The Turkish diaspora is where we started and where we go deepest. But it is part of a larger picture. In 2016, Europe was home to 25.8 million Muslims, 4.9% of the population, including 5 million in Germany and 5.7 million in France.
The Muslim population is also young. In 2016, its median age was 30.4, thirteen years younger than other Europeans at 43.8. Many of these households are forming families, buying first cars, furnishing homes and raising children right now.
Not one market
“Muslim” is not a marketing segment. It covers people with roots in Türkiye, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan and beyond, speaking different languages, eating different food and watching different media. A brand that treats them as one audience makes the same mistake as a brand that treats all Europeans as one.
Shared values open the door. Specific cultures decide whether you are let in.
What carries over
- Two languages and two worlds. Most second- and third-generation households live between a heritage language and a European one.
- Family at the centre. Larger family networks, shared decisions and strong word of mouth.
- A shared religious calendar. Ramadan and the two Eids are moments that cut across communities.
- Baseline expectations. Halal in food is often a given, not a niche, and brands are expected to get it right without fuss.
- Memory for respect. Brands that showed up, and brands that didn’t, are remembered.
What has to be relearned
Language, food culture, humour, media habits and the countries people live in differ for every community. Moroccan families in the Netherlands and Belgium, Algerian families in France and Pakistani families in the UK each have their own channels, their own celebrities and their own small truths. Those have to be learned again, with people from each community in the room.
Start deep, then extend
Our advice to brands is the route we follow ourselves. Start with one community where you can go deep, prove that the work moves your numbers, and build the capability to do it well. Then extend, community by community, carrying over what works and relearning what doesn’t. That is how a niche becomes a category.