Assessing the influence of demographic background and awareness level of halal consumption among Muslim consumers in Kuala Terengganu

Abstract

The halal industry in Malaysia is set to become the new world leader. The continuous demand for halal products and services among consumers locally and globally have attracted marketers to strategize their marketing plan to break through the halal market. Realizing the great demand of halal products nowadays, efforts have been made by the government to turn Malaysia into a regional hub for halal products. Although the awareness among marketers with regards to halal certification have increased, the Muslim consumers, are still found to be lacking in terms of understanding the deeper concept of halal, especially in relation to halal certification. Malaysia, being a Muslim majority population country does not guarantee the awareness among consumers regarding halal products and certification. Living in a society of Muslim majority may give consumers the confidence to consume products made by the same society as halal legit. There are several cases of food poisoning in the state of Terengganu where the food products bought were contaminated. In an extreme case, in 2017, the issue of food poisoning has led to the death of a doctor was highlighted by media to public attention. Even though it was an isolated case, it shows the lack of concern and sensitivity among consumers to the actual concept of halalan tayyiban in day-to-day consumption. Therefore, this study is conducted in order to identify the level of halal awareness among Muslim consumers in Kuala Terengganu. This study focuses on the demographics influence towards consumers’ perception and knowledge pertaining to halal products and certification among Muslims in Kuala Terengganu. For this purpose, several analyses were performed such as the one-way ANOVA and Mann Whitney U test in order to find the difference in the variables. In addition to that, a regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors contributing to consumers’ awareness. This particular study had successfully gathered 301 Muslim consumers in Kuala Terengganu as respondents through convenient sampling. From the analysis, it is deduced that consumers’ perception and knowledge do contribute to consumers’ awareness on halal consumption. Furthermore, it is also found that several demographic elements do influence consumers’ perception and knowledge regarding halal products and certification. Specifically, the study found that there are significant differences between the demographic elements (age, level of education, occupation and level of income as the p values equal to .016, .000, .012, & .036 respectively) and consumers’ perception. However, in terms of consumers’ knowledge, the study found that there are two demographic elements that show significant difference; namely, gender and level of education, as the p values equal to .046 and .014 for each element which are less than the alpha value .05. Finally, the study found that the level of halal awareness among Muslim consumers in Kuala Terengganu pertaining to halal products and certification are at a high level.