - through studies such as: Arab As Consumer, Persian As Consumer, Arab As Consumer Woman 2020, Shabab Tek. TNS has a specialised local knowledge across 19 countries in the Arabian Gulf, the surrounding Arab markets, North Africa, Iran, Iraq & Yemen

Islamic Branding and Marketing: Opportunities and challenges
By editor2 • Jun 17th, 2011 • Category: Finance, Global Economy, Management, Recent Articles

By Dr. Paul Temporal
From a market perspective it is always good to give consumers what they really want, and Muslims are a significant market segment that has not been studied and understood.
What is Islamic branding and marketing?
When I use the words ‘Islamic Branding and Marketing’ I am referring not just to brands that originate from Islamic countries, although of course they would come under such a definition, but also to any brands that are seeking to address the needs of Muslim markets. I am referring to any activity related to the branding and marketing of countries, products and services to Islamic audiences, regardless of whether or not they reside in Muslim majority or Muslim minority countries or have Muslim ownership. The rather broad definition I have chosen does not restrict the discussion of Islamic branding and marketing to Muslim owned businesses, but also includes companies that do not have Islamic owners yet are reaching out to Muslim consumers. Thus, non-Muslim brands would also come under this heading if they were looking to build their brands and market share in any Muslim majority or minority market. Indeed, several brands that are meeting the needs of global Muslim audiences currently are from non-Muslim, often Western, companies.
Do branding and religion mix?
Some observers will say that it is not appropriate to mix branding and marketing with religion, but I would disagree. From a market perspective it is always good to give consumers what they really want, and it would be incorrect to think that Islam as a religion does not influence the needs and wants of its followers. The Western branding and marketing managers fully understand the main markets they normally deal with, but Muslim markets have never been properly addressed either in Muslim majority or minority countries. The opening up of Muslim markets and the rise in immigration of Muslims to Western countries as significant and growing minorities means that their needs can no longer be ignored.
The question of segmenting markets based on religion is always a thorny one, and most of the executives and brand managers I have met have emphasized that they are not selling a religion; rather, they are seeking to provide a large market population with products and services that have not, in the main, been tailored to satisfy appropriate and relevant consumer needs and wants.
Using this wider definition, I am thus not concerned with branding a religion but with the building of brands that appeal to a global religious population. It follows that I am not writing about targeting consumers merely because they belong a specific religion, but am focusing on addressing the needs of a large and growing population segment that is defined by common values and practices.
The growing and neglected market
“The global Muslim population is expected to increase at a rate of 35 per cent, rising to 2.2 billion by 2030, or 26.4 per cent of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion.”
While many countries and companies continue to make a mad dash to China and India to develop their businesses and grow their brands, the single biggest market in the world has been largely overlooked. Bound together by a widely shared set of values, Muslims represent nearly 1.6 billion of the world’s population. This market provides a source of huge potential for brands from the West and brands from Muslim countries and is on a steep growth path. By 2030, the global Muslim population is expected to increase at a rate of 35 per cent, rising to 2.2 billion, or 26.4 per cent of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion.
Also by 2030, 79 countries are expected to have a million or more Muslim inhabitants, as opposed to the current number of 72. A majority of the world’s Muslims (over 60%) will continue to live in the Asia-Pacific region, while about 20% will live in the Middle East and North Africa. Muslims will remain relatively small minorities in Europe and the Americas, but will constitute a growing share of the total population in these regions.
Throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe in Islamic majority and minority countries there is escalating business activity, with Islamic trade currently assessed in trillions of dollars.
This huge market has snagged the attention of many Western multinationals. For example, Nestle is now manufacturing many of its brands using Halal processes and is working with Halal accreditation agencies to fast-track growth in Islamic markets. In 2008, Nestle achieved US$5.2 billion revenue in Halal products alone. Several Western fast food chains including McDonalds, KFC and Subway are opening more and more outlets that serve Halal products, and makers of personal care and cosmetics products such as Unilever and L’Oreal have introduced products and campaigns to gain the loyalty of that fast-growing segment in the developing world, middle class Muslim women.
As global citizens, Muslim consumers want the latest, most beautiful and best designed trappings of the Western world. They adore Western brands – Manchester City, Aston Martin, and Harrods included – and want to have more. But just as the Western world has done, the Muslim world would dearly like to develop an array of leading global brands of its own, for several reasons.
Firstly, Western branded products are often not compliant with Islamic Shariah law and therefore are not considered to be Halal. While this does not affect some categories such as luxury cars or fashion accessories, it does impact on categories such as hospitality, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and medical products, and some services.
Secondly, the growth of the educated middle class in Muslim minority and majority cultures and countries has created an impetus to developing indigenous businesses, products and services that are competitive with the long established and accepted brands.
Thirdly, from a national perspective, Muslim governments would like to see their local brands going global because they know how powerful brands can be in terms of economic contribution, and how they shape national images. In particular, they have noticed that the cultivation of intangible assets, such as strong brands, is seen as an essential feature of mature, stable, and growing national economies.
Fourthly, and importantly, many Muslim countries want to diversify their business interests and rely less on narrow resource-based industries, such as energy, which have finite supplies.
Consequently, there is now a considerable surge in demand from Islamic countries and companies seeking to develop global brands and master the necessary branding and marketing techniques and skills so ably demonstrated by the West.
However, any company, Islamic or non-Islamic, that wishes to capitalise on branding and business opportunities should understand that the Muslim market as a whole is not a homogenous one, and across Muslim countries there are many differences, as well as similarities, in terms of consumer behaviour.

