As competition heightens, Islamic brands need to adopt more strategic customer-centric approaches to meet the pace of change. Enhancing personal relationships with customers is critically important in order to attract and retain customer loyalty, and to secure competitive success.

1. Issue 08 2014 / Islamic Banker ASIA / 29
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ISLAMIC BRANDING
EVOLUTIONISING
ISLAMICBRAND
ADVOCACYTHROUGH
SUCCESFUL
RELATIONSHIP
MARKETING
Ascompetitionheightens,
Islamicbrandsneedtoadopt
morestrategiccustomer-centric
approachestomeetthepaceof
change.Enhancingpersonal
relationshipswithcustomersis
criticallyimportantinorderto
attractandretaincustomer
loyalty,andtosecurecompetitive
success.
Brand advocate is a marketing
term for a highly satisfied customers who
goes out of their way to actively promote
the products or services they have a
meaningful relationship with. A positive
and emotional experience with a brand
leads to the development of a brand
advocate who praises the brand through
word-of-mouth.
In this digital era, social media
tools enable a brand advocate to share
their brand experience. Relationship
marketing came about from the
specialisation of direct marketing
which emphasizes customer retention
& satisfaction. It focusses on the
LTCV—Long Term Customer Value.
Today given the technology available
relationship marketing has become part
of what is popularly known as ‘inbound
marketing’ (which is a combination of
SEO—search engine optimisation-;
web & social media content & public
relations. In achieving an effective Brand
Management, let us look at what are the
differences between creating genuine
trust vs. paid exposure. There are two key
differences as presented in Table 1.
So, why does brand advocacy matters
more than ever as consumers globally
shift their focus towards Islamic brands?
For brands operating in the space of the
“Islamic economy”— developing brand
BY JOY ABDULLAH

2. 30 / Islamic Banker ASIA / Issue 08 2014
ISLAMIC BRANDING I EVOLUTIONISING ISLAMIC BRAND ADVOCACY THROUGH SUCCESFUL RELATIONSHIP MARKETI
Table 1: Key differences between genuine trust vs. paid exposure approaches.
Trust
Is based on the total brand
experience the consumer has.
Involves delivering a clearly
perceived value benefit
Paid Exposure
Is a manufacturers or marketers
statement presented as a form
of advertising
Makes a promise
advocates is an extremely important
part of the marketing strategy for an
organisation. This emanates from
the behaviourial changes that cut
across ethnic and economic consumer
classifications globally. The financial crises
and socio-economic factors coupled with
rapidly deteriorating corporate trust and
an increasing information overload has
led to consumers automatically tuning
out ‘paid exposure’ or advertising. Instead
with the increasing growth of social
media one sees a rise in ‘interest-based
communities’ i.e. groups of netizens on
social media that group together based on
a common interest. These groups share
their recommendations on brands and
consumers tend to trust this ‘word-of-
mouth’ or advocacy in guiding their own
purchasing behaviour.
For brands operating in the
Islamic economy space, it becomes
It absolutely a must to identity
the key values and develop an
authentic brand story that delivers
a clearly felt value-benefit in order
to generate brand advocacy.

