An analysis of Muslims’ luxury market in Iran

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the luxury market in Iran as an Islamic country. The focus is on religion as a factor that can make some challenges for luxury products, and then to find opportunities or similarities in Muslim markets due to the luxury consumption. Design/methodology/approach – As it is a literature review article, the authors used past research works and compared different perspectives that exist about the topic. Findings – It was concluded that although implementing a market-oriented culture is central to the marketers’ success, it is not right to just focus on religion as a separating factor that can isolate the Muslim’s market. It was suggested to change one's viewpoint and analyze the market with a broader vision that can bring innovative ideas and also find similarities and differentiations between Islamic luxury markets with non-Islamic luxury markets. Originality/value – Muslim consumers have a huge purchasing power in countries such as Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. However, there is limited academic literature addressing luxury products in the context of these markets. Luxury purchase motivation is predominantly based on Western thoughts and markets. As Iran as a Muslim country can be an appropriate target market of luxury goods, analyzing the challenges and opportunities can be a useful guide to be successful in this market.