Halal certification provides an opportunity for marketers to differentiate their products and services in the competitive UAE market. A survey of 151 UAE university students found that while they are familiar with the concept of Halal, their awareness of Halal certification and specific Halal brands is low. The paper suggests that marketers could brand their products and services as Halal certified to appeal to consumers in UAE and globally, but first must increase awareness of Halal certification through marketing communications.
Halal certification provides an opportunity for marketers to differentiate their products and services in the competitive UAE market. A survey of 151 UAE university students found that while they are familiar with the concept of Halal, their awareness of Halal certification and specific Halal brands is low. The paper suggests that marketers could brand their products and services as Halal certified to appeal to consumers in UAE and globally, but first must increase awareness of Halal certification through marketing communications.
Halal certification provides an opportunity for marketers to differentiate their products and services in the competitive UAE market. A survey of 151 UAE university students found that while they are familiar with the concept of Halal, their awareness of Halal certification and specific Halal brands is low. The paper suggests that marketers could brand their products and services as Halal certified to appeal to consumers in UAE and globally, but first must increase awareness of Halal certification through marketing communications.
Shambavi Rajagopal Middlesex University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Sitalakshmi Ramanan Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai Womens College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Ramanan Visvanathan Shail Group of Institutions, Indore, India, and Subhadra Satapathy Manipal University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce Halal certication as a new marketing paradigm which marketers can use to differentiate their products and services in the current competitive environment. Design/methodology/approach In total, 151 questionnaires were distributed to the business student population from different universities in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The self-administered questionnaire required the respondents to answer demographics questions on emirate of residence within UAE, gender, age and nationality, followed by specic questions to determine if respondents actively seek Halal certication for various products and services and if they were aware of brands offering certication. The questionnaire concluded with an open-ended question to nd out what Halal certication meant to the respondent. Findings The application of statistical tools indicated that, although the concept of Halal is familiar to the students, their awareness of whether products are Halal certied and their knowledge about Halal brands is extremely low. Practical implications This paper suggests a model for marketers to brand their products and services by seeking, highlighting and communicating Halal certication in the UAE and possibly extending to the world markets. Originality/value The paper suggests that consumers are not exposed enough to Halal certication and Halal brands through marketing communication and suggests the greater use of marketing and branding to promote and sell Halal products and services. It has immediate practical relevance to marketing practitioners and strategic planners. Keywords Halal, Beliefs, Brand awareness, Consumer behaviour, Islamic marketing, Halal certication, United Arab Emirates Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Opportunities to differentiate and to provide a unique identity to products are few and far between. Trout (2002) goes so far as to say that you cant over communicate your difference. The cost of differentiating products often oversets the benets of product and service differentiation. Since Halal is a vital aspect of the Islamic cultural web, Halal certication allows us to explore a new marketing paradigm. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1759-0833.htm JIMA 2,2 138 Journal of Islamic Marketing Vol. 2 No. 2, 2011 pp. 138-153 qEmerald Group Publishing Limited 1759-0833 DOI 10.1108/17590831111139857 Halal literally means permissible - and in translation it refers to lawful according to followers of Islam religion. The antonym to Halal is haram, which means unlawful or forbidden. It is essential to a Muslim that whatever product is consumed should be lawful and permissible. Today Muslims account for a quarter of the worlds populationandtheyare expected to reach30 percent by2025(Roberts, 2010). The impact of culture is sonatural andautomatic that its inuence on behavior is usually taken for granted (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2009). Consequently, the Halal phenomenon is acquiring global recognition and usage. The current study researches awareness about Halal products and Halal certication among the student population in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study is focused on the student population, as all marketing practitioners agree that the brand loyalty developed among the younger generation may be leveraged lifelong, if they are targeted in their youth. Thus, the brand can increase its share in the customer lifetime value (Cravens and Piercy, 2006). The Halal paradigms signicance was emphasized by the news report in Khaleej Times (2009) on 27 November that during the Halal Expo, 2009 held in Dubai, UAE there