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Last Updated: Sep 25th, 2006 - 11:36:04 |
Who is branding whom?
We live in a world of brands. Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there is a brand calling for your attention. Brands not only represent a corporate identity, they have now come to play an increasingly powerful role in defining our individual identities. Like it or not, we have been branded too. As bizarre as it may seem, this may actually be good news for the Halal Market.
Brands are nothing new, they have been around for ages. However, the extent to which they now infiltrate our collective and individual consciousness has reached new depths. The older and more well-established brand giants have even become part of our vocabulary; we hoover the floor, wipe our noses with kleenex and put band-aids on our cuts.
Brands actually go back a very long way. 2,700 years ago the ancient Egyptians were already branding their cattle…and their slaves, for that matter, a detail that may make you look at that logo on your chest in another light.
A ground-breaking American business magazine recently surveyed the current leading-edge trends in branding, and came up with some interesting results; interesting, because they are particularly relevant to the powerful emerging paradigm of the Halal Market.
Individual identity is bound up with chosen brands
The dynamic function of brands has shifted in the last decade. Brands do not just represent the company’s identity; brands are increasingly defining our identities. The choices we make say something about us – whether we carry them on our chests or not. The brands we chose to support, as consumers, also reflect our own political, cultural, and even religious values.
This is a trend that corporations need to keep clearly in mind as they strive to promote their own brands. Brands are not simply corporate property to be controlled, managed and leveraged; they are actually cultural property to be shared and remixed. Getting a brand to fly requires a skilful combination of good ideas from the company, the lift of consumer identification and an updraft of current cultural climate. Only then will it take off.
Brands must be authentic
A brand must reflect a company’s core values, not be just another empty slogan. The average consumer’s antenna for corporate double-speak and corruption is at an all-time high. The ‘Enron’ factor has left its mark, and this is enhanced by the fact that today’s consumer is an increasingly aware creature, and information is shared at high speed across the globe.
Use of third-world sweatshops, contributing to environmental pollution, fat-cat salaries and payoffs, funding political campaigns and wars…all this and much more can now be determined by any consumer who really wants to know.
Brands reflect and create social and cultural values
Nowhere has this been clearer than in the cola market. The arrival of Mecca Cola, Peace Cola, Qibla Cola and many others indicates how much the consumer marketplace has become an ideological and political battle-zone. What you drink has become a political statement. Where we shop, how we bank, what we eat – all these aspects of our lives are now inevitably tied up with consumer brands that make statements about our values regardless of whether we are like it, or are aware of it, or not.
Halal – a global brand in the making
In the midst of all the largely negative media coverage of Islam, the Halal logo is emerging as an icon familiar in all corners of the world. It is a brand, moreover, that fits in with many of the branding trends that we see emerging in the global marketplace. Halal represents what is good, lawful, safe, humane, high quality.
Like Islamic banking, which also naturally fits under the Halal umbrella, Halal speaks of authenticity, high values, honesty and integrity. It is the friendly face of Islam that has already gained acceptance with non-Muslim consumers; two out of three consumers of Halal meat in the UK are not Muslim; numerous Islamic Banks cite statistics of high non-Muslim custom. These trends are trying to tell us something, so we should listen up.
Halal is a cross-over brand that has demonstrated the ability to attract Muslims and non-Muslims alike. While this may at first seem surprising, especially right now, remember that Islam is ‘Deen al-Fitra’ (roughly translatable as the ‘religion of human naturalness’) so Halal is of course in harmony with basic human nature. We naturally like what is good, honest and clean; we have to learn to like the opposite.
Good news for the Halal Industry
This is good news for the members of the Halal Industy in Food & Beverages, Banking, Hospitality and Travel, Fashion, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Medicines & Pharmaceuticals. It is, however, good news that we ignore at our peril. We have a window of opportunity – maybe a couple of years – to take advantage of the tide of cultural values that has already swung in our favour. Simply put, if we do not do it, somebody else will.
It is a well-known maxim in the advertising world - ‘Don’t sell washing powder, sell clean shirts’. Sell the advantages, the benefits, not just the product itself. We are in a branded world, so we should make use of this advice. There are not many people on earth who for whom the words ‘interest-free banking’ is not an attention grabber. Or ‘risk-free trade finance’. These words certainly command more attention than ‘riba’ and ‘mudarabah’, terms that many Muslims do not fully understand. Make it simple, clear and real.
It is time to recognise that what we have with Halal-related products and services is a once-in-an-eon opportunity to establish a world brand that speaks about values, that consumers can identify with, that is authentic and ethical. We must of course ensure that we establish and maitain high standards and practices for these products – and for ourselves. If we do, we can take part in and benefit from the creation of a new market paradigm that can, finally, work in our favour.
The world is waiting for the Halal. If we ourselves are authentically Halal, we can have spectacular success, not only across the board, but in both worlds. If we miss it, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
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