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Ahmed and Aa'isha are two Jordanian Muslims
who have recently completed their college
education and are starting exciting professional
careers. Ahmed is a creative director with
a leading advertising agency and Aa'isha
is a writer for a women's magazine; both
are addicted to their emails, have an active
social life, enjoy eating out, like to dress
trendy, and consider their mobile phones
their lifeline.
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At
the same time, they also take pride in their faith
as Muslims and strive to incorporate basic Islamic
tenets into their busy, progressive lives.
Ahmed
and Aa'isha represent a consumer Muslim Lifestyle Market™
that Dinar Standard roughly estimates
to be 500 million strong and
ripe for innovative solutions. A plethora of products
and services are already emerging to serve this
market such as Muslim matrimonial websites, Shariah-compliant
investing services, modest and fashionable clothing
lines, Muslim community networking websites, high-tech
Islamic education and reference tools, children's
products, specialized travel services, media,
and so on.
Ilkone
i800: The Smart New Islamic Mobile Phone
Among
those who have started to recognize this market's
strength is an innovative Dubai based Company,
Ilkone Mobile Telecommunication, which manufactures
and markets a series of niche products for special-interest
market segments (the name 'ilkone' derives from
the Arabic word for 'universe'.) Earlier this
year, they launched a smart new Islamic mobile
phone, the ilkone i800, which provides
specialized features such as establishing Qibla
direction (towards the Ka'bah at Mecca, that Muslims
face to pray) from anywhere in the world, giving
full text of the Holy Qur'an with English translations
(approved by the scholars of Al-Azhar in Egypt),
and automatic precise prayer timing anywhere in
the world with Azan (call to prayers). Other innovative
ilkone features planned for future release
includes a step-by-step guide for Hajj and Ummrah,
including a personalized process tracker.
| "Ilkone
i800 is specially designed to serve Muslims
all across the world to address their needs,
and add value to their spiritual self being." |
Mr.
Saqer Tellawi, CEO of Ilkone at the GCC
Product Launch
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Saqer
Tellawi, CEO of Ilkone says, "Consumers
nowadays view mobile phones as devices which can
add value to their self-being and inner feelings
rather than just a simple communication tool.
Ilkone i800 is specially designed to serve
Muslims all across the world to address their
needs, and add value to their spiritual self being."
According
to Mr. Tellawi, the phone is also one of the most
advanced mobile phones on the market with GPRS
Class 12, giving users the fastest Internet connection
anywhere in the world (Nokia offers Class 8 -
Samsung, Class 4.) Other added features include
games, calendar, and contact directory. According
to Mr. Tellawi, it is also the first mobile phone
with 16 MB Memory used to accommodate the full
Qur'anic text with translation and is waiting
for Intel to release bigger size memory chips
to further increase the variety of content and
applications on offer.
The
Ilkone i800 hopes to tap into consumers
such as Ahmed and Aa'isha who, as progressive
Muslims, are technically savvy and want to use
new tools and services to support their lifestyle
needs, including new means to practice their faith
fully.
But,
is this really a legitimately large market segment?
For
ilkone i800, Mr Tellawi sees the market
size based on total number of telecommunication
lines available in the Muslim world, which he
says stands at 700 million currently. Mr. Tellawi
intends to capture 1% of this market and is betting
on it with a planned production of 1 million units
of the ilkone i800 in its first year.
In
addition, he sees tremendous growth in the mobile
phone market especially in the GCC countries,
which is set to grow by 40% annually. "The tremendous
increase in the number of potential first-time
users as well as those who keep abreast of latest
phone technology and frequently upgrade their
phone models is one of the main reasons for the
projected growth," Mr. Tellawi adds.
In
terms of the broader size of the Muslim Lifestyle Market™, we are not aware of any real research
or behavioral analysis that exists today.
However,
we do know that there are an estimated 1.48 billion
Muslims worldwide who account for more than 20%
of the world population with varied levels of
consumer buying power. (See http://www.islamicpopulation.com/).
Seeking
some indicator that would show the percentage
of the Muslim population with an interest in Muslim Lifestyle Market™' products, we came across a few studies
that estimate the percentage of Muslims in a community
attending or associated with mosques (in U.S.
and U.K, studies show an average of 35% of Muslims
from the Muslim community attend or are associated
with a Mosque). Accepting this is a good indicator,
and assuming that this percentage may be higher
in countries with a Muslim majority, we can conclude
that the market size of Muslim Lifestyle Market™ products
and services is at least 500 million strong. Ofcourse
further segmentation based on demographics such
as gender (women's clothing), or age (children
products) reduces this market size for those offerings.
However, this is a good rough estimate of the
overall Muslim products market.
Even
with the non-scientific nature of these rough
estimates, the large number of innovative solutions
that are already emerging to serve this market
is further evidence to this growing market segment.
The following are only a few solution categories
servicing the Muslim Lifestyle Market™ today:
Ilkone
i800 - Marketing Challenges and Opportunities
of an Islamic Product:
Ilkone
comprises an international consortium of partners
from the UAE, Egypt, England, Australia, and South
Korea. Mr. Tellawi, a Palestinian who is an experienced
Telecommunication professional, was the man behind
the idea and led a 2 ˝ year R&D effort to develop
the phone with the most relevant, best technology,
and highest quality Muslim features.
The
product was first introduced at the leading High-tech
convention in the Middle East called Gitex in
2003, but had its first real market roll-out in
Lebanon in April 2004. This was followed by a
major push in the Gulf Countries this past Ramadan.
The
long lapse between GITEX and the actual first
launch was primarily due to the process of getting
an official approval from a recognized Islamic
body (Al-Azhar in Cairo) to approve the copy of
the Quran on the phone.
Mr.
Tellawi says, "We not only have to deal with technological
challenges in rolling out in new markets but also
the Islamic Governing bodies, usually separately
for some countries." For example, it's been six
months since they filed for an approval request
in Malaysia. They are hoping to get it by end
of this month.
The
mobile is currently rolled out in the GCC only.
Mr. Tellawi cites that, "With an overall mobile
phone size of 7 million, the response so far has
been very encouraging." The Company is looking
to be in most markets by mid-2005 including Europe,
US and Canada.
One
of the other challenges has been finding quality
partners to represent the product in each country.
Ilkone looks for a partner on an exclusive
basis to not only market, but service the customers
also. Mr Tellawi gives an example of this challenge
by citing a recent launch failure in Pakistan
which he primarily attributes to partner issues.
But Mr. Tellawi is sure he'll be back there soon.
Ilkone is currently seeking partners in
many countries including the U.S.
A
market up for grabs
In
conclusion, the Ilkone i800 is an innovative
product that, with some careful planning, execution
and aggressive branding, is set to benefit from
the needs of a huge Muslim Lifestyle Market™ segment.
As
for the overall opportunities that this market
provides, the emerging solutions are only beginning
to scratch the surface. This can be assessed given
the large market size and the limited sets of
available offerings. Even with those that are
out there, much consolidation is needed to gain
efficiencies and build OIC region wide brands.
In
this months DS100
ranking analysis, Management Consultant Aamir
Rehman suggests that one of the greatest opportunities
for OIC based businesses is to build cross-OIC
brands focusing on the service sector. The Muslim Lifestyle Market™ offerings are perfectly positioned
for this taking.
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