3. PHOTOCOURTESYOFAL-BARAKAH
Issue 08 2014 / Islamic Banker ASIA / 31
ARKETING
critical to connect and provide a very
fulfillingexperience that is based on
alignment, understanding and projection
of the value-system by which the Muslim
consumer, technically, operates.
Whilst paid brand exposure is
required from a basic awareness and
proposition communication perspective,
more importantly, it absolutely a must
to identity the key values and develop
an authentic brand story that delivers
a clearly felt value-benefit in order to
generate brand advocacy. Without this
brand advocacy, the sustainability of the
brand would be in question.
In relations to Islamic banking and
finance, why is relationship marketing
important in maintaining strong
customer loyalty or in gaining new
customers and when venturing into new
markets?
The route to brand advocacy is a
long-term one. It’s not a tactic that shows
result within a fiscal year and it’s not a
marketing gimmick that can be created.
Celebrity advertising or testimonial
advertising is not brand advocacy. That’s
‘paid exposure’.
The route to developing brand
advocacy is through relationship
marketing. The brand has to have a
very clearly identified objective, target
audience, value-proposition and an
overall brand experience environment
that would allow for a positive experience
where the consumer is concerned.
All of this requires strong internal
service level planning and high level of
employee engagement which ensures
the right brand value message is
communicated through the interaction
between the brands’ employee and its
consumer.
Banking is a category that’s of, both,
high interest & unknown territory, to
the man-on-the-street. Coupled with
this there exists, amongst consumers,
subliminal prejudices and biases about
how banks operate and are only interested
in maximising stakeholder profit. Couple
this with the sketchy financial planning
awareness and a rising tide of mistrust
amongst consumers, given all the negative
news about the global banking industry,
and you have an ideal recipe for ‘blocked
reception’ to any advertising put out.
Islamic banking is no different.
In fact, the prejudices against a
Islamic banking brand is higher as
comprehension of the difference between
Islamic banking products vis-à-vis
conventional banking products has not
really been well communicated This
makes relationship marketing that much
more important for an Islamic banking
brand. It’s important from three points
of view:
A) Long-term perspective of sustainability
and brand leadership
B) A customer base that enables for product
portfolio sell-in without additional or
incrementalcommunication cost and
C) Establishing the brand in both local and
international markets.
At this point, let me digress a bit
to clarify that relationship marketing is
not a loyalty, collect-points & redeem,
programme or campaign. That is a tactic
within the overall portfolio of relationship
marketing.
A relationship marketing campaign
has to be based on the two key facets of
Brand has to
have a very
clearly identified
objective, target
audience, value-
proposition and
an overall brand
experience
environment
that would allow
for a positive
experience
where the
consumer is
concerned.

4. 32 / Islamic Banker ASIA / Issue 08 2014
ISLAMIC BRANDING I EVOLUTIONISING ISLAMIC BRAND ADVOCACY THROUGH SUCCESFUL RELATIONSHIP MARKETI
developing trust as mentioned earlier—
authentic bran experience based on the
brand values & a clearly perceived value
benefit. Customer’s satisfaction acts as key
in influencing Brand Loyalty. I Quote ...
“You can make some of the people happy all
the time, but you can’t make all the people
happy all the time”.
Satisfaction by definition, is an
emotional behaviour. It’s a feeling that
comes about through the stimuli received
by our five senses and the same being
decoded by our brain based on our
cultural and social experiences stored in
memory.
So when we attempt to satisfy
consumers with the intent of increasing
brand loyalty we must be very clear that
the loyalty will remain as long as the
defined parameters of satisfaction, from
the consumers’ perspective, are being
fulfilled. The moment the consumer has a
drop in the satisfaction level there will be
a competing brand taking over. There are
no second chances!
So what are some of the key factors
that go about in ensuring a brand is able
to provide excellent satisfaction?
1. Employee engagement—it’s
critical that the front line employees
are highly engaged in the organisation’s
purpose i.e. the employees understand
their role and its impact in the bigger
scheme of things.
2. Authenticity — the brand
communication & actual behaviour i.e.
action, has to be authentic and open.
3. Accountability — clear
accountability in terms of operating
processes and quick resolution to service
issues need to be demonstrated.
In summing up, the area of
relationship marketing and brand
advocacy is an area that the Islamic
banking industry, till date, has not paid
a great deal of attention to. A focus on
this is now critical given the business
requirements, across markets that are
pushing Islamic banks to explore cross-
border growth.
This is an area that will demand
much more focus as it has a direct impact
on operating business processes, in terms
of manpower, leadership, service levels,
product development and technology
utilisation. IBA
IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF IBA:
Brand loyalty in Islamic banking -
how to inspire organic advocacy with
scalable and sustainable brand advocacy
programme?
About the writer
Joy Abdullah is a cross-functional
organisational expert specialising in
brand-based business sustainability.
He guides organisations in making
their business sustainable through
leadership and communications by
using his cultural and behavioural
branding expertise and provides
a clear focus on stakeholder
engagement and experience.
Joy is also a frequent speaker
on leadership, communications
and organisational culture. As an
emerging expert in the Islamic
finance and Halal industries, he has
contributed numerous articles and
has been interviewed in media such
as Campaign Asia, Islamic Finance
News, The Halal Journal, Business
Islamica, Opalesque Islamic
Finance Intelligence and Amilin
TV, to name a few. He has lived and
worked in the UK and India and is
currently settled in Malaysia.
The area of
relationship
marketing
and brand
advocacy is an
area that the
Islamic banking
industry, till
date, has not
paid a great deal
of attention to.