were 80 global companies and more than 200 brands compared to 52 exhibitors in the previous year reported in The Halal Post Show Report (2008). The gures of the report (Appendix 1) suggest that in addition to the primary interest in Halal food, visitors also evinced a noticeable interest in hospitality, beauty care, health care and ingredients. This denitely indicates that marketers have a scope to either create new products or identify existing products that can be Halal certied and marketed successfully to fulll the needs of the Islamic consumer. According to IFANCA, when a product is Halal certied, the consumer can purchase the product with the assurance it does not contain anything that is haram or doubtful. Producers/marketers also benet since Halal certication provides an independent third-party quality assurance step valued by conscientious consumers which leads to worldwide acceptance of their products and services. Thus, there is a growing need for increasing consumers awareness of the benets of Halal certication and educating marketers on utilizing this tool. The concept of obtaining of Halal certication from relevant authority, and communicating it to the consumer can be used by marketers for focused differentiation (Porter, 1980), whereby, there is a perceived added value to a particular consumer segment. The Halal Monitoring Committee, UK states that: [. . .] companies throughout the world are seeking authentic Halal certication to gain consumer condence, expandtheir existingmarket andenhance sales strategies. Manycompanies continue to choose the HMCHalal certication and are enjoying the marketing privileges this certication offers. The HMC Halal symbol can open new marketing avenues never before accessed. 2. Halal products and services: literature review This section explains how Halal is used in different contexts. Halal is not just applicable to food and drinks consumed internally but also where other sensory organs are involved and hence the USP is now the new emotional selling point. 2.1 Halal foods Ahmed (November 2009) reported that Halal continues making waves and grabbing attention of investors, suppliers and producers. Countries that will succeed in entering Halal certication 139 the international Halal market will be those who pay attention to the details of quality, standards and marketing, aligned with the most active players such as Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Turkey and now UAE. Andarakis (2009), Chief Executive Ofcer of Al Islami Foods, an award winning Halal producer in the Middle East, stated that the Southeast Asian producers are vying over US$2.1 trillion and growing Halal food market in 185 countries and working out on long-term plans to enter more than 1.8 billion Muslim market. 2.2 Halal food and beverage convergence According to Trade Arabia (2008), Masa, a leading UAE-based producer of mineral water in the Gulf region, declared it was set to enter the gourmet food business indicating convergence of food and beverage companies. The company planned to develop a diverse food and drink portfolio and expand into a fully edged fast moving consumer goods company by 2011. The company also announced plans to produce premium potato chips that are low in saturated fat and 100 percent Halal. This suggests that both food companies and water companies that plan to grow laterally have seen the potential of the Halal word in business. 2.3 Halal agriculture: fruits and vegetables Genetically modied food is considered to be un-Islamic and not Halal. Huat (October 2009) mentioned the Halal Development Corporation (HDC), owned by the Malyasian Government, signed a MoU with Beneq Pte Ltd, a newly formed company that will lead Glons agri food business thrust in Asia. The Glon Groupe, with an annual turnover of e1.65 billion (RM8.3 billion) and 60 years of experience in the food processing industry, would bring its time-tested philosophy of creating a successful agricultural eco-system to benet all involved in the Halal agricultural value food chain. With the MoU, the Halal industry will have access to breakthrough technology that leads in traceability and sustainability from farm to fork. 2.4 Halal logistics Arabiansupplychain.com ( July 2009) states that Halal food requires Halal supply chain. This not only includes unbroken cool chains but efcient delivery of fresh food produce also. The report also suggests that players need to be well versed in the whole ethos in order to maintain what is known as the Halal integrity of a food product and to be at the top of the Halal logistics game. The industry is now demanding more specialized Halal compliant solutions for its supply chain process in order to maintain the legitimacy of some Halal products. Companies like Emirates Sky Cargo based out of Dubai, UAE offer a complete Cool Chain solutionandat the same time Meat andLivestockAustralia, has a Halal brand for Australianmeat inthe Middle East. These organizations have jumpedin earlyto set the consumer mind at rest and cater to the demand yet there remains a big gap in the market. 2.5 Halal chemicals Henni and Canty (2009) mention that Malaysias Titan Chemicals claims that it has become the rst petrochemical company in the world to have their polyolens (polypropylene and polyethylene) certied as Halal by the HDC in Malaysia and Majelis Ulama Indonesia in Indonesia, respectively. JIMA 2,2 140 Companies like Merck have Merck4Food in their product portfolio, which has wide range of food additives that comply with Islamic law and are certied as being Halal. Apart from this the chemicals used for cleaning (especially soaps and foams) should be screened to avoid animal fat origin. 