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This study aims to explore the presumed relationship between religion and purchase behavior of consumers in the context of Bangladesh.

This research is divided into two main parts. In the first one, the authors reviewed some of the most important studies relative to religion and marketing and those specifically relative to Islamic marketing. In the second part, this research shows the findings of a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of Muslim consumers currently residing in the capital city of Bangladesh – Dhaka. The questionnaire also sought to find out the respondents’ attitude towards the modern marketing tactics, in terms of the physical and visual appearance of local products, their perception of religious principles in the purchase decision and their attitude towards imported products of non-Muslim countries.

Results of this study highlight that religion often represents an essential reference point in influencing the perception and purchase behavior of consumers in the context of Bangladesh. This implies that marketing strategies based on Islamic ethics is going to be quite instrumental in order to reach out to the consumers in Muslim countries. As such, there is largely a strong positive relationship between religion and the purchase behavior of Muslim consumers.

The lack of research on Islamic marketing limits the intensity of arguments in this study. For this reason, the literature review is not completely exhaustive. A small sample size has also been used due to time and resource constraints. Future research can be done on a bigger sample size of Bangladesh or other Islamic countries across the world. Other research avenues may include the study of Islamic marketing mix and exploring the factors that can influence non-Muslim consumers to select products and services based on Islamic ethics.

It is very important for businesses to introduce healthy practices in countries like Bangladesh and this can be rightly achieved through the use of Islamic marketing. Furthermore, the use of Islamic ethics in marketing strategies can eventually influence the religious perception of consumers and make them loyal towards any brands, products, and services in the context of Bangladesh.

The chapter draws attention to Bangladesh as one of the potential markets where the concept of Islamic market mechanism can be established. It also highlights the challenges that global marketers can face with Islamic marketing in Muslim countries like Bangladesh. Besides, it is the only study to date that focuses upon the relationship of religion, marketing, and consumer behavior for consumer products of the manufacturing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize halal marketing from the marketing strategy perspective, particularly segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP).

A literature review is carried out for the study. Building on the STP framework, an attempt is made to conceptualize halal marketing from the marketing strategy perspective and provide its implications.

The findings suggest that halal marketing has emerged and is used as a segmentation strategy. Furthermore, halal marketing can be more effectively used as a positioning strategy.

The paper presents the opportunity to use halal marketing by combining the Islamic principles for halal with the marketing positioning strategy. In this way, halal marketing can also be used to attract consumers from other religious segments.

The paper presents a marketing strategy perspective of segmentation and targeting. Furthermore, the paper proposes an approach for using halal as a positioning strategy.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: classifying non-Muslim halal fashion buyers by applying quantitative techniques and identifying the persuading determinants of the non-Muslim women’ halal fashion buying behaviour (HFBB).

By adapting items from prior studies, a structured questionnaire was developed and distributed face-to-face to various Muslim fashion stores in Malaysia. After a one-month effort, 221 responses were obtained from non-Muslim consumers by using convenience sampling. Next, a clustering analysis was used to classify them from a contrasting perspective. Finally, regression and Andrew F. Hayes’s process procedures were applied to examine the three independent variables’ effect and the moderating variables.

The results revealed the characteristic behaviour of the non-Muslim women explicitly, which is related to their halal fashion purchasing decision. Based on the ANOVA results, there were different motives for buying halal fashion by non-Muslim women. Additionally, it was found that the most crucial determinants for non-Muslim’s HFBB are “cultural adaptation”, albeit, there is no substantial proof of a significant moderating effect of age and income on the consumers.

These discoveries are advantageous for halal fashion retailers and provide an appealing domain for further investigations in the context of the global halal study.

This study provided an idea for an untapped segment on the halal fashion sellers’ segmentation and positioning strategy. The study’s results suggested specific managerial and practical recommendation that the sellers can use to attract non-Muslim consumers.

This study was amongst the uncommon investigations within the halal fashion context that will enlighten the managers’ selling strategy on the most neglected market segment. The results of this study provided an empirical understanding of how to sell halal fashion to non-Muslim consumers.

This study aims to distinguish between Muslim and non-Muslim consumers regarding celebrity influence on brands and purchase intention, and assess the relative importance of celebrity credibility, in terms of physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise and product–brand congruency. The study also researches attitudes towards brands, and purchase intention and their ability to predict consumers’ religion.

The research aim was achieved through an empirical study involving a self-administered questionnaire distributed to members of the public recruited from the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. Data were collected from 250 Muslim and non-Muslim consumers using a convenience sampling method. Their participation was purely voluntary. Multiple discriminant analysis via Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program version 20 was used to answer the research questions.

