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SERVICES
The Islamic way of business is different. Muslim consumers are concerned about your meeting their Islamic needs and winning in the business environment necessarily includes the Islamic way of branding, design and marketing. We need a new model—an Islamic Branding model.
Islamic Brand Design Innovation (IBDI)
methodology for a pristine Islamic
brand experience
Design Thinking
In an environment of phenomenal speed and clutter, those who thrive are the ones who innovate. To innovate, you have to design. Business practices dictate knowing (historical data) then to take action. Islamic design adds an additional step: creative making. It refuses to accept the usual because we don’t really know what’s possible until we push the boundaries or go beyond. Therefore we can’t just decide our way to the future, we have to design our way to the future.
“On average, design alert businesses increase their market share by 6.3% through design. Nearly half (46%) of design alert businesses saw turnover increase in the last twelve months by more than the amount they spent on design in the same year. The Design Council Index—an index of 61 design-led businesses—has outperformed the FTSE 100 by more than 200% over the past decade.”
The Value of Design Factfinder Report,
The Design Council 2007, UK
Outcomes should necessarily be influenced by Islamic design processes—marking the bridge between what is and what could be. The solution to a problem that existed in the past can no longer bear as a solution to the future because businesses are different. Islamic design bridges the gap between vision and reality: it expands the range of options of what is possible. Left to its own devices, design either benefits or harms, so we need sharia compliant Islamic design concepts for control.
For ongoing innovative business endeavours in a dynamic Muslim consumer market, you need to establish a design culture. But Islamic design without Brand Thinking, has no business direction.
Brand Thinking
“More successful outcomes tend to be generated where creativity and design are aligned with strategy.”
DTI Economics Paper 15,
Creativity, Design & Business Performance, November 2005
Most of what you learn in business school have become irrelevant in today’s business environment where Muslim consumers control business behaviours and the barriers to competition are beyond your control. We live in an era of fast moving markets—overwhelmed with clutter and remarkable innovation. Muslim consumers are now interested in who you are and what you stand for.
Brand thinking concerns itself with your purpose, values and Islamic authenticity, in relation to your competitors and the aspirations of your audience. Islamic branding is about building and nurturing a set of perceptions about you, in the minds of your audience—giving them a sense of purpose and meaning, aspirations and hope. How many times have you seen big brands surpass the generation of their founder?
But Islamic design and branding left by their own devices can be harmful to both the image of Islam and the Muslim ummah at large. The pious Muslim businessman accepts these models of success on condition that Islamic Thinking guides it.
Islamic Thinking
“Verily, we were a disgraceful people and Allah honoured us with Islam. If we seek honour from anything besides that with which Allah has honoured us, then Allah will disgrace us.”
Athaar, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, Al-Mustadrak
Islam is a way of life—and by extension, informs the Islamic way of business and Islamic design. It has a set of systems, rules and methodologies in place that guides the life of the Muslim along every way. Islamic thinking interweaves and evaluates thoughts, processes, information and methodologies of various involved disciplines; then ascertain only the truths and benefits to be incorporated into your Islamic brand. Going back to this method, Muslims can re-establish themselves as the forerunners in the dunya bi’ithnillah. Islamic thinking purifies that which is impure, and more importantly every act of obedience, becomes a means of harnessing good deeds that will earn you blessings in this life & the next.
Islamic thinking is what guides brand thinking and design thinking but for it to really come alive, it needs to take people on a journey where they will emotionally connect with your brand. That, only the power of Story Thinking can achieve.
Story Thinking
A good story wraps itself around you and whisks you away into a world of its own. Stories innately resonate with human behaviours due to its universal truths across many generations. Longstanding empires have been built on this powerful yet persuasive art. It is about time that we use its halaal components to forge powerful Islamic brands. Stories spur people to action. It lingers long in people’s minds, giving them hope. People aspire to characters who conquered their challenges—the adversities they overcame, against all odds. The seerah is filled with them.
Our lives must point to a purpose greater than our own. Does the world know the Islamic worldview? What is your brand’s purpose? Today, stories are the social currencies of brand relationships. Brands are now able to grow their reach faster than any type of advertising. Those who tell the most powerful stories, are the ones who gain the most loyal fans.
What story are you telling?
“Brands are built around stories. And stories of identity—who we are, where we’ve come from—are the most effective stories of all. This storytelling is a powerful way to bring brands to life.”
Bill Dauphinais, Pricewaterhousecoopers
AT-TAJĨR AL-MUSLIM AT-TAQĨ