Large numbers, fragmented markets
Here are some examples of the similarities and differences across global Muslim markets that influence branding and marketing strategies.
Similarities
• Common faith, values and identity as Muslims
• Similar dietary requirements (Halal)
• Similar lifestyle requirements (finance, education, entertainment etc.)
• Strong sense of community and welfare
Differences
• Diverse locations
• Multiple languages and dialects
• Various cultural and lifestyle differences
• Varying degrees of Islamic religiosity
• Varying degrees of education, affluence and marketing sophistication
The implication of this lack of uniformity is that, although a global brand strategy may be created with a universal value proposition, brand managers and marketers will be forced to adopt multiple marketing strategies in order to build international brands in a variety of countries that appeal to Muslims.
“Brand managers and marketers will be forced to adopt multiple marketing strategies in order to build international brands in a variety of countries that appeal to Muslims.”
Adding to the complexity of the market situation is the fact that much of the world’s Muslim population is relatively poor and situated in developing economies. Marketers should bear this in mind, but they should also consider that as economies develop and populations gain in spending power then so do the opportunities for branding and marketing. For instance, the most populous Muslim minority country is India with around 161 million Muslim people, and as more of these people enter India’s middle class their spending power increases as does their desire to purchase brands. Other countries such as Bangladesh, a large Muslim majority country, are not yet at this stage of development.
Opportunities at the luxury end of the market are more confined to elite cadres in Muslim majority countries, especially in the Gulf. Marketers thus need to search for markets in stages of development that may suit their products, and understand what drives consumer behaviour in those segments. Governments also need to understand different markets so that they can encourage and assist the right industries for the future.
Clearly, careful research is needed in order to fully understand Muslim markets, especially in the field of consumer behaviour. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of opportunities that marketers can pursue across all categories, and from a brand management perspective, the global Muslim market can be considered to be a lifestyle market as Islamic values and practices heavily influence the daily lives of all Muslims.
Islamic branding and marketing opportunities
Although differing in size and behaviour across the world, Muslim markets provide many business opportunities across all product and service categories, including the following.
“The global Halal food market is estimated to be worth approximately USD 650 billion annually, and represents a major opportunity for companies to go international and global.”
Food and beverage: The global Halal food market is estimated to be worth approximately USD 650 billion annually, and represents a major opportunity for companies to go international and global. Some companies from Muslim countries are trying to develop their own brands and some Islamic governments are assisting places and destinations to do the same. However, at present many of the branding opportunities are being taken up by global Western brands such as Nestle.
Education: There is an explosion of Islamic educational institutions at primary, secondary and tertiary levels as the figures for Islamic youth increase. By 2050, it is estimated that Muslims will account for 60% of the world’s population under the age of 18. The youth market represents a massive future prospect, and yet although young people are exposed to information from all over the world with the expansion of the Internet, research suggests they tend to still keep their Islamic values.
Tourism and hospitality: Islamic travel, tourism and leisure form another segment of the Islamic market that offers products and services to both Muslims and non-Muslims. From tourist destinations in the Middle East to Halal airlines and fully Halal hotels and resorts, there is something for everyone, and most Muslim majority countries are trying to cash in on the growth of tourism and tourism-related travel. Pure Islamic tourism and hospitality is growing slowly but surely as companies such as Al Jawhara Group of Hotels and Apartments comply with Shariah law throughout all their operations.
Medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and personal care: This promises to be another large growth area in the global Islamic market. For many Muslims who want to comply with Shariah law and consume only what is Halal, there is a growing industry in generic medical, pharmaceutical, wellness and healthcare products that do not contain non-compliant substances such as certain animal-based gelatines. The growth of this category, spurred on by newly created Halal standards and accreditation facilities, has meant that some countries such as Malaysia are strategically earmarking companies manufacturing medicines, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products for special assistance in building their businesses and marketing their products.
Entertainment: Art, sports and entertainment can be enjoyed by anyone and there are hundreds of television channels throughout the world dedicated to the Muslim consumer, varying in content usually, but not always, by country. Even in Muslim minority countries entertainment brands are emerging, for instance, Islam Channel in the UK.