Empirical results of the multiple discriminant analysis indicated that celebrity expertise and attitudes towards brands strongly predict allocation to Muslim consumers rather than non-Muslim consumers. The relative importance of the celebrity credibility aspects from Muslim consumers’ perspectives was: celebrity expertise, celebrity attitudes towards brands, purchase intention, product–brand congruency and physical attractiveness. Muslim consumers are found to choose expertise but not trustworthiness. Muslim consumers’ faith or trust may be linked to the perception that products and services endorsed by the celebrities are in line with Shariah principles which are consistent with Islamic principles.

Respondents were randomly drawn from the Muslim and non-Muslim population of the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. Consequently, they may not represent the entire population of Malaysia. Future researchers could overcome the limits of generalizability by increasing sample coverage.

The paper empirically justified the discriminating function among celebrity credibility elements in terms of physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, and product–brand congruency of Muslim and non-Muslim consumer attitudes towards brands and purchase intention. Thus, the results of this study offer a new forward motion to the findings of prior studies on consumer perception of celebrity credibility, which is not much covered in the literature in the Malaysian context between Muslim and non-Muslim consumer perspectives. The findings are able to add literature on Muslim consumer behaviour in the use of celebrities, as these celebrities could act as inspirational to the consumers.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about Muslim consumer’s perceptions toward advertising practices.

The approach taken was qualitative methodology, using phenomenological method. The qualitative data through semi-structured interviews have been collected from 20 Muslim consumers, 9 participants were women and 11 were men. The interviews lasted between 45 and 60 min. Furthermore, documentation technique was used to cast further insight into the advertising practices and to corroborate other forms of evidence.

From Muslim consumer perceptions, this qualitative research has generated factors that may be considered in advertising practices. These factors consist of social values (family, tradition and culture), Islamic ethics and rules and regulations. In addition, several practices regarding advertising production were extracted to guide marketers when targeting Muslim consumers.

The generalizability of the findings was limited because of convenience sampling and the small sample size.

This study contributes to the knowledge in the field by exploring factors and practices that should be considered in advertising practices when targeting Muslim consumers.

Since Islamic markets are growing substantially, there is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of how Muslim consumers perceive products from a religious perspective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the brain responses of Muslim consumers to Halal and non-Halal products using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology.

The research model is a simplified version of the theory of planned behavior. The initial experiment began by asking participants to divide a set of images into two groups: Halal and non-Halal products. The fMRI experiment uses a blocked design approach to capture brain activities resulting from presenting the two groups of images to participants, and to record the strength of their attitudes toward purchasing the products.

Across all participants, the level of brain activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increased significantly when Halal images were presented to them. The same results emerged when the Halal images showed raw and cooked meat. The variations in the results may be due to the high emotional sensitivity of Muslim consumers to using religious products.

This study uses a unique approach to monitor brain activity to confirm that consumers from specific market segments respond differently to market products based on their internal beliefs. Findings from this study provide evidence that marketing managers targeting Muslim markets should consider the sensitivity of presenting products in ways that reflect religious principles, in order to gain higher acceptance in this market segment.

Although the literature reports considerable research on Muslim consumers’ behavior, most of the previous studies utilize conventional data collection approaches to target broad segments of consumers by using traditional products. This paper is the first to track the reactions of the Muslim consumer segment to specific types of market products.

This study aims to provide insights on the influence of Muslim consumers’ knowledge on products subjected to contemporary fatwa ruling and their subsequent cognitive and behavioural responses.

MANOVA and MANCOVA were used to examine the influence of religious orientation on young Malaysian Muslims’ product knowledge, and the extent of religious orientation and gender on Muslim consumers’ attitude and behaviour towards three contemporary fatwa rulings of products.

Respondents’ religious orientation differentiates their knowledge on fatwa prohibition ruling of selected brand and behaviours. Consumers’ religious orientation and gender explain consumers’ behavioural responses to variables of the Theory of Planned Behaviour for three behaviours. Evidence suggests that ruling types affects (conditional and unconditional) consumers’ responses.

Greater insights are provided on Muslims’ motivation to search information of controversial products, and their subsequent perception and behavioural reactions to controversial products. Findings are limited to the Malaysian Muslim consumers.

The fact that contemporary fatwa reached young Muslim generations indicates that managers have to be wary of fatwa to predict Muslim consumers’ marketplace behaviours.

