In 2021, amid the height of the woke revolution in the United States and other nations, we emphasized the fact that Purpose Will Make or Break Your Halal Brand. 

The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study showed us that consumers are up to six times more likely to buy from a purpose-driven brand. According to the study, having a purpose does not only mean more revenue and loyal customers, but also innovation gains and better employee retention.

Your creative teams are under pressure to ensure that your internal values are consistently, authentically, and clearly communicated to the outside world. The stakes are extremely high when establishing (or reestablishing) a purpose-driven brand.

Today, we want to look at actionable steps to enable your creative team to communicate the purpose of your halal brand and get it right. The only thing worse than your halal brand not standing up for what is right is standing up for what is right and getting it wrong.

“And from among you, there must be a party that invites people to all that is good and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong.” – Quran 3:104 (translation)

Achieving a Holistic Purpose-driven Mindset

Before we venture into how your creative team can represent you as a purposeful brand, we need to have a quick look at how to create authenticity in your brand’s purpose endeavors.

To help you achieve this, we have summarized Deloitte Insights’ advice for purpose-driven companies below:

General Advice

Tell your story and make it noteworthy: Authenticity stems from your brand’s commitment to making an impact and telling its story.

Then walk the walk: To become a genuine purpose-driven business “walk the walk” by being open and accountable in everything you do.

Put all people at the center of your decisions: Lead with a purpose to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of everyone you touch, not only Muslim consumers.

Allow purpose to evolve alongside the organization and unite its people: Your business may have been founded with a core purpose, but that purpose may need to be nurtured and revisited periodically.

Advice to Your Marketing Team Lead

Align Your Purpose With Your Customers: Your purpose, as well as your overall marketing strategy, must be aligned with the values of your Muslim customers.

Champion Leading With Purpose: Be the catalyst that persuades the management team of the value of purpose in brand positioning.

Articulate How Purpose Influences Customers: Explain to the Management Team how purpose or the lack thereof influences your Muslim customers; who, by the way, should be considered active stakeholders investing their money and time in your brand.

Be a Purpose Advocate to Other Departments: Give everyone in your company a sense of purpose in their work and demonstrate how it relates to your brand’s purpose.

Communicating Your Halal Brand’s Purpose With Creatives

Let Your Brand Purpose Drive Your Creativity

The creative team should not be tasked with defining your company’s branding from scratch. You have to understand that jumping straight into color palettes and logo design is like creating the outer case of a car without having an engine yet. In the same way, you cannot have branding without purpose first.

Once the purpose is properly defined (see the above sections), you can base your creativity on that purpose. In its simplest form it is a two-step process:

Step 1- Positioning 

Determine your brand’s core identity. Establish your reason for existing, what makes you stand out from the competitors, and how customers should view you.

Align on Terminologies

To ensure that your positioning is effective, you must ensure that your entire organization is aligned with your purpose, vision, mission, and values.

No matter how noble your company’s goals are, they won’t matter if leaders at all levels aren’t completely aligned with these important components that make up the core of your brand.

A 2020 study discovered widespread misalignment in corporate vision. The research, The State Of Leadership Development In 2020, polled 21,008 employees to assess leaders’ performance.

When there is a lack of organizational alignment on these four critical factors, obtaining buy-in and support for creative direction becomes significantly more difficult.

Start by having a clear and concrete definition of these four components as we elaborate below for Muslim Ad Network (MAN):

Set aside some time to discuss the purpose of these components with the team leaders and to pose questions that will reveal any creative gaps that need to be filled.

Incorporate Your Strengths

Andy Cummingham, who helped Steve Jobs launch the original Macintosh, defines three types of companies. She calls them DNA types. 

Mothers: Customer-centric businesses. Client needs are prioritized, as evidenced by their organizational structure, meeting topics, and success indicators.

Mechanics: Product and feature-driven businesses. They measure success in terms of market share and sales.

Missionaries: These companies want to fundamentally change how people behave as well as how the world works.

Being true to your company’s DNA type will create authenticity when you advocate your brand’s purpose. For example, if your company has the DNA of Mechanics, do not articulate your brand’s purpose by acting like Missionaries and suddenly start trying to change your industry. It will not feel authentic to your audience.

Tip: Document and share the purpose, vision, mission, and values of your brand at all levels of your organization. If your brand’s position is not acknowledged and understood internally, it will never be accepted externally.

Step 2- Branding

After you’ve helped secure alignment on the brand’s purpose, vision, mission, and values work with your creative team to bring them to life. Let us look at what you need to do to achieve this.