2.6 Halal pharmaceuticals The global pharmaceutical market stood at US$607 billion in 2006 and Frost and Sullivan estimates this market to reach US$818 billion by 2013 while PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast it to be US$1.3 trillion by 2020. Too (2010) reports that the Brunei Economic Development Board announced the endorsement of the Sultanates Halal pharmaceutical guidelines put together by a group of government agencies. She also indicates that these guidelines that were a rst of its kind help Brunei Darussalam attract investors keen on grabbing a share of the market for Halal-certied pharmaceuticals. Cheong said that the guidelines would help with convincing foreign investors to look at Brunei as a location for the manufacturing of Halal pharmaceuticals. 2.7 Halal chocolates Gulf Marketing Review (2009), reported that Nestle has planned to move its Halal range into mainstream retail channels in Swiss supermarkets. Nestle has been offering Halal versions of many of its brands since 2004 in countries like France, the UK, Germany, etc. Halal products are sold in 1,000 stores in ve European countries. The product range includes Nido, Smarties, Maggi Soups, Kit Kat, Milo and Nescafe accounting for annual sales around $5.2 billion. Out of 456 factories, 85 are Halal certied. Though mainly these factories are in Indonesia, South Africa and Middle East surprisingly 20 of the factories is Halal certied. 2.8 Halal cosmetics Patton (2009) states that the demand for Halal cosmetics worldwide is on the rise, driven not only by more afuent Muslim consumers but also growing interest in high quality, safe products. Though wearing cosmetics is questionable for Muslim women and under debate, those who do wear, prefer pork and alcohol-free products. Where Anita Roddick of Body Shop might have used against animal testing and natural ingredients to position the company which is quite popular in Middle East, it is Layla Mandi, a Canadian make-up artist who has set up the Dubai-based company OnePure having identied the gap in the market and selling specially formulated cosmetics range including toner, cleanser moisturizer, etc. with elaborate plans to move into the mens cosmetics range too. They also plan to partner with leading hotel brands to provide OnePure to the guests. There are other players in the market but just a handful and more important fact is whether the consumer is informed and aware of the choices available. 2.9 Halal and technology A report (May 2009) states that nding a Halal restaurant has become easier for Americans Muslims thanks to Halalpal, an iPhone application that provides users a list of nearby Halal restaurants with maps, contact information, price categories Halal certication 141 and recommendations. The report found that peoples need for such a service provided the inspiration to create a special application for Halal users. Halalpals founder states that the aim of any business is to tune in and respond to the needs of customers. 2.10 Halal hospitality Kola (April 2008) mentions that Islamic hotels are becoming increasingly popular with Muslims and non-Muslims alike for their quiet, family-friendly approach, Some of the key features of an Islamic hotel, or Shariah compliant hotel, include serving of Halal food, and women staff attired in dresses that comply with the Muslim culture. Also, no alcohol is sold in the hotel nor it is allowed in. There are other facilities like ladies-only swimming pools. The hotels receive many guests from the CIS and Baltic countries, which comprise of large Muslim populations. Gangal (March 2010) informs that a new online resource has been launched that will provide information on Halal travelling to the public. Users of Halaltrip.com can rate businesses, which will be examined daily helping to create the most transparent travel source for Muslims. The resource aims to be the leading online source for Muslims planning their holidays or religious trips. This is an underestimated market as they are reaching out to more than one billion people. 2.11 Halal and vegetarianism Halal is also being hailed by vegetarians. The Vegetarian Resource Group in a poll in 2009 estimated six to eight million adult vegetarians in the USA. Harris Interactive w elded the study on behalf of The Vegetarian Resource Group fromMay 1-5, 2009 via its QuickQuery SM online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,397 US adults aged 18 years and older. Data were weighted using propensity score weighting to be representative of the total US adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be online. So now there is a new segment where Halal is not exclusive to non-vegetarians and Muslims. Both groups are connected to religion and both are niche and both comprise a large segment of the world population which cannot be tracked as no country tracks population on the basis of personal preferences. From the above literature review, the following areas for research on consumers Halal awareness emerge: RQ1. Does the customer seek Halal certications consciously? RQ2. Is the customer aware of brands in the various categories of Halal-certied products and services that he seeks? 3. Methodology 3.1 Hypothesis The four independent variables considered for the study were emirate of residence, age, gender and nationality. Based on the research questions above, the following hypotheses were formulated. 3.1.1 Hypothesis based on emirates of residence. H1. Business students residing in all emirates consciously seek Halal certication. JIMA 2,2 142 H2. Business students residing in Dubai show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. 