Islamic Branding & Marketing Forum

Summary
Is Islamic branding anything more than the latest marketing fad? The Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum, held at the Saïd Business School, set out to demonstrate the importance of addressing Muslim consumers and suggest some strategies for doing it. This report, by Warc’s international editor David Tiltman, pulls together the key themes of the two-day conference and examines some of the trends that emerged from it. Speakers agreed on the importance of Muslim consumers to companies’ growth strategies, and that there was no shortcut to a truly Shariah-friendly positioning. The concept of ‘mainstreaming’ – building Muslim-friendly brands that can gain a following among non-Muslim consumers, as opposed to targeting Muslims as a discrete segment – was discussed. The report looks at the building of a global halal brand and the barriers facing brands in Islamic markets looking for global growth.

Summary
Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide’s Chief Executive Miles Young discusses the findings of a major survey of Muslim consumers in this keynote speech from the Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum. He describes how Ogilvy’s clients are beginning to realise the value of Muslim consumers as their attention switches from BRICs to ‘Next 11’. Young identifies six consumer groups within the global Islamic community, and argues that three of them are of particular interest to marketers. The key to engaging them, he says, is ‘sincerity of intention’, posing a major challenge to the way many businesses organise and conduct themselves.