Inclusive marketing: Muslims’ influence on marketers' behaviour in non-Muslim majority country: evidence from New Zealand

Abstract

PurposeEmerging public discourses on Islam and Islamophobia in Western countries have led to religious discrimination among this group. This exploratory study aims to understand how marketers promote anti-discrimination efforts against Muslims on the notion of future collective unity.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study uses Social Identity theory to explain the behaviour and attitude of vulnerable Muslims. The dimension of racialisation, the Whiteness theory, the oppression model and the ethnocentrism theory were synthesised to explain the practice of racism and oppression. The theory of customer diversity, equity and inclusion was synthesised to understand the importance of inclusive marketing. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 15 senior marketing executives.FindingsThis study observed how the minority Muslims had influenced the marketers' behaviours in combating anti-religious discrimination through various tactics such as extending the corporates' products and services offerings, being inclusive and avoiding stereotyping in their marketing communication styles and shifting the company's processes and systems to meeting this group's cultural needs.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study sample's demographics were motivated by senior marketing executives' profiles, most of the participants were highly educated, had similar cultural backgrounds and were mainly from the West.Originality/valueThis study attempts to shed light on the understanding of Muslims’ discrimination or Islamophobia in non-Muslim majority countries. It is hoped that this study acts as a catalyst for collective unity and would galvanise communities, including marketers to tackle discrimination through a better understanding of a targeted group like Muslims in the marketplace. In this current time of racial and religious tension, business leaders and marketers can act as mediators of social change to normalise more positive relations between minority and mainstream consumers.