Islamic experiential marketing (A reception analysis of among Muslim McDonalds consumers)

The potential and opportunities of the Muslim market in the world continue to increase, especially in Indonesia, where the majority of the population is Muslim. Capturing this potential and opportunity, business people continue to carry out various strategies to welcome this opportunity, one of the strategies carried out is to use an experiential marketing approach. Experiential Marketing is an approach that focuses on the consumer experience. The approach focuses on the five senses (sense), feelings (feel), ways of thinking (think), habits (act) and relationships (relate). Experience has a big influence on a consumer’s buying decision. Emotional and rational aspects are the focus that business actors want to target, this is because the experience factor has an influence on the repurchase process. The experience that Mcdonalds wants to target is the protection of the religiosity of Muslim consumers. Internalization of Islamic values in Experiential Marketing as a marketing communication strategy is expected to capture the attention of Muslim consumers in Indonesia. This research is a kaulitative research with constructivism paradigm. The subject of this research is Experiential Marketing activities at McDonald’s with the object of research being McDonalds Muslim consumers. This study uses a reception analysis research method which is a way to understand how the meaning of messages received by audiences (consumers) in determining the content or text of a media message. Through the existence of halal logos, prayer rooms, clean places, clear prices and female hijab waiters, Muslim consumers’ experience of Islamic values is built and strengthened in the minds of consumers. The internalization of Islamic values built through Experiental Marketing has succeeded in understanding, interacting with Muslim consumers and empathizing with their needs through Islamic values.