“A market of 1.8 billion people that has scarcely been tapped, Muslim consumers offer enormous potential to businesses around the world – but only if their values are fully understood,” says Miles Young, global CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. And to fully understand their values, Memac Ogilvy conducted a survey over two years – Brands, Islam, and the New Muslim Consumer – in partnership with TNS. One key element of their findings is the power of the young Muslim consumer, a segment of the population that Tanya Dernaika, planning director at Memac Ogilvy & Mather, calls “fascinating.”
“They are different to their parents,” she says. “They are better informed, better connected with the rest of the world, and they are clearer about their identity. They are very steadfast in their knowledge of religion, and they want to express their identity. They are very keen to be heard and represented because they feel they are misrepresented in the global media. This generation that is part of a larger Muslim community will shape the future of brands.”
The Noor Global Brand Index was put together as part of the Brands, Islam, and the New Muslim Consumer survey. It is what the agency calls a “preliminary exploration of the consumer perception of halal status and Shariah-compliance, or relative ‘Muslim-friendliness’ of certain global brands across the world today.” The brand index results show that global brands rank higher on the scale than regional brands: Lipton, Nestle, Nescafe, Nido, and Kraft were the top five favored brands.
“We didn’t try to define how Islamic brands are, but how close Muslims felt towards brands,” says Dernaika. “Consumers felt that the top five brands’ actions delivered on their promise: They come to Muslim-majority markets but they don’t just want to drain the consumer wallet, they want to give back to the community. They consider them to be brands that have bothered to create advertising and communications relevant to them. They’ve created jobs, and established relationships with communities. These are the brands they feel close to.”
Dernaika attributes the success of global brands in Muslim countries to their ability to innovate more readily and easily than regional brands. “Regional brands are trusted because they are from the region, and they are owned and run by Muslims in line with Islamic practice, so young Muslim consumers will encourage brands from the region,” she says. “But in reality, global brands are the most innovative and exciting. A stereotype that was debunked during this survey is that young Muslims are only about modesty and purity. But they want to have fun. They want entertainment that is in line with their values.”
The survey was conducted as a launch pad for Ogilvy Noor, a specialist consultancy that aims to help brands better engage with Muslim consumers worldwide. The research was conducted in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Malaysia, with more than 2,000 practicing Muslims between the ages of 18 and 60 taking part. “Hopefully, marketers will stop being scared, because a lot of them are paralyzed by the fact that they don’t understand this market very well,” Dernaika says.
