Do young Muslim choose differently? Identifying consumer behavior inHalalindustry

Purpose With a substantial Muslim population in the world, Indonesia has economic potential in halal products’ consumption. However, as new products develop, halal products need a specific marketing strategy since the consumers of this industry have unique characteristics. This study aims to examine consumer behavior toward halal products by examining how content quality, religious consciousness and brand awareness affect consumer buying behavior and consumer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a quantitative approach by surveying 1,429 young Muslim students in Indonesia. This research uses a structural equation model analysis to prove the relationship among the variables of this study. Findings The results revealed that religious consciousness and content quality have a direct positive significant influence on consumer buying behavior. The indirect significant effect is also exhibited by brand awareness as a mediating variable. This paper also found empirical evidence that consumer buying behavior has a significant positive relationship with consumer loyalty. Besides, the significant positive relationship between consumer buying behavior and consumer loyalty is moderated by consumers’ gender. Research limitations/implications This study is restricted in young Muslim community from Islamic universities in Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia. Besides that, this research is further restricted regarding the involved variables that is tested in proposed model. This concerns the involvement of content quality, religious consciousness, brand awareness, consumer buying behavior and consumer loyalty. Practical implications The result would give an insight to marketing practitioners on formulating marketing strategy to attract much consumers on purchasing halal products and then expanding their business. This study further profound that religious-based products’ consumers have seem characteristics to conventional-based products, they need to be induced through rational approaches of appropriate content marketing strategy. Originality/value This study gives an empirical proof to extended of stimuli-organism-respond model, which is held by many scholars as the primary theory in spelling out the consumer behavior. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first study that attempts the using of such theory to capture the consumer behavior in halal industry. Besides, this study further serves a breakthrough on how does content marketing determine young Muslim consumers’ behavior.