The Application of Religious Appeal in the Strategic Marketing Communication of Financial Services in Pakistan for "Consumer Manipulation”

The perimeter of this article ranges to the limited and perceptual dimension of the business particularly in the Islamic Banks. The main objective of this article was to comprehend that whether the Islamic banks are practicing the principles of Islam in their true spirit or the same banking system is only coated by the word ‘Islamic’ to win the clientage. True it is that the whole mechanism is same except some modes, by the virtue of whom, the graph of the consumer`s shift to this banking system has shown prominent increase. So there is just a very fine difference between the Islamic and the conventional banking. If so, then what are those factors that are promoting the consumer’s inclination towards Islamic banking as recently its operational diameter is expanding beyond the Islamic countries? Therefore, this study aims to find out whether the consumers are really being manipulated in terms of religious marketing or not? Secondly, it has been worked out that the Islamic banking working upon the principles as embedded in Quran and Hadith or it is only producing the by-products of the conventional banks. It has been concluded in the present work that the Islamic banking is Shariah compliant but to its minimum level.