Authenticity Checks and Balances

Establish creative checks and balances to guarantee the legitimacy of all branded assets and in turn showcase the authenticity of your purpose to your audience.

You can achieve this by following three simple steps:

• In the form for your creative brief, include your purpose, vision mission, and values.
• Create detailed brand standards and implement them at all times.
• Appoint a brand steward to oversee the brand during creative evaluations.

Easy Accessibility for Brand Consistency

It is really annoying when the creative team has put in all the hard work to create collateral that is true to the purpose of the brand and someone in the company posts a tweet with the old branding. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you would think; to be specific, 39% of the time.

To avoid this and other similar calamities: 

• Create a centralized source of truth that is easily searchable and accessible. Everyone in your company should know where to look for updated, on-brand assets.
• Create templates to allow non-creatives to make minor changes to approved assets while maintaining brand consistency.

You have now internalized your purpose and ensured that it is understood by everyone in your company, as well as that it is properly communicated externally. You’re on your way to becoming a well-known and respected purpose-driven brand. 

Lastly, we would advise you to keep all eyes open to what is going on around you and how your audience’s sentiment towards the purpose you want to achieve with your brand is evolving.

If you have any questions regarding what we talked about or just want to say “hello” contact Muslim Ad Network. We would love to hear from you.

The post How to Use Creatives to Bring Your Halal Brand Purpose to Life appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

Your Halal Brand Must Stand for Something

In one of our previous blog posts: “Brands for Social Justice: It’s Not All About Profit for Muslim Businesses”, we mentioned the pressure on brands to speak up for social justice coming from protestors, customers, and employees.

Today, we can confidently say that purpose and standing for something are the most important elements of your halal brand.

As mentioned previously, in that same blog post:

60% of the US population, and 78% of those aged 18 to 34, expect brands to take a stand on racial justice.

Source: Forbes

This is just one social issue in a myriad of issues that consumers of all walks of life find important for brands to have a say in. The Muslim consumer is no different.

Muslim consumers who are conscious of Islamic teachings expect Muslim businesses and halal brands to be more than just profit makers and revenue generators.

One of the most important things in a Muslim’s life is not going about business as usual while being ignorant of his or her Creator’s rules and regulations. This is true for all his or her actions, including the business they run, and that would include how he or she advertises and promotes his or her products or services.

Source: “What You Must Know About Islamic Advertising Principles

Just remember, your stance will not be the silver bullet that will unite all Muslims to hold hands and sing kumbaya.

If you have been reading our blog posts regularly, you know that we keep emphasizing that not all Muslim consumers are the same.

In the same way that you are not selling a blanket “Muslim product” that every Muslim customer will want to buy or find interesting; what your brand stands for will not appeal to all Muslims.

A Lesson from Mainstream Brands for Halal Brands

We wanted to highlight this example with Subway because when you look at it as an outsider, you would think Subway would be proud of their spokesperson for finding a way to voice her disapproval for social injustice.

Recently, Subway found itself in hot water unexpectedly when one of their celebrity spokespeople – a soccer player – took the knee during the U.S. national anthem at the Tokyo Olympics.

AdAge explains that the pressure came from franchisees who started seeing sales drop due to the incident:

These partners argue that by associating with Rapinoe, her views are negatively impacting the company’s reputation and sales—and consequently their livelihoods as store owners.

But hold on a second; isn’t taking the knee against racism a good thing? Shouldn’t Subway just tell its partners to get with the program?

Well, they would have if they stood for something. According to the Sportbible, Subway franchises plan to axe the soccer player from TV adverts after the controversy.

Subway hired a progressive, outspoken activist and athlete to represent their brand, even though their values don’t align with theirs or their stakeholders which is why they are in trouble.

But what’s more important, aligning your values with your stakeholders regardless of what they stand for or aligning your values with what is right?

Your Muslim Business Values

Your halal brand or Muslim business must have values and stand by those values. Your communication must be clear and you must be steadfast. Your stance will not please every single Muslim consumer.

However, if you believe it is right in the eyes of your Creator and for the betterment of the Muslim ummah (community/nation) then stick to it.

O, my dear son! Establish prayer, encourage what is good and forbid what is evil, and endure patiently whatever befalls you. Surely this is a resolve to aspire to.

Source: Quran 31:17

Scholars have mentioned that the phrase in the above verse, “and endure patiently whatever befalls you” comes after “encourage what is good and forbid what is evil” as advice that whenever you stand up for what is right you will face resistance and so be patient about it and keep at it.