“The Internet, media and digital products area provides perhaps the most exciting of the opportunities available to those wishing to serve Islamic markets.”
Internet and digital products and services: The Internet, media and digital products area provides arguably the most exciting of the opportunities available to those wishing to serve Islamic markets. Muslims can now find digital libraries, digital art and photography and other products. Global brands also see the market potential in digital space. For example, mobile phone manufacturer LG launched handsets in August, 2009 with a number of special features, including a Qiblah indicator, and prayer time alarm functions as well as Quran software, the Hijiri calendar and a Zakat calculator. And the growth of the networked society presents many opportunities in the area of social media, where brands such as Muxlim.com, probably the world’s largest Muslim lifestyle media company, are emerging and growing, helping individuals and businesses to connect with each other in, and understand, Muslim markets.
Financial products and services: Over the last twenty years there has been a proliferation of banks offering Islamic finance, and countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and others are competing to capitalize on this trend and become regional Islamic finance hubs. Following the recent global recession, issues regarding lack of trust in the conventional banking system have added impetus to the growth of Islamic finance. While the breakdown of the conventional global finance between 2007 and 2009 caused havoc in most countries, the Islamic finance industry in general was relatively unaffected, although there were some sukuk (Islamic bond) defaults in places such as Dubai.
This resilience of Islamic finance has led some players and observers in the industry to call it ‘ethical finance’. The continued rapid growth of Islamic finance is also partly due to the fact that it is based on principles that are accepted widely by non-Muslim as well as Muslim consumers. Research carried out at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, discovered that many banks offering Islamic finance products are attracting many more non-Muslim new customers than Muslims. HSBC’s Amanah product portfolio and Standard Chartered’s Saddiq bank are among Western brands that are building a strong following in both segments with their Islamic products. And pure Islamic banks such as Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank are also successfully adapting their promotional strategies in different countries, attracting different cultural and non-Muslim audiences.
Islamic finance remains a small percentage of the global financial industry, but fast growth is continuing and there is plenty of room for product innovation.
Lifestyle and fashion products: In addition to the categories of lifestyle media magazines and beauty products, the world of Islamic clothing and fashion has started to blossom globally, offering women a vast array of products that combine fashion with Islamic principles. There are also new products that are more recreational in nature such as the ‘burqini’ swimwear.
It is interesting to note that an increasing number of Western brands are already providing products in many categories alongside brands that are indigenous to Muslim majority countries. They have succeeded to date because of their global brand awareness and reputation. What they must do is understand the local context within the markets they are in. However, for companies from Muslim countries there are different challenges to tackle before they can take advantage of these opportunities.
Challenges for brands from the Muslim world
“One of the most fundamental obstacles to the growth of brands from the Muslim world is simply how to achieve brand awareness, gain consumer trial, purchase and preference for their brands when established Western brands have achieved strong brand equity and loyalty?”
One of the most fundamental obstacles to the growth of brands from the Muslim world is simply how they can achieve brand awareness and gain consumer preference for their brands when established Western brands have already achieved strong brand equity and loyalty.
Linked to this challenge is the issue of how to gain access in cluttered markets. In order to become successful as an international brand, especially in fast-moving consumer and retail goods, it is important to get critical mass in terms of distribution. In established markets this can be difficult. Gaining shelf space in supermarkets located in major cities is tremendously difficult for smaller brands, where large companies dominate consumer ‘eyeballs’. For example, in the USA Halal food products are outnumbered by Kosher products in supermarkets by a ratio of 86:1, and 16% of Muslims buy Kosher food as they cannot get access to Halal food.
Thirdly, in entering new markets, brands need acceptability by consumers, especially with respect to the country-of-origin. The country-of-origin effect can be highly influential when it comes to consumer purchase decisions. In the absence of powerful branding, consumers are very risk-averse, and tend not to buy products from countries about which they have doubts or prejudices. Some Islamic brands might run foul of the ‘country of origin’ issue. Mention ‘Islam’ in the West and a negative reaction often kicks in. The biggest educational challenge for marketers of brands from Muslim countries is to move consumer attention away from where products have come from to what they are actually are and the qualities they possess. The management of perceptions is a vital branding skill. There is a parallel here with the shift in consumer perceptions which has been achieved regarding the label, ‘Made in Japan’ since World War II. Immediately after the War that label meant cheap copies of Western products; now it connotes high tech products of high quality and reliability. China is currently going through that same process.
Muslim brand owners thus have to take decisions whether or not to play up or down the country-of-origin of their products, and determine what national associations might transfer to their brand images. Only then can a company prioritise, create, and tailor its campaigns accordingly, and negative perceptions can be successfully avoided with carefully planned communications strategies.
A further challenge arises when building international brands in Halal-related categories such as food, as companies have to produce products and services that are of top quality and acceptable to their intended markets. There are two aspects to this, the first of which is that for brands to do well in Halal markets they have to possess the correct accreditation from the relevant authorities. This can be problematic in international marketing as there is no one globally acknowledged accreditation system, and what is acceptable as Halal in one Muslim country may not be approved by the authorities in others; in fact, there are well over a hundred Halal accreditation systems in existence today, with many conflicting standards. The second issue is that Halal accreditation is not always connected to product quality, and in some countries, despite government support, many companies from Islamic countries have not made it to the international stage because their products only satisfied the accreditation part of the criteria, and not the quality criteria demanded by foreign markets. Achieving this combination of gaining proper accreditation and meeting international quality standards is imperative.
The final challenge is competitive attack from major Western brands that have moved quickly and deeply into these markets with powerful positioning, strong brand names, good value propositions, and that are already known and respected both globally and in the Muslim world. The success of big brands in Muslim markets is not because they possess technical superiority in their products, although they do meet very high quality and accreditation standards, but because their brand names are so well known and trusted that success is almost guaranteed.
Can Islamic companies perform in the global branding arena?
The above challenges lead some people to say that companies from Muslim majority countries will find it difficult to build international and global brands, especially in those markets already dominated by powerful global brands.
There is some truth in these comments, but the very nature of today’s fast-changing business world may help brands from Muslim countries, as it is widely acknowledged that business success increasingly depends on innovation, speed, and agility. There is no shortage of Muslim business leaders with the vision necessary to harness technology and innovative ideas, both of which are freely available, and global niche markets exist for those who can move in quickly. Speed and agility are not strengths possessed by many of the existing global giants, and there are always segments in markets where needs and wants are not catered for by large global corporations. Muslim CEO’s must therefore use market dynamics to exploit the relative weaknesses of the power brand companies, leverage on their knowledge about the Muslim consumer, and establish new and innovative niche market brands that can travel across different countries and cultures.
Summary
“Western brands have the marketing and branding expertise but often lack the cultural awareness and local knowledge to penetrate Islamic markets successfully. They have to work harder with local market research and accreditation agencies.”
The global Muslim market represents enormous opportunities for companies from any country, whether Islamic or non-Islamic, but all face challenges. Western brands have the marketing and branding expertise but often lack the cultural awareness and local knowledge to penetrate Islamic markets successfully. They have to work harder with local market research and accreditation agencies.
Companies from Muslim countries have an array of branding opportunities, ranging all the way from products to companies and organizations and even national identities, and their advantage lies in their understanding of what Muslims want. But they admit to not having enough branding and marketing knowledge and skill to do the job properly and executive education is a key priority for them. Some Islamic companies actually acquire Western brands to fast track their brand management expertise, as was the case with Űlker foods, a company from Turkey that bought Godiva Chocolatier.
My view is that these challenges will be overcome on both sides. Western brands are already moving ahead with some force and the huge multinationals will undoubtedly continue to gain market share if they learn to understand Islamic values, and there are early signs of success that brands developed in the Muslim world are quickly gaining experience in international marketing. There is no doubt in my mind that the next wave of brand development and success will come from the global Islamic market.
This article is extracted from Paul Temporal’s book, “Islamic Branding and Marketing: Creating a Global Islamic Business”, ISBN 9780470825396, Copyright 2011, Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd.
About the author
Dr. Paul Temporal is a leading global expert on brand creation, development and management with over thirty years of experience in management consulting and training, and is well known for his practical and results-oriented approach.
He has been a consultant to many leading global corporations, several national governments, and major organizations such as APEC, World Bank, EU and ASEAN. He is a regular contributor to the global media, and has participated at many international conferences and round table events, such as those organized by The Economist Group, Business Week, World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Paul’s academic positions include a Visiting Professor in Marketing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School and Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. Paul is also a member of the UK Higher Education Academy Islamic Studies Advisory Board.
He has written 16 books on branding, and his latest book is called “Islamic Branding and Marketing; Building a Global Islamic Business.” (John Wiley & Sons 2011)