3.1.2 Hypothesis based on age. H3. Business students of all ages consciously seek Halal certication. H4. Business students in the age group of 18-25 years show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. 3.1.3 Hypothesis based on gender. H5. Business students of both genders consciously seek Halal certication. H6. Female business students show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. 3.1.4 Hypothesis based on nationality. H7. Business students from all nationalities consciously seek Halal certication. H8. Business students from UAE and Arab expatriates show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. 3.2 Objectives The primary objective of the study was to identify existence of brand awareness amongst students in UAE regarding Halal-certied companies offering various products and services. The second objective was to recommend to marketers the advantage of tapping into the non-vegetarian customer segment using Halal certication. Finally, the study seeks to recommend to companies using the vegetarian stamp to tap the 1.8 million Halal market by seeking Halal certication. 3.3 Research design Primary descriptive research was conducted amongst business students in UAE through a self-administered questionnaire. A secondary exploratory research was carried out prior to the primary data collection to identify organizations offering Halal-certied products and services. 3.4 Sampling design Students of business studies were chosen as the sample population as a part of their curriculum comprises of modules on marketing and communication strategies and understanding the value of differentiation and brand equities. They are expected to be more aware of the trends and latest happenings in the market. And, they are signicant to companies because of their customer lifetime value. The number of sampling units was 151 and the respondents were selected using judgmental sampling. The data were collected over nine months from January 2010 to October 2010. 3.5 Data collection Variables were selected due to the unique characteristics of the cosmopolitan population of UAE comprising of 200 nationalities. The self-administered questionnaire required the respondents to answer: Halal certication 143 . demographics questions on emirate of residence, gender, age and nationality; . whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian; . specic questions to nd out if the respondents actively seek Halal certication for various products and services that include meat, poultry, fruits, vegetables, chocolates, medicines, cosmetics, beverages and hospitality; . brand awareness for the various product categories; and . an open-ended question to nd out what Halal certication meant to the respondent. 3.6 Statistical tools applied In addition to descriptive statistics, the study analyzed the mean scores and standard deviation for awareness levels and applied inferential statistical tests such as x 2 -test, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to nd any association between the independent variables used and Halal awareness and brand knowledge. The study also computed correlation coefcient to determine the degree of correlation between awareness of Halal and brand knowledge. 3.7 Limitations of the study The research is constrained by time and cost. A possible limitation of the study may be that as business students in the UAE, respondents are expected to have some knowledge of Halal certication. This may have introduced a systematic bias in the responses. However, this may be overcome by the responses seeking Halal brand knowledge. 4. Analysis and discussion A total of 151 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents to identify possible relationships between each of the demographic variables and their preference for Halal-certied products and services and the extent of their brand awareness. Analysis of demographics A total of 151 respondents were surveyed. About two-thirds of the respondents resided in the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah, 8 percent from Ajman and the remaining 25 percent spread over the other emirates in the UAE. The percentages of female and male respondents in the survey were 58 and 42 percent, respectively. The dominant age group of the respondents was 18-25 years of age with about 90 percent of the respondents belonging to this age group. This was consistent with the objective of the study to research Halal consciousness among the student group in UAE. Asian expatriates made up the maximum number of respondents. About two-third of the respondents were Asian expatriates, followed by Arab expatriates (16.6 percent) and UAE nationals (12.6 percent). The remaining 5 percent were made up of Western nationals and others. About 82 percent of the respondents studied were non-vegetarians and the remaining 18 percent were vegetarian. Appendix 2 shows the number and corresponding percentages of respondents who look for Halal certication always, sometimes and never for each of the products and services in the study. It is evident from the table that meat and poultry are the two products in which maximum percentage of respondents always look for Halal certication while fruits, vegetables and cosmetics make up the products that have JIMA 2,2 144 the highest percentage of respondents never looking for Halal certication. This may be because natural products such as fruits and vegetables are automatically perceived as Halal and genetic modication which is much prevalent does not come under regular scrutiny. Cosmetics also has a low mean rating