The Arabic word used in the verse, for enduring patiently ‘Sabr’ is defined as follows:

Sabr (verance and persistence) … teaches to remain spiritually steadfast and to keep doing good actions in the personal and collective domain, specifically when facing opposition or encountering problems, setbacks, or unexpected and unwanted results. It is patience in the face of all unexpected and unwanted outcomes.

Source: Wikipedia

What if you were in the same position that Subway finds itself? Let’s say your Muslim brand ambassador spoke about the recent takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in a way that upset some of the Afghan Americans despite being right.

Let’s say Afghan Americans made up a considerable part of your customer base. What then?

This is where the concept of ‘Sabr’ is tested and the Prophet peace be upon him has the solution for that:

You will never leave something for the sake of Allah, but Allah will give you something better in return.

Narrated by Ahmad

Your halal brand will have to stick to its guns, do what’s right, and leave behind the notion of wanting to please everyone when you know what is right in front of your Creator.

What Muslim Ad Network Stands For

It would all mean nothing if we, at Muslim Ad Network, did not practise what we advocate in this blog post.

This is why we want to share our values and what we stand for as an example to help you do the same for your halal brand, Muslim business, or Islamic organisation.

Notice that your values need to be in line with the strengths and functionalities of the entity you run. That way you can use your resources to make a difference.

Muslim Ad Network aims at improving the Muslim ummah (community  /nation) by helping Muslim businesses thrive. We do this in a manner that utilizes our strength – through online advertising.

We want to make sure that:

1- Halal brands, Muslim companies, and Islamic organizations reach their Muslim online audiences in the most impactful and cost-efficient manner. At the same time helping Muslims to be exposed to Islamic services and halal products to help improve their lives here and in the hereafter.

2- Help mainstream brands and companies reach their Muslim audiences so that Muslim consumers get the best products and services out there and get their voices heard at the same time.

3- We want to give back to the community consistently and during times of crisis; like we did when we offered $25,000 in free advertising for small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We invite your brand, company, or organization to partner with Muslim Ad Network as an Advertiser or Publisher to maximize your business opportunities with Muslim audiences while standing for human values.

The post Purpose Will Make or Break Your Halal Brand appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

Most of us use Twitter for building communities, brand awareness, and showcasing brand personality. So you may wonder how your halal brand could make money on Twitter.

Advanced users, however, do exactly that. They make money on Twitter!

And Twitter is not holding back. In the past few months, Twitter has rolled out multiple new e-commerce tools. Some argue that they are ideal for brands that want to drive revenue on the platform.

According to Statista, Twitter has 199M daily active users. That makes it one of the largest social media platforms. The potential to reach new Muslim customers is therefore quite large. 

So let’s look at how you can make money with your halal brand on Twitter.

1) Raise Brand Awareness on Twitter

While most small businesses and even established businesses are stuck in this phase on Twitter, it is still a vital step in getting the target audience excited about your halal product or service.

This would be the first step towards making money for your brand on Twitter if you do it right.

One of the best ways is to share your product or service with Muslim consumers. Explain how and where they can purchase your product.

Eman Academy does a good job of showcasing one of the courses they offer: “Meanings of the Qur’an” they offer at their academy.

It is specific and a reputable scholar who teaches the course is mentioned.

You can use GIFs and short videos to highlight your products in a fun and engaging way like Midamar does below:

2) Use Twitter Ads for Your Halal Brand

There are no two ways about it. If you are serious about maximizing your reach on any social platform, your halal brand must pay up to get it.

Twitter is no exception.

Twitter offers over 20 types of ads to choose from. Promoted tweets are probably the most popular. They will do a great job at showcasing your halal products or services to Muslim audiences.

Promoted tweets look like regular tweets and show up in the feeds of your set target audience.

See if you can spot the difference between a regular tweet and a promoted one. Psst! Hint: You can see the word “promoted’ on the promoted tweet.

3) Collaborate with Twitter Influencers

So let’s be realistic about this. Most influencers have a greater following on other platforms – like Instagram for instance.

However, to have a complete strategy for making money for your halal brand on Twitter, you must give those influencers on Twitter a go.

You should view the fact that Influencers are more prominent on other platforms as an opportunity. Probably fewer of your competitors will be approaching these influencers on Twitter than on let’s say YouTube.

4) Use Twitter’s Tip Jar Feature

This new feature is described by Twitter as:

“Tip Jar allows people to add external links to their third-party payment accounts so others can send them tips directly through those third-party services.”

This feature is in Beta at the time of writing this article.

