Investigating the Mental Image of Halal Brand Consumers using Neural Network Analysis Technique

The rapid growth of the Halal market and its many unknown opportunities has attracted the attention of economic actors and global marketers. Understanding the consumers’ mental image from the Halal brand helps them understand their behavior and facilitates the functioning of the Halal market for companies and businesses. This research aimed to study the consumers' mental image from the Halal brand. The present research had an applied orientation, a survey strategy, and exploratory-descriptive purpose. By using the neural network technique and MATLAB software, the data collected through interviews with 48 experts and managers of marketing, sales and research and development who were familiar with the Halal brand were studied. The samples were selected by using purposive non-random sampling method. The number of samples was determined to reach theoretical saturation by the snowball method. The results indicated that the Iranian consumers’ mental image of Halal brand included the following characteristics: the responsibility of the producer, the profitability of the products, the quality of the products, building loyalty in the customer, making mental peace for the customer, and product differentiation.