A significant number of young Malaysian Muslims are keeping abreast with contemporary fatwa. This suggests that they received an early and substantial exposure to Islamic way of life through their socialisation.

This study offer insights into the understandings of the young Muslim generation regarding contemporary fatwa on products, and revealed significant findings in relation to consumer product knowledge and religious influences on consumer behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the current research on the Islamic financial services industry attempts to classify its consumers and provide a fresh and critical insight into the retail Islamic banking market segmentation to harness and enhance understanding, as well as provide a guideline for a better segmentation to bank marketers.

This study is conceptual in nature. Based on Qur’anic verses and previous literature, the authors aim to propose an applicable model of market segmentation for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia. Consumer segmentation in the conventional financial service industry is analysed, and prior studies on the selection criteria of Islamic banks are evaluated.

In moving forward, taking cue from the classification of people in classical doctrinal and historical literature and the initial exploratory study conducted from the managerial perspective, the authors propose five cluster groups of consumers for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia, namely, religious conviction, religious and economic rationality, economic rationality, ethical observant and economic rationality and ethical observant. A discussion linking consumer segmentation to the branding in the retail Islamic banking market is discussed.

The five cluster groups of consumers for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia proposed in this study pave the way for embarking on promising and relevant future research, which is needed to substantiate and enrich the academic understanding and managerial practice of linking market segmentation and brand positioning for Islamic banking market in Malaysia. Future research should focus on verifying the five proposed segments by conducting empirical studies on a larger scale among the retail banking consumers in Malaysia and globally.

The study provides an initial bases or dimensions of consumers of the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia. The proposed consumers segments are useful in guiding the management of Islamic bank in Malaysia in making decisions relating to the promotion strategy as well as product and brand positioning strategy.

For both academia and the Islamic banking industry, this study provides useful knowledge in strategically using market segmentation to position Islamic banking products and services in Malaysia and the global market.

Due to a staggering growth rate in the recent past, halal products have attained a significant attention of marketers across countries. However, marketing practitioners seek to have detailed understanding of what drives consumers of different demographics towards this product category so as to better market and position themselves in the competitive landscape. Correspondingly, this study aims to provide insights into the Muslim women consumers’ halal cosmetics purchase behaviour and examines the variables (and their interplay) when purchasing such products.

The data for the study were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from 371 Muslim respondents from India. The data were analysed through structural equation modelling using AMOS 22.0 SEM software.

The findings of this study reveal that religious knowledge, religious commitment and halal certification(s) affect consumers’ actual purchase behaviour of halal cosmetics, which subsequently drives their repurchase intention. The findings further reveal a non-significant effect of religious orientation with both the actual purchase behaviour and repurchase intention towards halal cosmetics. Additionally, actual purchase behaviour of halal cosmetics is found to positively affect customers’ repurchase intentions.

Despite the recent growth of overall beauty industry, this particular segment of halal cosmetics has a huge potential given the phenomenal preference that Muslim consumers have shown in such niche. Therefore, this paper contributes towards examining the key factors influencing consumers purchase behaviour towards halal cosmetics in India that can be capitalized on.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) that want to compete in markets worldwide should not underestimate the influences of religion on consumer demand. Almost one quarter of the world’s population is Muslim so it is important for MNCs to get into the Muslim mind set when operating in countries where Islam has a large influence. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which consumer-based brand equity in a religious market results from the psychological and behavioural characteristics of consumers rather than from product characteristics.

A quantitative survey method was adopted, using a total sample of 551 Muslim consumers in Malaysia and Pakistan. A holistic model conceptualising three potential psychological and behavioural predictors of consumer-based halal brand equity (CBHBE) was created and then tested using structural equation modelling.

The strength of an individual’s religious identity was found to be a strong predictor of consumer halal choice behaviour and perceived self-expressive religious benefits. Consumers’ halal choice behaviour and perceived self-expressive benefits directly predict CBHBE. Moreover, consumer halal choice behaviour partially mediates the relationship between self-expressive benefits and CBHBE.

The authors conclude that firms targeting Muslim consumers can maximise CBHBE by focussing their marketing strategies on the three psychological and behavioural constructs identified in the model. For example, by using halal certification logos and providing convincing information about the halalness of their brand, businesses can facilitate Muslim consumers’ search processes in relation to their choice behaviour.

The study contributes to the existing international branding literature in two main ways. First, it introduces and defines the concept of CBHBE. Second, it identifies and empirically validates the important psychological and behavioural predictors of CBHBE.