possibly because people associate Halal with internal consumption disregarding the fact that cosmetics pass through the skin pores. Analysis of the mean scores for Halal certication The mean score was 16.22 and the standard deviation was 4.78. These were used to classify the respondents into three levels of awareness. The respondents were classied into low, moderate and high level of awareness categories. The respondents who had scored 13 or below (i.e. below mean 20.5 SD value) were classied as having low awareness while the respondents who had scored 20 or above (i.e. above mean 0.5 SD value) were classied as having high awareness. Those respondents with mean scores between 14 and 19 (both inclusive) were classied as having moderate awareness. The awareness score on Halal certication found that 31.8 percent of the respondents showed scores lower than 13 indicating lowawareness levels while 25.8 percent showed high awareness level. This may be interpreted to mean that although the respondents state that they are Halal conscious, the results of the study indicate otherwise. The actual scores were compared across all the personal variables and the corresponding statistical tests were carried out and the results are presented in the following pages. ANOVA tests for signicant mean differences in variables among multiple groups. ANOVA for awareness score on Halal certication based on emirates of residence showed no signicant difference in the means of the various groups (emirates of residence) as indicated by the F-statistics although the mean awareness score varied from 15.59 to 17.33. This is consistent with the H1 that business students residing in all emirates consciously seek Halal certication. ANOVA for awareness score on Halal certication based on age also showed no signicant mean difference in the awareness among the different age groups studied. This supports H3 business students of all ages consciously seek Halal certication. Since the awareness score will tell us the level of awareness of each respondent (i.e. lower the score lower the awareness and higher the score higher the awareness, the mean awareness scores for each age group are found out. ANOVA was done to see whether there are signicant differences in the scores among different age groups of respondents. The ANOVA result shows that the calculated F-ratio value is 1.986 which is found to be not signicant when tested at 5 percent level. Hence it may be inferred that the awareness scores do not vary based on different age groups. ANOVA for awareness score on Halal certication based on nationalities showed signicant mean difference in the awareness among the different groups of nationalities studied at 1 percent level of signicance. This does not support H7 that business students from all nationalities consciously seek Halal certication UAE nationals showed highest mean ratings (19.58) while Western nationals and others showed lowest mean rating (14). A t-test is carried out to see if there are any signicant differences in the means for two groups in the variable of interest. The t-test showed no statistical signicance in the differences of mean for male and female respondents on awareness score Halal certication 145 on Halal certication. This is consistent with H5 that business students of both genders consciously seek Halal certication. During the analysis, the t-test also showed no statistical signicance in the difference of means for vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents. Brand knowledge on Halal certication The knowledge about number of brands known to have Halal certication was found out by adding the number of brands known for each product. The total indicated on the whole the number of brands the respondents claimed to know that were Halal certied. The study indicated that the brand knowledge about number of products varied between 0 and 15. The average number of brands known to the respondents based on emirates of residence was 2.42 with a standard deviation of 3.34. It is signicant that there was so much variation in their knowledge that the standard deviation was higher than the mean for all emirates of residence except Ajman. It is also important that 48 percent of the respondents had no knowledge of the brands that were Halal certied while only 12 percent of the respondents could identify more than six Halal-certied brands. This is in conict with expectations that business students would have signicant knowledge of Halal-certied brands. ANOVA for brand knowledge on Halal certication based on emirates of residence showed no signicant difference in the means of the various groups (emirates of residence) as indicated by the F-statistics although the mean varied from 2.07 for Dubai residents to 3.08 for others. It was found that the mean rating for brand knowledge is the lowest in Dubai in contradiction to H2 that business students residing in Dubai show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. ANOVA for brand knowledge based on age group indicated no signicant difference in the means of the different groups. This does not support H4 that business students in the age group of 18-25 years show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. The group with the highest mean rating was 33-40 years (3.00) and the lowest mean rating was for the age group 15-18 years (0.25). ANOVA for brand knowledge based on nationalities of the respondents also returned results that showed no statistical signicance as indicated by the F-statistics. Arab expatriates predictably showed the highest mean rating for brand knowledge while UAE nationals showed the lowest mean