IIUM Press, International Islamic University Malaysia
Abstract
Current challenges reflect intense competition in the market and low
switching cost of customers. For any brand to be appealing and
ultimately profitable, it necessitates differentiation in comparison
with other brands. Marketers engage in various differentiation
techniques such as Aaker’s brand personality model. Aaker’s model
contains five dimensions (sincerity, excitement, competence,
sophistication, and ruggedness) along with 42 underlying aspects.
Brand personality helps in developing customer-brand relationship,
brand image, and brand commitment. Extensive research has been
done based on the above model yet several scholars have criticised it
based on issues such as generalizability across countries and
cultures. Religion being an important part of culture has also been
ignored in the brand personality domain. This research proposes an
Islamic brand personality model, which not only looks into the
dimensions, but also examines the underlying aspects based on the
Qur’an, hadith and the scholarly work of both traditional and
modern Muslim scholars. This paper found that the Islamic brand
personality model contains two new dimensions, namely
trustworthiness and justice in addition to the existing dimensions.
This model can benefit any Islamic brand (Islamic bank, Islamic
Insurance company etc.) to differentiate itself from others, especially
from conventional brands in order to develop a potentially larger
Muslim consumer market