When/if the feature is available to you, anyone who lands on your profile can click its icon, choose a payment option of their choice, and be taken directly to your personal link.

5) Use Revue for Twitter Newsletters

Revue makes it free and easy for your brand to start and publish newsletters.

You will be able to leverage your existing audience to increase newsletter subscriber count.

The Revue button will feature on your halal brand’s profile page. With time this feature may become essential for your email marketing strategy.

Conclusion

There are plenty more features being introduced by Twitter that will make it easy for your halal brand to create revenue on its platform.

To maximize the impact of your online marketing, we invite you to join the only platform that specializes in targeting Muslim consumers: Muslim Ad Network.

Find out what Muslim Ad Network can do for your brand today!

The post 5 Tips for Your Halal Brand to Make Money on Twitter appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

Your brand is the lasting impression that your audience has of your company. Your brand includes:

• your brand style guide, 
• the tone in your website copy,
• your tone on social media, 
• your color palette
• logo, and 
• the aesthetic of your website.

According to Business Queensland, a brand is “how your customers recognize and experience your business. A strong brand is more than just a logo — it’s reflected in everything from your customer service style, staff uniforms, business cards, and premises to your marketing materials and advertising.”.

You want to build a perception around Muslim consumers that your company cares about their needs and strives to offer products or services that are in compliance with the Shariah.

According to Oxford Languages, we can define Shariah as below:

“Islamic canonical law based on the teachings of the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet (Hadith and Sunna)…”

Your brand differentiator, which is what sets you apart from your competitors and ignites desire beyond the confines of the brand identity must be Muslim-friendly, to begin with.

No matter which channels your Muslim customers find and interact with your brand – they should all demonstrate the unique Muslim-friendly experience that your brand offers them.

Please also read our 6 Easy Steps Guide to Starting a Business Targeting Muslims!

Create a Muslim-Friendly Brand Strategy

A brand strategy is a long-term plan that will propel you to a successful brand presence and consequently achieve your business goals. Sure, your brand includes your product, your logo, your website, and your name. However, it is far more encompassing and also includes intangible aspects of your organization’s identity.

A well-thought-out and defined Muslim-friendly brand identity is the backbone of any entity targeting Muslim customers both online and offline. This is however even more true for online enterprises that don’t have the physical brand components of brick-and-mortar stores.

Halal Brand Personality

In a previous blog article, How to Create a Halal Brand Personality to Gain Brand Loyalty Among Young Modest Fashion Consumers, we talked about the five components of halal brand personality. 

You will need these to create a brand personality that is perceived as positive and likable by Muslim consumers. Here is a quick summary of those five components:

1. Purity

Purity in halal brand personality is the sincerity that your brand provides to Muslim consumers. 

2. Excitement

When your brand makes Muslim consumers excited, it will increase their engagement and commitment.

3. Safety

If Muslim consumers feel safe with your products they are more likely to develop a high-value relationship and a positive purchasing behavior towards your brand.

4. Sophistication

Sophistication in your product enhances a Muslim user’s personality and insinuates her/his social status as well.

5. Righteousness

Righteousness is the virtue or morality from an Islamic perspective. Righteousness plays an important role in providing confidence to Muslim consumers that they have chosen the right brand.

Muslim Buyer Persona

For an impactful Muslim customer targeting, you need to know who they are as people. What kind of a Muslim person is your ideal target customer? This is highly important given the diversity of Muslims across cultures and backgrounds.

This is why you need a buyer persona that is nothing more than a character profile of your ideal customers. Ask yourself :

• who are they, 
• what do they want, 
• what are their lives like, and
• what would motivate them to engage with your brand?

All the content you create and market: blogs, white papers, etc. should be written addressing this buyer persona’s pain points and concerns. This will help you target and connect with your targeted Muslim audiences on a more personal, individual level, without having to tailor a different approach for every single customer. 

A simple but accurate example of a buyer persona:

Components of a Muslim-Friendly Brand

Your brand is alive and is composed of a specific combination of moving parts. Top brands make it all seem effortless, but even the most successful of the brands consist of the same six essential factors.

1. Website Design

Your website is usually the first point of contact for Muslim users with your company. In fact, it is the face of your company. Apart from making sure your site is simple to understand and navigate, make sure any imagery does not repel Muslim users. So, avoid showing too much skin, alcohol consumption, etc.

Having said that, make sure that your website does not look like a bazaar somewhere in Tunisia or Afghanistan. Your design elements must be modern and attractive to Millenials and the upcoming Gen Z.

2. Logo

Your logo is the most recognized piece of your brand’s collateral. Your logo provides an opportunity for Muslim customers to automatically associate products or services with your brand.