rating on brand knowledge. This supports H8 in respect of Arab expatriates that business students who are Arab expatriates show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication but not in respect of UAE nationals. This result is explained when we nd that a number of UAE nationals keep livestock and poultry for their personal use and do not buy meat and poultry from the shops. Hence they do not require knowledge on meat and poultry brands. The t-test showed statistical signicance in the differences of mean for male and female respondents on brand knowledge on Halal certication at 1 percent level of signicance. It was found that male respondents showed higher brand knowledge on Halal certication. This is not consistent with H6, that business students irrespective of gender show higher awareness of brands with Halal certication. The t-test also showed statistical signicance in the difference of means for vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents at 1 percent level of signicance with non-vegetarians showing higher brand knowledge on Halal certication. JIMA 2,2 146 Correlation coefcient was computed to show the degree of correlation between awareness of Halal and the number of brands known (brand knowledge). Higher the correlation value more the degree of relationship between awareness and brand knowledge. The highest correlation was found between awareness of poultry and brand knowledge of poultry while the lowest signicant correlation was for vegetables. There was no signicant correlation for medicines, beverages and hospitality. The awareness level can be studied in other way also. That is by relating the level of awareness with personal variables and observing which group has got more in terms of percentages with a combination of two variables. For example, among Emirates of Dubai, 38.9 percent have low awareness and 37.5 percent of same have moderate awareness whereas among the Emirates of Ajman, 41.7 percent have high awareness compared to other emirates. The x 2 test was conducted to nd whether there is any association between awareness level and emirates of residence. The calculated value of x 2 is 9.476 which when tested at 5 percent level showed no signicant relationship between awareness level and emirates. x 2 testing for any association between awareness level and gender and again also showed no signicant relationship. Similarly the calculated value of x 2 when tested at 5 percent level showed no signicant relationship between awareness level and age group of respondents. x 2 test also did not nd any signicant association between awareness level and vegetarian/non-vegetarian respondents. However, x 2 test showed signicant relationship between awareness level and nationality of the respondents at 5 percent level of signicance. The x 2 test conducted to identify any association between brand knowledge and emirates of residence showed no signicant relationship between brand knowledge and emirates of residence. Similarly, the test showed no signicant relationship between brand knowledge and gender. The test did not identify any association between brand knowledge and age groups of respondents and between brand knowledge and nationalities of respondents. However, the x 2 test showed signicant relationship between brand knowledge and vegetarian/non-vegetarian respondents at 1 percent level of signicance. In summary, ANOVA for awareness score on Halal certication based on nationalities showed signicant mean difference in the awareness among the different groups of nationalities studied at 1 percent level of signicance. The t-test showed statistical signicance in the differences of mean for male and female respondents on brand knowledge on Halal certication at 1 percent level of signicance. Again the t-test showed statistical signicance in the difference of means for vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents at 1 percent level of signicance. The highest correlation was found between awareness of poultry and brand knowledge of poultry while the lowest signicant correlation was for vegetables. x 2 test showed signicant relationship between awareness level and nationality at 5 percent level of signicance. The x 2 test showed signicant relationship between brand knowledge and vegetarian/non-vegetarian respondents at 1 percent level of signicance. Brands identied as Halal Appendix 4 lists the brands that have been identied by respondents as Halal. The number of respondents choosing the brands is indicated in brackets. The research does not attempt to identify whether the mentioned brands actually exist, or if they carry Halal certication 147 Halal certication. The study also does not try to explore if the mentioned brands are Halal irrespective of not carrying Halal certication. It is also signicant that retailers such as Carrefour, Spinneys and Choithram are perceived as carrying Halal products in meat and poultry categories. Barakat Fruit and Vegetables Co, a wholesaler and retailer in UAE, is perceived to be carrying Halal vegetables. This company also manufactures fresh juice locally under the brand name of Barakat. Another aspect of Halal is that a number of respondents said that they bought livestock and slaughtered them under personal supervision. Other respondents also bought unbranded meat from the local butcheries and supermarkets. Hence both these segments did not seek Halal brands in meat and poultry. Qualitative analysis. The respondents were asked to comment on the open-ended statement: for me, Halal certication is. The replies suggested that apart from being necessary from the religious viewpoint, most respondents