Marketing Religion: The Marketing and Islamic Points of View

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to study the possible application of marketing to promote religion in the specific case of “Islam”. In fact, marketing techniques have been adapted to religious goals since the beginning of the 19th century. But with the rise of the secularization movements in the post-modern era, its application becomes vital to guaranty the survival of religions notably in the Christian case. Islam is facing the same difficulties, such as the decrease of mosque attendance, the decrease of religious commitment, xenophobia and Islamophobia. Our approach was to study marketing application such as defining the 4P’s for the religion of Islam. This would be done based on marketing science and the Islam’s sources: The Holly Quran and Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) Hadiths. In the case of Islamic religion’s sources, and specially in Holly Quran and Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) Hadiths we found many similarities with marketing strategy notably in the choice of promotional variables and the insistence on the importance of religious promotion or Islamic Daawah. So we suggest that the use of marketing techniques is possible and would have two major purposes: Developing Islamic religiousness and repositioning Islam’s image as an opened, tolerant and modern religion.