2012 LSE-Harvard public lecture on Islamic Finance

Date: Wednesday 22 February 2012
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Mukhtar Hussain, Professor Volker Nienhaus
Chair: Justice Cranston

It is felt that conventional financial systems have failed and should be replaced, or supplemented, by more ethical banking and socially responsible finance. Can Islamic Finance, as a system with a strong religious background and moral framework, satisfy this hope?

Mukhtar Hussain is chief executive officer at HSBC Malaysia.

Volker Nienhaus is visiting professor, University of Reading.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #lseislamfin

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043.

Media queries: please contact the Press Office if you would like to reserve a press seat or have a media query about this event, email pressoffice@lse.ac.uk

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Faisal Masood and Sabiha Ansari, Founders of AMCC

Photo courtesy of Bright Light Studios, www.blstudios.net

By Lisa Mabe

Savvy marketers are constantly working to stay leading edge — keeping  a pulse on consumer trends such as shifting demographics, evolving  purchase behaviors and assessing lifestyles and life stages to best  identify how their brands can fit into a variety of consumers’ lives.  One consumer group that is gaining more attention among multicultural  marketing experts is American Muslim consumers.

This group, numbering between six and eight million in the U.S.,  represents billions in disposable spending power – yet is perhaps the  most underserved market in America. The third annual American Muslim Consumer Conference (AMCC), which took place on Oct. 29 in New Brunswick, N.J., addressed  the opportunity for companies to reach out to this growing group of  consumers.

When marketed to effectively, Muslim consumers remarkably champion  brands and provide consistent and continued results, as evidenced by  several of the success stories shared during the conference about  companies such as Saffron Road Foods and Whole Foods Market. Muslims want brands and retailers to engage with them and say they are willing to open their wallets to those who do.

Consistent with last year’s conference, the AMCC drew both mainstream  and Muslim-owned companies and organizations from Wal-Mart, Best Buy  and Thomson Reuters to IFANCA, Noor Pharmaceuticals and Modern Eid.  This year’s theme, “Multiculturalism & the American Muslim Consumer  Market,” addressed the diversity within the Muslim market as it  includes a variety of ethnic backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles.

As highlighted in the new book, Marketing to the New Majority, published by leading international research firm Millward Brown,  American demographics are changing significantly, and if companies want  to survive, they will need to think differently about how they reach  various communities, such as Muslims, within our multicultural society.

Many Muslim market experts agree that missing the Muslim market today  would be like missing the Hispanic market in the ’90s. For companies in  the U.S. that are interested in tapping into the lucrative and loyal  Muslim consumer market, the AMCC is a must-attend event. Millions of  consumers are waiting for companies to acknowledge and engage with them.  As companies are currently planning for the upcoming new fiscal year,  how will your brand’s multicultural marketing efforts reach Muslim  consumers in 2012?

Al-Kanhal made the comments while announcing that his organization has received Royal approval to sponsor next year’s First International Conference for Halal Food and Drugs Monitoring. “Due to the Kingdom’s position in the Muslim World, it has to take serious steps to lay down regulations and controls for halal food, which many societies consume,” Dr. Al-Kanhal said.

It is the religious duty of the Kingdom to do so because many Muslims around the world trust what the Kingdom says about halal food, he added.

The conference will focus on several topics, the most important of which are technical and religious, Dr. Al-Kanhal said. “We hope that there will be a combination of religious and technical views since halal food is a complex issue,” he said. “Halal does not refer to the way animals are slaughtered only, but also to the process of manufacturing as well as food additives. The efforts of Muslim scholars and food experts should be combined.”

Ibrahim Al-Mehaiza, a SFDA official, said that the halal concept includes food additives, some of which might contain banned material from dead animals, alcohol or pork fat. “We have six laboratories and special units that can detect alcohol and banned food additives,” he said. “We seek to build a main laboratory for all Muslim countries to evaluate any food if there is uncertainty.”

About 500,000 consignments of food arrive to the Kingdom every year, he added, and the SFDA has always been vigilant about banned ingredients and has not found any banned ingredients.

The organization has demanded that plastics used in food packaging should have what it called food-grade stamps in English on them. Packaging material includes wrapping material, plastic, metal, glass, and other items such as glasses, cups, spoons, forks, knives and straws.
Some importers said that they will discuss the demand with concerned authorities before taking any steps. Some of these importers said they have suffered great financial losses because their imported goods were banned at ports of entry.

AMCC attendees will get a special summary presentation of the study findings.  The full study will also be available at a special rate only for registered attendees.

This ground-breaking study will for the first time look at the state of business activity addressing American Muslim needs and show consumer perception of key brands on US halal food, finance, travel and select other sectors.  The study will also highlight American Muslim consumers un-met lifestyle needs.

The key questions this study will reveal:

1. How is the Muslim demographic different across populations centers?
2. Which are the major businesses and brands catering to American Muslims (halal food, finance, travel, fashion, media and other sectors)?  How do different brands compare?
3. What is the brands image with consumers (food & finance)?
4. What are the key influencing factors for purchase (channels, product attributes, services etc.)?
5. What are the major latent needs of American Muslims not being met?

The study will be based on a nationwide grass-roots consumer survey across the major population centers and supplemented by DinarStandard’s market research and analysis.