All American, All Islamic: The Bright Future for Islamic Branding in America [Video & Transcript]
On November 20, 2010, in 2010 Conference, Branding, Videos, by Faisal Masood

Miles Young, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, at the American Muslim Consumer Conference
The following is the transcript of Miles Young’s speech from the 2010 American Muslim Consumer Conference.
Thank you so much for that introduction and thank you to the American Muslim Conference for organizing this informative, provocative and, I believe, hopeful and inspiring day. This is the second edition of this conference and I know I can say on behalf of all the sponsors that it has been an unqualified success. And I am confident that we will see this event grow year after year in size and stature as America and the companies that do business here come to realize the crucial role that the Islamic consumer will play in the future. On a personal note, I am very honored to be given this spot as a non-Muslim and conscious that I am presenting the views of an outsider. I therefore do present them with all humility.
Let’s just, as we close the day, take a moment to take consider the broader context. Because it is the broader context which every journalist asked me about during the lunch hour when I was doing interviews. The United States is in the midst of an uneasy period of relations with the Islamic world. Mistrust and misunderstanding flows back and forth, at the national level, and at the individual level. There is an emergence of some hardcore radicalism on the far edge of the political spectrum in American politics and reminders for some of us historians of the dark days of the post war period. As Sean Willets has recently argued in an article in the New Yorker, fears for security are being translated into fear of Islam as a whole. The United States’ battle against violent organizations seems likely to turn into a proxy war against Islam as a whole.
It could, but actually, I don’t think it will. And I give you that answer rather particularly as a European – for two reasons.
First of all, because what you have in the United States is certainly not what you have in the Netherlands, where a political party has been elected into a powerful position purely on Islamophobia. What you have in the United States are not riots in the streets between police and Islamic people as you do in France. So there is something very different here. There is a kind of psychological problem, and it seems to me to be born out of fear. And fear comes from ignorance and ignorance comes from what you don’t know – from a lack of knowledge. As a newcomer to the United States I’ve been rather astonished actually by the ignorance of Islam and the ignorance of Muslim people. But the good news is that while ignorance exists, ignorance can also be dispelled. And that I feel that is part of the theme of this conference and one of the reasons why it is so important. Secondly, because although we hear a lot of bad news in the media there’s also a powerful desire in the US and I think the Islamic world to tighten the links. Our friends at Gallup have recently pointed out that that both the majority of Americans and citizens of Islamic countries desire better understanding between the West and Islam. And given that fact, contrary to conventional wisdom, Gallup also found that people in the Islamic world admire the west.
So, time and time again, I’ve been asked by journalists today “why now?” and “why is your company involved in this?” “Isn’t it dangerous?” “Isn’t it risky?” And actually I have a very simple answer for that, which is that every multinational corporation I know of has got a diversity policy. Every multinational company I know of publicly states its commitment to inclusion. And how can you believe in diversity and inclusion if you practise rabid exclusion? If you treat in a pejorative way a community that absolutely has the right to be regarded as central to and included in society? So to me it’s absolutely not an option not to be involved. It is not an option.
Of course, it is not just altruism. We heard in the entrepreneurial session some really exciting, ambitious business plans. It has to make business sense. The global halal market is worth $2.1 trillion dollars and it is growing at $500 billion dollars a year. While we don’t know exactly, we can safely assume that American Muslims comprise a very attractive quantum of spending power. And we also heard today that they are the best-educated religious group in American. We know that over 40% have bachelors’ degrees thanks to Gallop. It comes as no surprise therefore that they are strong earners. It makes this community the richest Islamic population probably in the world and quite different in character from other Western minority Muslim communities. Now Islam is already the third largest religion in the States. It is a faith on the rise. As Meghrani reminded us, we don’t really know exactly how many there are. But let’s assume its somewhere between 6 to 8 million. I think that someone just mentioned that’s the size of a reasonable European country. Let’s say Portugal. Well, my own holding company has net revenues of $100 million dollars in Portugal. That is not something to sniff at. And intriguingly, the Islamic population, whatever it exactly is, is probably about the same as where the Hispanic population stood around 25 years ago. And you know around 25 years ago you started to have the set-up of Hispanic advertising agencies in the US. They still exist. They have multiplied. Which says to me that this community will go the same route, will follow the same direction, and will become increasingly central to American marketing and advertising.
Let me turn briefly to the bigger world, which I believe we need to understand. Nazia, my colleague, mentioned a landmark survey that Ogilvy Noor has done on Islam and the new Muslim consumer. Just a word on why we did it. We did it for two reasons. One, because we have a strong business in majority Islamic markets around the world. We employ many Muslims. We have relationships not just with global clients, but with local Muslim clients in the countries where we do business. Two, we also believe it was important to get this agenda on the desks of CEOs globally. We heard today about a tipping point. It is a disgrace that there are no clients at the forthcoming World Halal Forum. But one of the things we constantly have to do is to make sure that those CEOs realize that importance of the size of this opportunity. And if they fail to take advantage of it they are in fact neglecting their strong shareholders’ interests.
