Islamic Branding and Marketing

Nearly 25% of the world’s population is Muslim; fast-growing nations such as China and India have significant Muslim minorities – as do many Western countries.

So a book focused on Islamic branding and marketing is likely to be in demand. Moreover many (but by no means all) Muslim-majority countries need to grow their economies – and better branding and marketing should help.

Unfortunately this book by Dr Paul Temporal, an Associate Fellow at Said Business School, Oxford University doesn’t quite rise to the challenge, though I do acknowledge the huge amount of work in pulling all the information and insight together.

In keeping with the author’s profession, it reads more like a student text book than a useful tool for the business person. Perhaps the book tries to do too many things by addressing both non-Muslim business hoping to market to the Muslim population and Muslim businesses hoping to market and brand themselves more effectively.

To be sure some of the content is fascinating. Many Shariah compliant banks avoided the worst of the banking crisis because of their more conservative policies – non-Muslims are a growing market for Shariah-compliant financial services.

And it’s a counter-intuitive insight that in Ogilvy’s Noor Index of relative ‘Muslim-friendliness’ Western-originating brands such as Lipton and Nestle are at the top, scoring much higher than UAE-domiciled airline brands Emirates and Etihad.

My third takeaway (and this probably reflects my naivety) is that Halal products extend way beyond food and drink to a vast range of products and services. Did you know that 16% of Muslims in the US buy kosher foods because Halal foods aren’t available?

The book has a raft of case studies, some more interesting and relevant than others. I found the studies of Zain and Muxlim (facebook for Muslims) useful – other case studies read as company puff pieces .

There are also large sections of this book that are generic content on how to build a brand and approach marketing. This content would tend to patronise most people already working in branding and marketing.

Book Club: Islamic Branding and Marketing – Creating a Global Islamic Business by Paul Temporal

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