Islam, Consumption and Marketing : Going Beyond the Essentialist Approaches

Islam and marketing are two terms that, until recently, seldom came together. Yet today, there is a burgeoning interest, both in academic and practitioner circles, in understanding Muslim consumers and devising marketing strategies and practices that will enable companies to reach what is now considered to be a highly attractive market segment. This paper evaluates the developments underlying this interest and offers a critical analysis of Islamic marketing and its emergence as a field of inquiry. The authors seek to shift the academic and managerial attention from a preoccupation with difference to a more critical, situated and dynamic engagement with Muslim consumers and businesses and outline a perspective for future research that is more sensitive to the complexities and contextualities of Muslims and their consumption and marketing practices. The paper concludes by discussing various managerial and policy implications of the authors' perspective