Unless you are a mosque or a religious organization, you do not really have to make it look Islamic by using crescents or anything of that sort. Just keep it simple and easy to remember.

3. Colors

Your brand colors are very important because human beings are visual creatures. Take Facebook’s medium blue or Twitter’s sky blue colors, they are engraved in our minds so much so that we associate them with those two brands immediately.

For this reason, you want to move away from the typical shades of green used by most Islamic entities and choose colors that make you stand out. Also, if the industry you are in typically uses certain colors, be the rebel and use colors that are completely different.

4. Tone of Voice

What your brand sounds like is very important? Do you want to sound bubbly, intellectual, caring, or a mix of everything? Well, this should fluctuate somewhat between channels (without losing your core message and style).

For example, your emails may be more formal, while your social media may be more casual. That’s totally fine! As long as you are always putting out content that brings value to the audience.

Avoid being vulgar and condescending, or even sarcastic. This goes against Islamic principles and will turn off most Muslims instantly. Always have something nice to say because this is something expected in Islam.

Let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day speak good, or keep silent… – Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.

Source: 40 Hadith Nawawi 15

5. Images

We slightly touched on imagery when we discussed the website. As mentioned then, make sure the images you use adhere to Islamic principles.

The images you use, regardless of the platform, should also take into account the four points above. They should, therefore, reflect the tone your brand has set out for itself, follow a color palette, and include your brand’s logo. 

Be systematic in your image selection so that your visual identity is just as strong as your written identity.

6. Domain Name

You must pick a domain name that is well-aligned with the brand itself. It needs to be easy for online users to find. Make sure it is intuitive, helps your customers get access to the information about you without too much hustle.

A domain name needs to be easy to remember and spelled to drive more traffic to your website. Take into consideration the diversity of Muslims in this case too. For example, it is easy for Moroccan Muslims in The Netherlands to remember the name “Bouchra” but internationally Muslim users will remember “Bushra” much more. So instead of www.bouchra.com, use www.bushra.com if you are catering to an international Muslim audience.

Utilize all of the above to create brand consistency because, without consistency, the six components on their own are of little value.

Bringing Your Brand Out

Optimize Your Content

Since the first step of bringing out your brand is creating attractive, valuable content, this is where we start. Content helps you showcase knowledge and industry leadership. The best and most engaging pieces of content are:

• blogs,  
• videos, 
• ebooks, 
• case studies,
• analyst reports
• newsletters,
• social media posts, and
• podcasts. 

Not only does your content allow your Muslim consumers to get to know you. When done well, it will make them feel that you care about their needs in a market currently not focusing enough on this fast-growing consumer group.

…offer advice on an issue, provide commentary on recent news events, give a step-by-step guide to solving a particular problem, or just tell an anecdote that your customers will find interesting.

Source: Hubspot

Get Social on Social Media

Engage with Muslim users on as many relevant social media platforms as you are able to without spreading yourself too thin. Don’t just go ramp up the number of followers but really talk and connect with them.

Respond to feedback, answer their questions, and concerns in real-time. Help them resolve a problem. Let them know that your brand values what they have to say and better yet, show that you share the same values whenever possible. 

In a world where everybody is being given a platform to express their opinion about Islam except Muslims themselves, your brand will be a breath of fresh air if you give them a platform to express themselves. It should not be political, but just an expression of their passion, ambition, wants, and needs. This will give your brand an abundance of UGC (user-generated content).

Now isn’t this what social media is all about for brands?!

Advertise Through the Right Channels

We have mentioned this in previous articles, but it is extremely difficult to target Muslims online. Facebook ads and Google ads are not only expensive, but they are also inaccurate. If you have tried Facebook ads, for instance, I am sure you have had a few unhappy non-Muslim people lashing out intolerant comments.

But at least with Facebook you actually witness some of the inaccuracy. With Google Ads, you just close your eyes and hope the right Muslim audience is being addressed.

But why would you do that when over a decade ago in 2010 Muslim Ad Network (MAN) solved that problem for you.

Your brand can effectively target ads to Muslim consumers instantly across thousands of websites and apps with MAN.  Use Muslim Ad Network’s platform – a powerful tool that will save you money, time, and effort. The only platform that gives you access to over 250 million Muslim consumers every month; no guesswork.

If you want your brand to feature on the biggest Muslim-based websites but also on the mainstream’s most powerful websites; think of CNN and ESPN, get in contact with MAN now.

The post How to Build a Muslim-Friendly Brand appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.