So to me there are a number of challenges, which we have to overcome. And the first challenge for Islamic branding is for there to be some coherent viewpoint of what Shariah-compliant branding actually is. There is no one-size-fits-all definition. But it is worth reminding ourselves of what the values are and we heard them today. The nouns. These are the nouns we have to sing out: honesty, respect, consideration, kindness, peacefulness, purity, patience, discipline, authenticity, transparency, trustworthiness, humility, modesty, community – above all of sincerity and sincerity of intent. And all those words sound very very familiar to us because they are the words that have come to the fore in the age of transparency, which has been driven by the internet. They are the words which are referred to when marketing gurus talk about the need for authenticity. They are the values that any smart brand would want to espouse. They have to be put in the context of the mainstream and not of the minority. There is a communication problem, because of the confusion of Sharia values with a very narrow association with Sharia law in the West. Islamic branding can help solve that problem by incorporating Sharia values into brands, and the creative properties that go along with brands and the ideas that communicate brands – and by doing so in an engaging way and not in a legalistic or formulaic way. So the starting point for understanding the Islamic consumer must be an understanding of the role that compliance plays in people’s lives as a set of practices that are lived in concert with religion.
The second challenge for us is to understand that the Muslim community is like any other – not homogenous. I believe this is not understood by those who are the detractors and opponents of the Muslim world. And I also believe that if it is understood that it will dramatically increase empathy. So part of the “othering” which stigmatizes this community today is based, I think, on the belief that it is just some kind of homogenous green block. And actually that’s not surprising when so little market research or classic segmentation work has been done into the behavior of this community. Part of the benefit of the sort of the research that we’ve heard today from a number of sources is that we can see the community in a much more intelligent way. And certainly it is possible to divide it into two different macro-groups based on generational factors and on the role of faith. One group are rather more traditionalist, collectivist more with a sense of belonging, more strongly aligned with Sharia values of compassion, quietly proud. But the second group is what we call the Muslim futurists. This is the group that we in the room today should really be thinking about. And as we heard the presentations just a few minutes ago I think that this is the target audience of the majority of those businesses. These are not just another manifestation of Gen Y or millennials: they are steadfast followers, according to our research, of Islam. But they do seek to engage in the West, to engage in society and to be proud of the society in which they live while not compromising their principles. As marketers, this is the group that here in America I surmise we need to be particularly focused on, fascinated by. Can you imagine though any other community in America that has to endure ignorance and sometimes bigotry from high-profile media commentators only to see those people rewarded with multimillion-dollar jobs? It is a challenge.
And the third challenge is to convey normality. I believe this can be partly be done by analogy. For instance there is an analogy in the United States of the kosher market – $12 billion dollars back in 2008, 13% of the American population purchases kosher foods even though Jews only account for 2% of the American population. And that market is growing like a topsy and is becoming quietly mainstream. There is a parallel here with halal. The Jewish population at 6 million is smaller than the Muslim population. But it is interesting to reflect some 6% of purchases of kosher food in America are Muslim. Probably an understatement; it may be higher. So I think there is a role for branding in the States that is very specific. Brands must inform, educate, reassure the Muslim consumer, but I also believe they have to reach out beyond the Muslim consumer and the very act of reaching out beyond the Ummah legitimizes their role as brands without in my view necessarily undermining them.
And my fourth and final point refers to the challenge of soft power. I think the context for all the discussions today is a lack of soft power of Islam in the United States. And therefore the hard power of Islam is diminished. And it is extraordinary, isn’t it, that all the charitableness of Islam is given no credit or not enough credit. The reason is the lack of soft power. At the end of the day it is all about cultural things. If you consider countries, for instance, Japan, during its economic rise, it also suffered from a lack of soft power and spent a lot of effort to trying remedy that. You had a phenomenon, which was called “Japanese National Cool”, which meant conveying Japan as a cultural entity, as a center of design of advanced of cultural assets, or even of cartoons. Pokémon was an ambassador for the cultural “cool” of Japan. China is going through the same issue at the moment. It is trying also to turn itself into a design, arts and creative center. I am on the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council in Turkey. The main concern of Turkey, which is a secular country with an Islamic population, is that it completely lacks the soft power that it should have relative to its hard power.
