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Among various factors which help in shaping the attitude of consumers, religion and religiosity too play a vital role. This paper aims to inquire into the impact of religion and religiosity on the attitudes of Hindu and Muslim consumers of Northern India toward offensive advertising and the reasons which make the advertising offensive.

Responses regarding advertising of 11 controversial products and 7 reasons which make the advertising offensive were taken by distributing a questionnaire to a convenience sample of 250 university students of Northern India (comprising respondents from two major religions of India). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test.

The findings confirmed that there is a significant difference in the attitude of consumers on the basis of religion and religiosity.

As the study is conducted only in Northern India, findings generated through this may lack generalizability. Other limitations include small sample size and use of convenience sampling. Different sects under religion must be particularly studied.

Advertisers should consider religious sentiments of consumers into account to make advertisements more appealing to consumers.

The studies on religion and its relation with attitude toward advertising are even less frequent in Indian context. Hence, this study is a pioneering work which will open new doors for the marketers in India. It will help the marketers in properly targeting consumers based on their religious beliefs.

The key research issue addressed in this paper is whether individuals perceive advertisements featuring themes from their own religion more positively, and advertisements featuring religious themes from other religions less positively, than neutral ads. In the process, this paper aims to test whether the in-group bias theory (IGBT) and the polarized appraisal theory (PAT) apply in a religious context.

Respondents in a large Indian University were shown advertisements featuring Hindu and Muslim themes as well as a neutral advertisement in the context of pet adoption. Cognitive and affective response measures were used for evaluation.

Respondents did not evaluate advertisements with their own religion’s symbols any more positively than neutral advertisements but did evaluate advertisements with themes from other religions more negatively than neutral ads. In sum, religious advertisements did not have any positive effect on in-group respondents, but rather worked in antagonizing out-group respondents.

Both IGBT and PAT did not work as predicted when tested on in-group respondents but worked as expected on out-group respondents.

In the Indian market, using religious themes has largely negative consequences in terms of alienating out-group members, with no commensurate advantage on in-group members. Firms are better off not using religious advertising, and this decision would likely have a positive impact on a firm’s bottom line.

Though, the general topic of religious advertising has been much researched, but this paper deals with the role of religious symbols in advertising in the Indian context, which is done for the first time in a multi-religious context. Further, the applicability of IGBT and PAT is also tested for the first time in religious advertisement context.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the luxury market in Iran as an Islamic country. The focus is on religion as a factor that can make some challenges for luxury products, and then to find opportunities or similarities in Muslim markets due to the luxury consumption.

As it is a literature review article, the authors used past research works and compared different perspectives that exist about the topic.

It was concluded that although implementing a market-oriented culture is central to the marketers’ success, it is not right to just focus on religion as a separating factor that can isolate the Muslim’s market. It was suggested to change one's viewpoint and analyze the market with a broader vision that can bring innovative ideas and also find similarities and differentiations between Islamic luxury markets with non-Islamic luxury markets.

Muslim consumers have a huge purchasing power in countries such as Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. However, there is limited academic literature addressing luxury products in the context of these markets. Luxury purchase motivation is predominantly based on Western thoughts and markets. As Iran as a Muslim country can be an appropriate target market of luxury goods, analyzing the challenges and opportunities can be a useful guide to be successful in this market.

In a constantly changing and increasingly globalized world, religion still plays a significant role in influencing social and consumer behavior. This study will analyze what influence religion and intensity of belief has on attitudes towards the advertising of particular controversial products and services. A questionnaire was distributed to 1,393 people across six different countries and resulting in samples of four main religious groups. The results indicated some statistically significant differences between the groups, which can have important implications for global marketers.

This paper aims to examine the impact of increasing the intensity of religious cues in financial service advertisements on target and non-target groups.

To test the proposed hypotheses, a 2 (Religion: Muslims versus Non-Muslims) x 3 (Religious identity primes: Low versus Medium versus High) factorial design was used. Both target and non-target groups were randomly exposed to factitious advertisements of an Islamic bank embedded with low, medium and high intensity of religious cues.

The results of this study indicate that within target group the manipulation did result into a more favourable attitudes towards the advertisement (Aad) and attitudes towards the brand (Ab) for the medium intensity advertisement; however, for high intensity advertisement, only Aad was more favourable compared to low intensity advertisement. Relatively strong evidence was found in case of non-target group negative reactions in term of Aad, Ab and purchase intention. The direct comparison between target and non-target groups suggest a general pattern of more positive response from target group as compared to non-target group.

The findings of this study provide an important insight into the effectiveness of identity salience messages in financial service marketing. The study provide empirical evidence that intensifying the rhetoric beyond a certain point will generate negative results from both target and non-target respondents.

The authors integrated the research on symbolism, social identity and target and non-target effects to analyse the attitudinal and behavioural differences between and within target and non-target groups of financial service advertisements with different intensity of religious cues.

Emerging public discourses on Islam and Islamophobia in Western countries have led to religious discrimination among this group. This exploratory study aims to understand how marketers promote anti-discrimination efforts against Muslims on the notion of future collective unity.

