Hermawan Kartajaya:
Last week, I was invited by the Malaysian Takaful Association and Islamic
Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia to give a speech for the 2nd
International Convention on Takaful and Retakaful entitled “Reshaping Takaful
Landscape: Forging Global Excellence”. This event was attended by almost 150
people from all over the world. At this prestigious event, I also launched the
Sharia Marketing book (English edition) which I wrote with M. Syakir Sula.
My session, on the second day, is about Sharia Marketing: The Sustainable
Way of Doing Business. In my presentation, I said, as companies strive to
establish sustainable businesses; they have to consider four things that are:
Change, Competitor, Customer and the Company itself. Changes which occurred in
the global scale (digitalization, globalization, futurization) have forced
people to become paradoxical. However, this will also lead them to find the
ultimate bliss, because only when people feel confused and mixed-up in their
daily lives will they want to find the real meaning of their lives. For the
takaful business, that is a big opportunity because the system that is offered
by takaful is based on mutual cooperation that operates in sincerity, moral
attitudes and sharia-based investment principles like the principle of
mudharabah, musyarakah and so on. Unfortunately, the exposure of the system
has not yet been optimum and many people still do not
understand what exactly the takaful business offers and how is it different
from conventional business?
Therefore, I said, takaful business needs marketing to enhance and
support the business but in sharia ways. As I always mention in my speech,
that actually sharia marketing means: sharia-endorsed marketing activities
and marketing endorsed sharia-based business activities. But, that only
happens if you only do the marketing in the right way. I argued that the real
meaning of marketing is about positioning, differentiation, and brand. Brand
and positioning create identity, positioning and differentiation create
integrity, differentiation and brand create image. The important part in this
PDB triangle is the positioning and differentiation part because it will shape
the integrity of your business. And Integrity is the key that will lead your
success toward becoming a sustainable enterprise.
In short, I was very delighted because after the presentation, some
participants from the Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and other countries came to me
and asked me about my ideas in marketing this sharia business. And I am very
happy if I can help sharia or takaful-based business to grow because its
principles are good and highly compassionate.
See more at http://ekonomi-syariah.blogspot.com/
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