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| Olde Tyme Religion | |||
| Emirates emerges as home to 'modern Muslim' consumer | |||
| 2008-11-23 | |||
| A significant and growing percentage of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims are striving for lifestyles that are both religious and modern, representing a largely untapped market, a new study of Islamic consumers says. This profile particularly describes consumers in the UAE, where 45 per cent of the national population – the highest percentage of all the countries studied – fit this category of the so-called “New Age Muslim”, according to the study by the advertising agency JWT and the market research firm AMRB. “We often try to describe an lslamic or a Muslim consumer as westernised or not westernised, which is totally stupid,” said Roy Haddad, the chairman of JWT MENA. “No Arab, or no Muslim that I know, wants to be more westernised. Yes, we want to be modern. But we are not western.”
While the study did find that there are certain traits – such as identification with religion over nation and strong emphasis on family – that unite all Muslim consumers, it also broke each country’s population into social and cultural groups that could help marketers target them better. These included religious conservatives, societal conformists, pragmatic strivers, liberals and New Age Muslims. One of the most surprising findings, according to the researchers, was where actual religious conservatives lived. This group was defined as extremely religious individuals who do not approve of gender interaction, expect others to follow religious practices and override their personal choices for religious beliefs. They were also described as “anti-media and information averse”. The study found that Saudi Arabia, the country traditionally thought of as being among the most religiously conservative in the world, actually had less than 20 per cent of its population fall into this category. In contrast, Jordan, often thought of as a relatively liberal country, had nearly half its population fall into the religious conservative category. “This is the discovery that astonished us,” Mr Haddad said. “Egypt and Jordan are the two highest proportions of religious conservatives. It is not where we thought we would find them, in Pakistan or in Saudi.”
Because this category tended to be both affluent and receptive to media, it represented a huge potential market for brands, Mr Haddad said. “People are really underestimating how important this sector is and how fast it’s growing.” As an example, he pointed to the halal food market, a US$580 billion (Dh2.13 trillion) sector, according to a 2007 Forbes report, but which is not served by a single global halal food brand. As a result, Muslims in the US spend $16bn a year on kosher food, which is also halal – more than the country’s Jewish population. “There are opportunities here that no one is tackling,” he said. | |||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 I suspect the Religious Police are the world's best recruits for religious tolerance. Everywhere the Virtue and Vice police are used, everybody can't wait to be left alone. One of my strongest memories was when Kabul was liberated, and all the men lined up at the barber shops to get their beards shaved. They were all giddy with joy. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2008-11-23 13:41 |
| #3 Our Scimitars have six blades! |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2008-11-23 13:01 |
| #2 Ironically, Saudi Arabia would make complete sense using common "western" labels. More than anything else, they could be called truly "conservative", that is, averse to disruptive change; and also "classical liberal", in gradually wanting more equal rights and fairness. A superb example of this was their attitude towards democratic elections. In a move they thought was very daring, they decided to hold a single, very limited election for a dull local government office, basically a planning and zoning board. Security was intense, with both the police and army on stand by, in case there were riots or a revolution offered to topple the government. But, not surprisingly, the election was dull, dull, dull. Turnout was less than expected, the vote wasn't even close. Greeted with yawns all around. And the public voted just a tad more conservative than what the government had appointed before. The leaders were thrilled! This democracy stuff isn't so bad after all. We should very carefully try some more of it sometime. This is the Saudi attitude through and through, except for the minority of wild haired fanatics. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-11-23 08:34 |
| #1 Rantburg Halal Foods. We can fund this here website with our enemies monies. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-11-23 02:19 |