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There is a new big thing in the world of marketing and it is green, not the familiar grass-green of the environment, but a deeper green - the traditional color of Islam. (Young, 2007)
INTRODUCTION
Religious brands like halal and kosher can capture a craving for purity that goes beyond the religious duty of their faithful adherents. The vast majority of the kosher customers are not of the Jewish faith and, likewise, many Shariah-compliant firms reveal that not all of their customers are Muslims. For example, at the Jawhara Hotels, an alcohol-free Arabian Gulf chain, 60 per cent of the clientele are non-Muslims, drawn by the hotels' serenity and family-friendly atmosphere. Likewise, a quarter of the Dutch-based company Marhaba customers, which sells cookies and chocolate, are non-Muslims (Power and Abdullah, 2009). Although Muslims consume 16 per cent of kosher products in the United States alone (Kamaruzaman, 2006), demand for halal food products by Jewish and Christian consumers is increasing as those customers become aware of the halal brand. These religious products, unlike ethnic products that base their appeal mainly on being exotic, are associated with the more profound concepts of cleanliness, purity and kindness, in addition to being different and exotic.
Islamic religious brands, or halal brands, are created according to the Islamic principles that guide what is permitted not just in the food industry but also in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, logistics, clothing, finance, hospitality and banking (Minkus-McKenna, 2007), thus extending the religious umbrella much more widely than kosher or ethnic products, which are mainly associated with the food industry. Although this extension provides a much greater opportunity for a diverse mass of businesses to engage profitably, the halal market remains unexplored by the majority of non-Muslim multinational corporations until very recently and the relatively small number of MNCs that dared to engage halal at an earlier stage now enjoy the results of their timely intervention; they dominate 90 per cent of the halal food market (Anon, 2009a).
Non-Muslim MNCs like Nestlé, Unilever, L'Oreal, Colgate, Baskin Robbins and Campbell Soup, among others, continue to invest heavily in addressing the Islamic dietary, lifestyle and consumption requirements. For example, at the Nestlé corner at the third annual World Halal Forum exhibition, information on Shariah-compliant Smarties, PowerBars, Maggi Noodles,...