ISLAMIC INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF ENTREPRENEURS

Products offered by entrepreneurs require some form of promotion so consumers will become aware of them. This means that integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an important field that warrants further exploration. The seemingly elusive concept of Islamic IMC defines the statement of the problem and encourages its study from the theoretical and practical perspectives. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the IMC campaigns of students at a public university in the academic year 2022/2023. The scope of the study was focused on 13 campaigns that promoted products sold by 13 entrepreneurs. The research questions posed were: What made the Islamic IMC campaigns effective? Which models or theories were used to guide the Islamic IMC campaigns? Which Islamic values were used in the Islamic IMC campaigns? Grounded theory was used as the method to construct theory from data by using a comparative analysis. Themes and codes were derived from the data analysis. Most campaigns reported sales as being the main measurement of campaign success, whereas the campaign objectives guided by the AIDA model formed the important measures of success. Other components, such as awareness, engagement, advertisement recall, and food taste, were minor measurements of success. Twelve campaigns adopted the AIDA model, while one campaign adopted the Facets Model of Effects. Several combinations of Islamic values were used in the campaigns, with “honesty” being the most highlighted Islamic value by students in their campaign reports. The theory of the holistic components of Islamic IMC campaigns was derived from the data projecting the importance of the three components—self, brands, and messages—against the backdrop of sales as being the main measurement of campaign effectiveness and the AIDA model as the main model used to guide the campaign strategies. It is obvious from the study that IMC campaigns can be successful when conducted within Islamic parameters and that entrepreneurs are empowered when their IMC campaigns are effective.