identied Halal status of products and services by the Halal sign or certied logo, stamp of ministry and stamp of municipality. It might be of interest to marketers that some of the respondents thought products from Islamic countries to be Halal. Fruits and vegetables were perceived to be always Halal. Recommendations and marketing implications Advertising has traditionally been used to develop brand identities by stimulating awareness and perception (Fill, 2009). Keeping this in mind, the brands which are Halal should actively promote Halal certication in their products and services and those which are not may like to use this opportunity to seek Halal certication. The following guidelines emerge from the research: (1) Recommendation to Halal-certied marketers: . communicate this point of differentiation through advertising; . communicate this point of differentiation through packaging; and . create social media pages, e.g. Facebook to promote this point of differentiation. (2) Recommendations to marketers using Halal methods but not having certications: . get the formal Halal certication seal; . communicate this new difference through advertisements; . communicate this new difference through package changes; and . communicate this new difference through freely available social media. (3) Recommendations to companies catering to the vegetarian markets: . communicate this difference in products and ingredients to the non-vegetarian particularly the Halal following population; and . inform source to vegetarian consumers not using products with gelatin, etc. as they perceive it be of animal origin. Marketers can capture benets from markets after Halal certications by choosing to communicate a combination of positioning recommended for different target market segments (Table I). JIMA 2,2 148 In Table II, focused attempt is made to help marketers create micro-segments of markets and adapt their products/services accordingly. Scope for future research. Apart from the areas indicated by the * sign relating to non-Halal followers and others who are indifferent to the Halal paradigm, there is further scope for research using bigger samples and investigating other categories such as Halal nance and agriculture also. The research scope may also be widened to study vegetarian population. 5. Conclusion It is evident from the literature review that there are many existing brands in various categories mentioned above. However, the ndings of the study indicate that the communication from the marketer is denitely not reaching its audience. The marketer is not using the differentiator as a method to convey their unique selling proposition of having Halal certication and communicating the benets to position the organization in the customers mind. If Halal can be the differentiating factor and all it needs is being certied then the marketer who qualify, should seek certication and those who do not qualify can make appropriate changes to their products to enable them to seek certication and associated benets. Non-vegetarian Vegetarian Adding Halal certication I Origin under proper Halal conditions II Emphasise plant origin Gelatin from animal source except pork Articial gelatine Colours used from natural source Colours used from natural source Genetically not modied Free from alcohol content Free from alochol content Prefer free from animal source Animal source except pork No Halal certication IV Do not mind from any source Colours from any source No special preference either ways to genetic modication Alcohol content is not an issue III No special preference either ways to genetic modication Emphasise on the source if from plant origin or articially synthesized Table I. Positioning choice for marketers to communicate Preferences Non-vegetarians Products/services Halal followers Non-Halal followers Vegetarians Vegetarian sh Others Meat p * NA NA * Poultry p * NA * * Fruits p * p p * Vegetables p * p p * Chocolates p * p p * Medicines p * p p * Cosmetics p * p p * Beverages p * p p * Hospitality p * p p * Note: The symbol * indicates scope for further research Table II. Markets which can be captured after Halal certication Halal certication 149 So from oil to soil, port to transport, pack to rack it is all about Halal and the marketer who cannot only provide it but also communicate it to the consumer who stands to be a winner. References Cravens, D.W. and Piercy, N.F. (2006), Strategic Marketing, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, p. 217. Fill, C. (2009), Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communities and Content, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Harlow, p. 498. Gulf Marketing Review (2009), Nestle Halal ranges to go mass market, December, p. 25. Halal Expo (2008), Halal Expo 2008 Post Show Report, Dubai. Henni, A. and Canty, D. (2009), Titan Chemicals produces Halal polyolens, available at: www. arabianoilandgas.com/article-5970-titan_chemicals_produces_Halal_polyolens/ Khaleej Times (2009), Halal Expo 2009 caps off impressive run with record sales, visitors, Khaleej Times, available at: www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xledata/business/ 2009/November/business_November604.xmlandsectionbusiness Patton, D. (2009), Could Halal cosmetics be developing into a new global C and T niche market?, available at: www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/story.asp?storyCode3706 (accessed 28 May 2009). Roberts, J. (2010), Young, connected and Muslim, Marketing Week, available at: www. marketingweek.co.uk/in-depth-analysis/cover-stories/young-connected-and-muslim/ 3014934.article (accessed 18 November 