Now all research and experience shows that creative design is the major component of soft power. I suggest to you today that something that hasn’t really come out of the session is that Islam is not strongly enough associated, in this country, with design: with graphic design, with the arts, with fashion or creative design. And in this sense it differs from the minority Muslim communities in Europe and certainly from the majority Muslim communities. And let me tell you, art and design diffuse fear. They normalize, they soften. And as I reflect on my own industry I feel there is much more that we should be doing to encourage young Islamic designers to be proud of their Islamic dimension as well as their role as designers. So Islamic branding has to make no concession what so ever in terms of design sophistication. We saw today in the entrepreneurial presentations some references to design but the last mile, really walking the talk about design is the most difficult thing.
Today, I think the consensus was that we are at the beginning of a journey. There are some fantastic and encouraging steps and examples and we heard some of those today. I thought that the Best Buy example was really inspiring – what Steven Pilchak talked about. He wanted to do something big. He wanted to do something different. He believed in diversity. He wanted to find a creative way of connecting based on what the consumers around him wanted. I thought that his video deserves a much wider airing than just in this meeting. Adnan, Saffron Road, is an example of Islamic brand that has got creativity baked into it. And we also heard the role of research at arriving at that brand identity. So these are some great examples, but they do sit within something of a soft power vacuum. And if you want an illustration of something that I would regard as good practice in this area, we should look at the sort of branding that is done for organic and free-range products in Europe. It’s really smart. It has very strong design ethic. It is very sophisticated and it transforms the category.
So drawing all these strands together, I think there is an important point on branding to be made here today. It was Farhan [Tahir] who reminded us that he was a product as an actor and he also had a brand. And the difference between a product and a brand is something that actually my company was built on. It was David Ogilvy, who is our founder, who was probably the inventor of contemporary brand image thinking. And he made the distinction: a product is something that is hard, it is all about bits and bytes, it’s got features. You can feel it. It is tangible, it is made on a production line or it is designed in an office, but it is solid and it is defined. A brand is something very different. It is not so rational. A brand is fundamentally an emotional thing. A brand is a relationship between any manufacturer, any seller of services, and the customer. The brand is actually owned by the customer. It is such a mistake to imagine that it is owned by the manufacturer. So Coke is not a fizzy soft drink as a brand. That is what it is as a product. But it is more than that. Coke is selling optimism. Optimism defines the Coke-consumer relationship. Optimism makes it a brand.
Thus, for instance, I feel a bit uncomfortable about so-called halal branding. Because I think there is a dangerous of misunderstanding here. You know halal is a process, halal is an ingredient. At the very most it is an ingredient brand like Intel is to a computer. But it’s not in itself a complete brand. As one of the speakers asked today, and I thought it was possibly the most important question I heard, “what is the halal premium?” That is an important question. Because it asks that what makes one halal brand better than another halal brand? The answer lies of course in the brand, not in the compliance. It lies in the emotional triggers based on the consumer’s needs and attitudes and motivations. So halal products become brands when halal becomes just a subscript. It is a certificate not a brand. And at the point where we have normal competition between rival halal brands then we will have halal branding. Otherwise what we are talking about is frankly nothing more sophisticated than the sort of branding that existed in Eastern Europe in the communist period.
I do think there is a general deficiency of creativity in halal branding. It is seen as something that has been invented, nothing wrong with that, by producers, but actually the subject of this conference is about consumption. Maybe this is a message or a plea to The World Halal Forum. Abdul Hamid, you talked about the importance of finding a language. It is critically important. But it goes beyond that. It also means finding a narrative, which the language has to express. And it goes beyond that. It means defining the emotions, the imagery and the design, which walk hand-in-hand with the language. This is particularly the case, in my view, for local brands. Unless local brands embrace this, then I fear that the multinational brands will just take over and dominate.
But if we get it right, the consumer desire very definitely is there. There is no doubt at all. And I believe that it is perfectly possible for Islamic branding to exist, to be targeted, to be sophisticated, to be effective, to be empathic and to be appropriate. And in so doing, we should realize that the Islamic market has commercial potential to be sure, but it has a more important role perhaps to play in the future. Because those Muslim futurists I talked about, they are America’s children just as much as any other younger demographic.
Which brings me back to that critical role of branding. Branding normalizes. Branding explains. Branding elevates. Branding inspires. Branding is a former of soft power. I think that Islamic branding can help break that vicious change of “othering”, of dehumanizing, of demonizing which somehow is cinching around America’s soul. Islamic branding can de-other, it can re-humanize, it can give respect.
And it should in time begin to show that the flow of ideas in creative capital in the world is not one way, and that Islam is not a target but a resource, one of the well-springs of our collective future. So that we can say from our hearts, “all-American, all-Islamic” in one phrase, with a sense that it does indeed signal a bright future.
Thank you very much.

