Halal Products and Services from Global marketing perspective
Introduction
In a Muslim’s point of view, Halal is a concept which promotes clearance and cleanliness in all aspects; a product is safe for consumption and would be produced in a clean environment and health. Therefore, the businesses especially the marketers of consumer goods for food or for non-food product categories working in this area are highly aware of developing and producing Halal products and accordingly put in a lot of efforts to expand their market share.
In today’s global business, Halal products are plentifully recognized as a new way for safety and quality oath. The fact is that, all of these products should be produced based on Halal certification due to which Muslims and also consumers from other religions do highly approve it. The generalization of Halal concept meets not only its lawful requirements of Islam, but also the hygiene, cleanliness as well as its safety perspectives.
Reason why Global Marketers should enter into Halal market area:
- Spread & Growth in the market
Once, a business perspective is taken into consideration, the Halal market seems to be a very fast-growing one. As the world Muslim population is growing larger and larger with an estimation of 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide, it is stimulating many companies and producers to take the risk of investing on Halal products. Nowadays, Halal products are globally valued by both Muslim and Non-Muslim countries due to which these products are abundantly increased annually. There are different types of such products; food products as well as non-food products which include pharmaceuticals, health products, medical devices, cosmetics and toiletries, and services in which logistics, packaging, branding and marketing, printed and electronic media, and travel and tourism are included.
- Process of Assimilation
The process of assimilation can be referred as some reasons that why Halal is largely accepted among the population throughout the world; since tourism industry is extremely blooming and people all over the world are culturally getting closer we can find that there is a great similarity of foreign foods in different countries, and local tastes are changing, therefore Halal is going to be accepted by different nations and religions globally. So we can conclude that tourism was one of the reasons for halal industry to be more successful in the market.
- Halal logo
Muslim population consider the Halal logo as a sign of quality and religious observance because of which it has become a new blossom. The Muslim consumers are being more concern of their religion, thus they will highly be concerned about the type of products they wish to use. In addition, Halal logo being one of the main indicators of allowable products such as food, the outlets would easily be recognized which can be patronage by many Muslims. Thereafter, manufacturers can easily target their market, since the products meet their consumers’ Islamic criteria as well as health related issues, sanitation and safety. And also, this will give them a great competitive advantage against their non-halal manufacturers who do not carry out Halal certification which is a strong marketing tool for both Muslim and non-Muslim producers.
Issues and challenges
Apart from various acceptable perspectives of Halal opportunity which has created a worth-risking idea in the mind of businessmen and manufacturers, the concept is engaged with different challenges and issues in an international point of view;
- Labelling and packaging; Mostly do not fulfil highly and proven world-class standards. Especially a lot of exporting products which fail mostly because of some inferior packaging and poor products adaptability which cannot meet the local taste of a specific place or country where the products are launched.
- Branding practices are not exercised as global standards; Some product sound pretty hard to be pronounced by different ethnic groups, as an example, Arabic product for other nation, as a result, it will be a bit tough to create brand loyalty among different groups of population throughout the world.
- Demand for the Halal products is increasing ; Due to growth of Muslim population, so produce and launch these products needs to obtain Halal Certificates, but either there is no global authority and integrity among the Halal Certification Bodies or if there is, it is very less, as a result many frauds, malpractices and abuses in issuing the certificate have occurred which might tarnish the reputation of Halal concept.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I came to know that despite the above mentioned challenges and problems such as defaulting in issuing Halal Certificate, poor branding and some other vulnerable elements, I still do believe that Halal concept is galloping up to the highest level in terms of global perspectives, and accordingly, the global market will certainly be kept on growing, since global market for Halal products has already been estimated above USD 600 billion annually, on the other hand, the population of the Muslim community is widely getting increased throughout the world, due to which a great opportunity is being created for the manufacturers. Another positive point in this respect is that the Muslims are getting highly educated and knowledgeable in their religious adherences, so once they wish to go for a specific product, the most important consideration they make is to find out whether the product fulfils their Islamic requirements or not, therefore by taking these prerequisites into account, the producers can easily create a great opportunity for their market globally.
Furthermore, a very crucial point here is that Non-Muslim communities also do consume the Halal product, not because of its Halal-Ness, but because of its sanitation, hygiene, safety, and cleanliness, and it does not matter much that the products should be Halal or not. Meanwhile, on the basis of Muslim’s beliefs, the Non-Halal products are not allowed to be consumed by the Muslims, all the products must be adhered to the law of Islamic requirements, therefore, Halal product can easily be used by both Muslim and Non-Muslim groups, as a result, Halal concept itself is a very considerable opportunity for the manufacturers.