MUMBAI: It isn’t quite what you would have imagined. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather has launched a consultancy service to provide advertisers a platform to target Muslim consumers.

Ogilvy Noor is, in fact, the world’s first Islamic branding consultancy service, launched after a two-year study by WPP into Muslim consumer habits and attitudes.
 
A Muslim sense of brand consumption is different from how consumers of other religions behave. It is more a community overhang over individualism as marketers of brands brood over how they can specifically make inroads into the Islamic market.

According to a research report conducted by Ogilvy Noor and market research firm TNS, the market for halal food (meat slaughtered according to Islamic law) is worth $2.1 trillion and growing $500 billion a year.
 
Ogilvy Noor consists of a team of experts spread across the key Muslim markets of Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. 
 
In UK, for instance, Islamic banks and financial institutions have flourished. India with its huge Muslim population and festivities also needs a dedicated task force to point out the peculiarities of this complex marketplace.