Islamic branding for the ‘new Muslim consumer’ |
Tags: Consumer | Islamic branding | Nestle | Ogilvy & Mather Written by Emily Tan | Thursday, 17 June 2010 11:43 | 0 | The world’s strongest Islamic brands may not be from Muslim countries, or even targeted at the Muslim market. According to the Noor Brand Index by global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), the world’s top five brands comprised Nestlé, Lipton, Kraft and two brands by Nestlé — Nescafé and Nido. In contrast, Emirates, the flagship airline of the UAE ranked in the bottom 10.

The Noor Brand Index benchmarks the appeal of specific brands to Muslim consumers by ranking consumer perceptions of syariah compliance. The index is based on a consumer survey of 35 global brands in four markets — Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

“Syariah is a moral compass, a set of values that include humility, righteousness and honesty. So brands that possess these values, whether or not they’re targeted at the Muslim consumer will appeal,” explained O&M Global’s director of cultural strategy Nazia Hussain. From left: Goodman, Temporal, Nazia, Effendy, Roslina and Khan at the roundtable. Photo by Haris Hassan.

Nazia was speaking as a panellist at a roundtable on “Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer” in Kuala Lumpur on May 20. The panel, moderated by Zayn Khan, regional business strategy director, O&M South and Southeast Asia, comprised Nazia; Dr Paul Temporal, associate fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford; John Goodman, regional director for O&M South and Southeast Asia; Effendy Shahul Hamid, director, group corporate communications, CIMB Group; and Roslina Arbak, senior vice-president of communications and external relations, Iskandar Investment Bhd.

Temporal, who directs a research and education project in Islamic branding and marketing at Oxford, points out that while Muslim consumers are different, country to country, syariah values shape the Islamic consumer’s brand perception.

The study estimates the global Muslim market to comprise 1.8 billion people with the halal segment alone worth US$2.1 trillion (RM6.85 trillion) a year. “Brands that engage effectively are able to develop long-lasting relationships with the Muslim community. Brands that get it wrong are commonly boycotted,” said Khan, citing the study. He also pointed out that the boycott of Danish products following the Prophet Muhammad cartoon scandal cost Denmark about US$2.6 billion.

According to the index, certain factors increase the need for syariah compliance in brands for the consumer, said Nazia. “Items that are consumed daily or used on the body rank the highest. Islamic financial services are not regarded as exceedingly important,” she said.

