City to host trade fair to help corporates on Islamic branding
Avinash Nair : Ahmedabad | Tue May 07 2013, 04:56 hrs
The city is set to host a first-of-its-kind trade show that seeks to help local and national brands tap into the potential of 18-lakh-strong Muslim consumers through the relatively new concept of “Islamic branding”.
“Islamic branding refers to branding and marketing of products and services to Muslim consumers, regardless of whether the business is owned by a Muslim or not. The purpose of this trade fair is to lure potential Muslim buyers to one place where we have a congregation of brands that are keen to address the needs of the largely untapped Muslim markets,” says Ali Hussain Mohammed, director of Ummat, a city-based socio-economic organisation that is organising the five-day fair from May 22 at Sanskar Kendra.
Ummat also operates the country’s first dedicated “Islamic branding agency” that offers advice on building a brand that appeals to Muslim consumers. It also has a dedicated portal that helps over 12,000 Muslim businessmen network with each other in the city.
The trade fair is also expected to give thrust to indigenous businesses, products and services that are Shariah-complaint. “Muslims are a large and growing segment of the population that is defined by common values and practices. Most branded products are not complaint with Islamic Shariah law and therefore they are not considered to be ‘Halal’ (permitted). While this does not affect some categories like automobiles and fashion accessories, it does impact segments such as hospitality, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and medical products,” says Ali, while explaining the need for brands to focus on the community whose needs have not been properly addressed by markets.
The trade fair will have over 130 stalls, of both Islamic and non-Islamic companies, marketing products for Muslim consumers in the city. The fair is seeing a lot of interest from companies that are into lifestyle accessories, education, restaurants offering ‘halal’ food, etc.
“We have been studying this market for the last three years. There are certain inherent qualities and behaviour of this close-knit community where word-of-mouth advertising is very strong. The city roughly has over 60,000 Muslim families that earn between Rs 50,000 to 2,00,000 a month. So if any company manages to satisfy one customer, it could end up with references of hundreds of possible customers for the future,” Ali says.
“Islamic branding has come of age. Islamic investments are just a small part of it. Today, we have a number of ‘Halal’ airlines that operate in the West Asia and supermarkets in United Kingdom that sell ‘halal’ products. Unfortunately, in India, Islamic investments have not taken off despite the country having the second largest Muslim population in the world. This has largely been due to lack of amendments in the law,” says Zafar Sareshwala, one of the founders of Ahmedabad-based Parsoli Corporation that launched the first UK-based Islamic fund, Parsoli Global Islamic Fund, in 2002 and the Parsoli Islamic Equity Index in India (that enable investors to invest in equities conforming to the principles of Shariah).
Ummat, which has access to mobile numbers of over 3 lakh Muslim consumers, is also marketing the trade fair on “whatsapp”, a cross-platform, instant messaging application for smart-phones. “Most of the high-spenders in the community are youngsters. So we are targeting them as well,” Ali adds.
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