Exploring the Element of “People” from an Islamic Perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to discusss the concept of people as one of the elelments in Islamic Marketing Mix. Information about the introduction of marketing and its importance to the business are among the many marketing aspects discussed, followed by Islamic Marketing Mix which are the 5P’s (people, product placement (distributions) and promotion). This is to help marketers to be engaged in the marketing products based on marketing according to Islam in achieving their business objectives. Using al-Quran and as- Sunnah as the main reference, this paper attempts to link what was wrtitten in the Holy Quran wtih current practice in the services industry. This work used a qualitative approach, therefore, applied a qualitative data collection. Eleven muslim scholars, academicians and practitioners from Shariah and marketing background were interviewed in exploring insight over the element of people in today’s business environment. The findings of this paper suggested that; people involved in marketing are the marketer that plays an important role in marketing, and the people involved in marketing must be knowledgeable, tranparent and holistic which relates to sufficient knowledge, able to access the current situation when dealing with the customers, and concluded that Prophet Muhammad SAW is the role model from an islamic perspective.