Islamic financial services matter most to the person looking for it, pointed out CIMB’s Effendy. “There are clients who are very savvy and demand complex financial products in line with syariah law. While most may not fully understand the depth of these products, they are conscious of the financial brand’s values, he said. Effendy added that financial brands may have ranked low in the index because sentiment for financial brands is generally negative in the wake of the recent financial crisis.

O&M’s Goodman said Muslim branding also mattered at a national level as Muslim tourists would be more likely to select countries like Malaysia, which is known to be “Muslim friendly”, as a destination.

Iskandar Investment, the organisation tasked with developing the Iskandar region in Johor, needs to appeal both to investors and potential tourists. “While Iskandar is not branded as an Islamic destination specifically, we do adhere to syariah values to give both tourists and investors a choice,” said Roslina. “For example, our amusement park, Legoland, is aimed at families and young children. But if visitors want more adult entertainment, we have an arrangement with the Singapore Tourism Board which will allow them easy access to the Resorts World and Marina Bay attractions on Sentosa,” she added.

“Choice is the word here. Muslim consumers want the full range of choices, at top quality and at cutting edge technology. Too many Islamic brands are outdated — putting a ‘halal’ label on a product is no longer enough to appeal to the modern consumer. They want it all,” concluded Nazia. |

List of world’s most Muslim friendly brands published by Lily Thomas
Source: MNI
November 6, 2010 | Filed under: Fashion,Finance,Halal,Lifestyle | Posted by: MV Media
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Nov 6 2010
Ogilvy & Mather has released in the United States the first-ever study that benchmarks the appeal of specific brands to Muslim consumers, giving highest marks to food, beverage and personal care brands such as Lipton, Nestle and Nescafe. At the same time, the research shows the financial services industry, as represented by brands including Citibank and HSBC, ranks most poorly in terms of being “Muslim-friendly.”
The Ogilvy Noor Brand Index sheds light on how Shariah values and the practice of their compliance (halal) are closely aligned with the ideals of authenticity and transparency. Important to the global “green” movement, the Index also draws parallels between sustainability and the values of Shariah compliance.
In compiling the Index of global brands, the researchers first measured the five categories of most importance to Muslim consumers according to halal status and Shariah compliance. They then tested 35 global brands to create the Index. The five most relevant industries are Beverages, Food and Dairy, Personal Care, Financial Services and Aviation. The Index can be taken as indicative of how appealing these brands are to Muslim consumers relative to each other.
“A market of almost 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,” said Miles Young, CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. “This Index identifies behavioural trends and insights that will be valuable to marketers in developing meaningful relationships with this emerging global community.”
The Ogilvy Noor Brand Index uncovered three key learning’s:
Origin matters less than sincerity. In consumers’ eyes, an Islamic brand does not have to originate in a Muslim country, as evidenced by the number one and two ranking of Lipton and Nestle, respectively, and the low rankings of Emirates and Etihad, two brands originating in Muslim countries. Genuine empathy and understanding, demonstrated through all aspects of a brand’s behaviour, are much more important than place of origin to today’s Muslim consumers.
Physical, everyday usage makes halal non-negotiable. The closer a category is to the human body, and the more regular its consumption, the more it must be completely Shariah-compliant. This is particularly evident for food brands, followed closely by beverage and personal care brands. The food category is one in which Shariah-compliant standards are the most developed, through the practice of halal, which clearly prescribes how a food product must be sourced and handled at all manufacturing stages.
Islamic branding efforts must be holistic. Consumer scepticism accounts for one of the reasons that financial services brands rank relatively poorly in the Ogilvy Noor Brand Index, despite the large sums invested by global brands into their Islamic banking arms. Consumers expressed a desire to feel that the brand genuinely understands and empathizes with Islamic values in all aspects of its operations and is not simply making a token play for them.
“Despite the evident economic potential, Muslims are often overlooked by global brands for fear of getting it wrong,” said Nazia Hussain, Director of Cultural Strategy, Ogilvy & Mather worldwide and Head of Strategy of Ogilvy Noor. “Today’s young Muslim consumers in particular are open to positive change and innovation just like consumers everywhere, as long as that change is aligned with their values from the start.”
The Index was researched by Ogilvy Noor, a multidisciplinary practice focused on Islamic branding within the Ogilvy & Mather global network, and research company, TNS. The Ogilvy Noor Brand Index averages the composite scores of consumers in the majority-Muslim markets of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Malaysia. The results are considered a representative demographic sample of the nearly 1.8 billion Muslims living in 57 countries in the world. The scores are based on a 100-point index, with the final number representing the average percentage agreement with the statement, “this brand is completely halal or Shariah-compliant.”
The Index is part of a larger report entitled, “Brands, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer,” by Ogilvy Noor and research firm TNS. The two-year study reveals what drives Muslims as consumers against the backdrop of ethnic, economic, political and religious diversity of the Muslim world. The study further analyses the factors that drive beneficial relationships with Muslim consumers, distilling the findings into an eight-step toolkit.