Designing a Conceptual Framework for Islamic Branding to Enter Global Markets: Case of the Industries of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Today, the phenomenon of branding as a new discipline attracts many researchers from inside and outside the Muslim world. Thus, the purpose of this article is to conceptualize and prioritize the components of Islamic branding in Iranian industries in order to provide a conceptual framework for entering the global markets. The research method is exploratory mixed, which is done sequentially in two qualitative and quantitative sections. In the first step of the research, the authors in order to achieve the research goals, used in-depth semi-structured interviews with 14 experts, academics and professors in the field of marketing and market research, branding and Islamic branding. They also selected purposive judgmental sampling and used snowball method to identify and classify the components of Islamic branding. Then, in the quantitative phase, they applied a descriptive-survey method and used a researcher-made questionnaire, through which they collected the comments and views of 328 managers and marketing experts in 60 Islamic names. Finally, the data were analyzed by using confirmatory factor analysis and LISREL software. The results of the research at the survey stage of the experts led to the identification of the three main components of the approaches (conceptual, focal, time-oriented, personality-oriented, incident-oriented, value-oriented and symbolic), opportunities (Islamic brand popularity, the population of the market and Islamic education) and the challenges (Islamophobia and investment risk) of Islamic branding.