2010). Schiffman, L. and Kanuk, L. (2009), Consumer Behavior, 9th ed., Prentice-Hall, New York, NY, p. 394. Too, D. (2010), Brunei drafts worlds 1st Halal drugs rules, available at: www.Brudirect.com Trout, J. (2002), Differentiate or Die, East West Books Madras, Private Limited, Chennai, p. 71. Further reading CCM (2008), Forefront of the Halal Pharmaceutical Industry, 13 May. Cooper, D. and Schindler, P. (2003), Business Research Methods, 8th ed., Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi. Harris Interactive Group (2009), How Many Vegetarians are There?, available at: www.vrg.org/ press/2009poll.htm Hinton, P. (1995), SPSS Explained, 2nd ed., Routledge, London. Khawaja, M. (2001), Part of transcript of the talk given by President of Halal Food Authority at Meat and Livestock Commission, Milton Keynes Seminar, Milton Keynes, 6 October. Malhotra, N. (2004), Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 4th ed., Prentice-Hall, London. Ruwaida, A.S.A. (2008), UAE-rules and regulations governing, the accreditation of Islamic associations, in foreign countries, paper presented at the World Halal Conference and Exhibition, Abu Dhabi. Sekaran, U. (2006), Research Methods for Business, 4th ed., Wiley, New Delhi. Springwise.com (2009), Halal cosmetics for women, available at: http://springwise.com/ fashion_beauty/onepure/ (accessed 17 January 2010). JIMA 2,2 150 Web sites www.arabianbusiness.com/584652-new-guide-launched-for-Halal-travellers www.ccm.com.my/mediaCentre/press_arc.asp?intRecordID130 www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/story.asp?storyCode3706 www.dagangHalal.com/Halal-info/Halal-Info.asp http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6653175.stm http://74.125.153.132/search?qcache, www.Halalfoodauthority.co.uk/dene.html http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/food/100207499-1-Halal-expo-2009-hosts-80.html www.eturbonews.com/2059/islamic-hotels-demand-mid-east www.euro-islam.info/2009/05/25/iphone-application-helps-american-muslims-eat-Halal-on- the-go/ www.foodanddrinkinsight.com/le/71653/masa-targets-gulf-premium-market.html www.halalmc.net/ www.merckchemicals.com/Halal/c_WZCb.s1O3DEAAAEdFzoMDoYL?CountryName InternationalandInternationalSitetrue www.onepureonline.com/index.htm www.uaeconnector.com/index.cfm?fuseactionPortal.ShowPageandDetailyesandpag eId224andcategoryId100andid11390andcatid25andlangId1andUplevel0and GBID15 Appendix 1 No. Exhibitor prole % No. Visitors classication by product of interest % 1 Halal food and beverages 31 1 Halal food 26 2 Halal non-food 20 2 Halal hospitality 15 3 Associations 17 3 Halal poultry 13 4 Media 11 4 Halal beverages 13 5 Halal food services/equipments 9 5 Halal meat 9 6 Halal logistics 4 6 Islamic banking and nance 8 7 Islamic banking 4 7 Halal cosmetics and body care 6 8 Islamic hospitality 2 8 Halal health care 4 9 Food packaging 2 9 Halal logistics 3 Halal ingredients 3 Table AI. Exhibitor prole and visitors classication by product of interest (Halal Post Show Report) Halal certication 151 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 n Correlation Sig. Meat-Halal certication in and brand knowledge meat 151 0.318 * * Poultry and poultry 151 0.361 * * Fruits and fruits 151 0.237 * * Vegetables and vegetables 151 0.179 * Chocolates and chocolates 151 0.189 * Medicines and medicines 151 0.124 NS Cosmetics and cosmetics 151 0.284 * * Beverages and beverages 151 0.144 NS Hospitality and hospitality 151 0.094 NS Awareness score on Halal certication and brand knowledge on Halal certication 151 0.199 * Table AIII. Correlations Always Sometimes Never Meat n 87 28 36 % 57.6 18.5 23.8 Poultry n 85 28 38 % 56.3 18.5 25.2 Fruits n 31 22 98 % 20.5 14.6 64.9 Vegetables n 29 23 99 % 19.2 15.2 65.6 Chocolates n 33 37 81 % 21.9 24.5 53.6 Medicines n 28 37 86 % 18.5 24.5 57.0 Cosmetics n 30 28 93 % 19.9 18.5 61.6 Beverages n 54 31 66 % 35.8 20.5 43.7 Hospitality n 33 37 81 Table AII. Awareness of Halal certication looking for Halal certication JIMA 2,2 152 Appendix 4 Corresponding author Sitalakshmi Ramanan can be contacted at: seetu123@gmail.com Products/ services Brands Meat Sadia (20), Islami (15), Americana (10), Al Kabeer (13), Spinneys (2), Carrefour (4), Rawda, Al rotha, open Indian meat, Jazeerah, Fresh, Choithram (2), Emborg, Al Khaleej (3), Halal (1), Spinneys (2), Doux (1), Saudi (1), Sadaf, Perdix (2) Poultry Sadia (24), Islami (8), Rawda (4), Watania (3), Spinneys (3), Al Kabeer (9), Carrefour (3), Doux (3), Americana (3), Al tazag, Omega, Al rotha, Al Taawun, Emborg, Choithram (2), Salwan (1), Al Ain (2), Al Marai (4), Farouj, Perdix, Nada (1), Marmum (2), Al Rawabi (2) Fruits Fresh, strawberry Vegetables Barakat, Chiquita Chocolates Kit Kat (6), Galaxy (6), Twix (6), Bounty, Mars (3), Kinder, Twirl, Flake, Galaxy (3), Snickers, Prince, Ferro Rocher (3), Tola, Godiva, Cadbury (5), Nestle, Toblerone, Hershey (2), Patchi, Hersheys, Twister, Guy Lian, Patchi Medicines Julphar, Pzar, Panadol (4), Actied, Brufen, Crocin Cosmetics Dior (3), Calvin Klein, Mikyaji, Eve Sanloran, Zegna, Vaseline, Adidas, Lancome, MF, Body Shop (2), Olay (2), Nivea (3), Rasasi, D&G Beverages Red bull (3), Holsten (2), Pepsi (7), Safa (1), Alain, Barakat, Coffee, Budweiser, Vitamic C, Barbican, Lacnor, Coke (1), Almarai & Marmum, Starbucks coffee, Mountain dew (5), Costa Coffee, Seven-up (1), Shani (2), Mirinda Hospitality Rotana (2), Sheraton, Ramada, Tamani, Concord, Taj Palace, Hilton, Four point Table AIV. Brands identied as Halal Halal certication 153 To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints
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