Advertising diversity can be challenging to achieve. It does not take a major blunder for a brand to face backlash over an advertisement. This has made brands extremely cautious about how they portray minorities in their advertisements.
However, during the holiday season, diversity is thrown out the window, and, aside from tokenism, minority groups such as Muslim consumers are completely forgotten.
It is a missed opportunity for you and your brand, and we will help you get it right this Christmas season!
Christmas is a few weeks away and smart businesses and brands have already started planning for it. So, let us look at how you can create a successful ad for Muslim consumers during Christmas.
Christmas and Muslims
For the vast majority of people in western countries, Christmas is not a religious holiday. However, because of its origins, it is still considered inappropriate for many Muslims to celebrate.
Officially, Islam allows only two festivals: Eid ul Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and Eid ul Adha (celebrations after the end of the pilgrimage season).
However, Muslim families use the long holidays during the Christmas season to get together, enjoy the company of family and eat good food. As a result, if you want to advertise to Muslims in order to encourage them to buy during the holiday season, make your ad less about Christmas and more about family values and family celebrations.
Keep Your Ad Generic
Any advertisement you create for Muslims during the Christmas period should have generic connotations. For example, instead of saying “Merry Christmas”, your ad copy should say “Happy Holidays”.
The same is true for your imagery. In most western countries, the Christmas period is accompanied by a cold snowy winter. Don’t include Santa or a Christmas tree. Instead, depict a snowy night or day, or anything else related to the time of year when Christmas falls.
Show Diversity Within the Muslim Community
Muslims are more than just Arabs or Desis (South Asian). Make certain that you include Hispanic Muslims, Black Muslims, Caucasian Muslims, Malaysian Muslims, Native Indian Muslims, and any other ethnicity you can think of.
If your ad is too biased toward one group, it will not have the desired effect. We’ve written extensively about the Muslim audience’s complexities. We recommend that you look at some of the most pertinent to this article:
How to Target Advertisements to Muslims with Impactful Diversity and Inclusion Marketing
The Complexity of Advertising to Muslim Consumers Simplified
How Mainstream Brands Can Identify and Serve Muslim Niche Markets
Under Armour and Tommy Hilfiger Launch Hijabs – What it Means for You
3 Tips for Marketing to Muslims and Not Get The Cold Shoulder
Depict Muslims in Day-to-day Scenarios
During the holiday season, Muslims go about their day-to-day business just as anybody else would. They also go looking for discounts and buy presents like everyone else.
Don’t go out of your way to make your ad look like they are living inside a bubble decorated with Arabic calligraphy and brass lamps. You bump into Muslims every day when you commute to work, at your local store, soccer practice, etc. Your ads should reflect their presence in such scenarios.
Show Muslim Values
Christmas is always a time for families to come together in the west, regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, or atheist. This is well-depicted in most ads.
Family is an integral part of a Muslim’s life and so is community life, gratefulness, integrity, neighborliness, empathy, and more. In Islam these are not just good-to-haves, these are values that every Muslim is expected to have.
Depicting these values in your ads that target Muslims will be very powerful. Come to think of it, these values stir positive emotions in everyone so it would serve your ad campaign well in general and not just for the Muslim audience.
If you want to know more about advertising to Muslim consumers, visit our Advertiser Product Overview page or contact the Muslim Ad Network team.
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