This exploratory study uses Social Identity theory to explain the behaviour and attitude of vulnerable Muslims. The dimension of racialisation, the Whiteness theory, the oppression model and the ethnocentrism theory were synthesised to explain the practice of racism and oppression. The theory of customer diversity, equity and inclusion was synthesised to understand the importance of inclusive marketing. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 15 senior marketing executives.

This study observed how the minority Muslims had influenced the marketers' behaviours in combating anti-religious discrimination through various tactics such as extending the corporates' products and services offerings, being inclusive and avoiding stereotyping in their marketing communication styles and shifting the company's processes and systems to meeting this group's cultural needs.

While this study sample's demographics were motivated by senior marketing executives' profiles, most of the participants were highly educated, had similar cultural backgrounds and were mainly from the West.

This study attempts to shed light on the understanding of Muslims’ discrimination or Islamophobia in non-Muslim majority countries. It is hoped that this study acts as a catalyst for collective unity and would galvanise communities, including marketers to tackle discrimination through a better understanding of a targeted group like Muslims in the marketplace. In this current time of racial and religious tension, business leaders and marketers can act as mediators of social change to normalise more positive relations between minority and mainstream consumers.

This study aims to investigate the generation of negative emotions and behavior in Muslim consumers from their attitude toward offensive advertising. Mediation of brand hate between attitude toward offensive advertising and brand retaliation was examined. The conditional indirect impact of religiosity on attitude toward offensive advertising and brand retaliation through brand hate was also realized.

A cross-sectional research design was used using the mall intercept survey technique. Data were collected from 380 respondents visiting the malls in the areas of Pakistan’s twin cities (Rawalpindi and Islamabad) after ensuring appropriateness for the study. Partial least square–structural equation modeling through SmartPLS software was used as a statistical technique to test the hypotheses.

The findings confirm that attitude toward offensive advertising affects brand hate and brand retaliation positively. The conditional indirect effect of religiosity on the relationship of attitude toward offensive advertising and brand retaliation has also proved significant.

The present study has filled a significant gap in the literature of brand hate by introducing brand hate as a mediator in the relationship of attitude toward offensive advertising and brand retaliation. It further added in the body of knowledge of brand hate by a moderated mediation mechanism of religiosity on the relationship of attitude toward offensive advertising and brand retaliation through brand hate. The present study has considered the non-offensive product being promoted through offensive advertising and explored the impact of attitude toward offensive advertising on brand hate and brand retaliation in Muslim consumers.

This paper aims to examine whether Muslim and non-Muslim consumers give different importance to green food consumption.

Data were analysed using means comparison and multiple discriminant analysis across a sample of 700 students in a public higher learning institution in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia, using the convenience sampling technique.

Empirical results via multiple discriminant analysis discovered that imperative aspects such as specific needs, personal environmental values related to green food and governmental efforts strongly predict discrimination towards green food consumption among the non-Muslim consumers. Muslim consumers follow a strict diet that complies with religious dietary laws.

Understanding Muslim and non-Muslim consumers’ awareness of and intentions towards green food consumption is very important for any manager in the food industry or food market, as it is critical that the food they produce is safe, environmental and healthy. It is understood that Muslim consumers are very particular about food intake, as they can only consume food that complies with religious dietary laws.

The results of this study presented vital insights and enhanced the understanding of the role of religion and its influence on green food consumption in Asia.

Caste is the basic structural feature of Hindu society; all social scientists are agreed on this. Since Hinduism is generally recognised to be as much a social system as a religion, its social framework embodying caste rituals has governed the lives of the majority of Indians for hundreds of years. Having deep roots in tradition and enjoying sanction in all religious literature belonging to the pre‐British era, caste has been the dominant principle of social organisation since ancient times. In fact, barring the recent past, Hinduism has always been identified in the minds of most Indians with caste observances. Writes R.C. Zaehner: “…until a century or so ago the acceptance of the caste system was considered by the orthodox to be the sole effective criterion of whether one was or was not a Hindu. In matters of belief it mattered not at all whether one believed in one god or many, or not at all, nor did it much matter on how one interpreted ‘liberation’ or whether one rejected it outright so long as one fulfilled the duties prescribed for one's caste.”

The psychological foundations of consumers’ reasons for product choices are analyzed in the field of marketing. The purpose of this research is to identify the implicit reasons for white meat consumption in the UK and Turkey.

In the scope of the means-end chain theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals, and the reasons for consumers’ product preferences were revealed by moving from concrete to abstract.

It has been determined that the white meat consumption of Muslims in the UK is primarily shaped by their religious approach. In Turkey, on the contrary, both consumption patterns and reasons for preference are changing. It has been found that white meat consumption is associated with values such as security needs, satisfaction with life, self-fulfillment and happiness.

This research has contributed to the marketing literature by examining consumers’ implicit consumption reasons for white meat in the context of religion and culture.

Marketing strategies should focus on building trust in halal certification, particularly in the UK. Brands should associate their promotion strategies with feelings of security and happiness, which are associated in the minds of consumers.

This study is a new study in terms of revealing the connotations of consumers about consuming chicken and fish and showing the implicit needs that the brands can emotionally associate with.