درآمدی بر بازاریابی ارزش‎های دینی مبتنی بر فهم تداعی‎ها و تصویر ذهنی جامعه (مورد مطالعه: امر به معروف و نهی از منکر)

Extended Abstract
 
Introduction and Objectives: Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong is an important Islamic religious principle with individual, moral, social, and cultural dimensions. Beyond its religious significance, it can function as a mechanism of social responsibility, behavioral regulation, prevention of social deviance, and strengthening of social relationships. Despite this broad significance, promoting and socially accepting this principle in contemporary society has become increasingly challenging. One important explanation is that people may hold incomplete, simplified, or even negative mental representations of the concept. Consequently, before developing cultural, communication, or promotional programs, it is necessary to understand how target audiences perceive the concept and which words, values, experiences, and emotions are activated in their minds when they encounter it. Identifying these mental associations can provide an essential starting point for diagnosing existing perceptions and designing more effective interventions.
From this perspective, nonprofit marketing provides a potentially useful framework for promoting social, cultural, and religious values. Marketing is not necessarily restricted to commercial exchange; its tools can also be applied to understanding target audiences, developing appropriate communication strategies, and facilitating voluntary behavioral change. In particular, marketing and brand-management research has developed several approaches for identifying associations and mental images. Conceptual mapping is one such approach and can be adapted to noncommercial concepts in order to visualize the structure of associations existing in the minds of target audiences. The present study therefore applies an approach derived from marketing and brand-association research to the field of religious values. Its main objective was to identify and analyze the mental associations and perceived image of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong among religious and veiled women. More specifically, the study sought to answer the following question: What concepts and words, whether positive or negative, spontaneously come to mind when women hear the expression “Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong”?
Method: The study was applied in terms of its objective and exploratory in terms of its research nature. Since the study did not formulate predetermined hypotheses, its analytical orientation was primarily directed toward discovering the structure of respondents’ spontaneous associations. The statistical population consisted of veiled women in Tehran and Karaj, from whom 439 respondents were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic questions and an open-ended question designed to elicit spontaneous associations with the concept of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong. Respondents were asked to mention the concepts or words that came to mind when they heard the expression. An additional question was used to assess respondents’ level of knowledge regarding the religious conditions and requirements associated with the practice.
Data analysis combined qualitative preprocessing and quantitative computational analysis. Python, Excel, SPSS, and online word-cloud tools were used. First, irrelevant responses were removed, spelling and wording errors were corrected, and long statements were converted, with minimal intervention, into words or concise expressions representing the respondents’ associations. Similar and synonymous expressions were then standardized and integrated. The final analysis considered the frequency of each association, its order of appearance, and the frequency with which pairs of associations co-occurred. The conceptual association map was constructed according to three principles: the size of each node represented the frequency of the association; its position reflected the average rank at which the association appeared, with earlier associations positioned closer to the center; and the thickness of the connecting lines represented the frequency of co-occurrence between pairs of associations. Word clouds were also used to compare different respondent subgroups.
Results: The 439 respondents generated 1,117 raw associations. After data cleaning, standardization, and integration, 1,082 usable associations remained, representing 275 distinct words or concepts. The 53 most frequent concepts accounted for approximately 75% of the total frequency of associations, indicating a substantial concentration of respondents’ mental representations around a relatively limited set of concepts. The most prominent association was “hijab,” which occurred 202 times and represented 15.9% of the reported associations. It occupied the most central and visually prominent position in the conceptual map. The next most frequent associations were “religious obligation” (7.1%), “Imam Hussein” (4.6%), “meddling” (3.5%), “social reform” (2.7%), and “security” (2.5%). “Prayer” and “duty” each accounted for 2.4%.
Content analysis indicated that the associations could be organized into eight broad categories: behavioral manifestations of enjoining good and forbidding wrong; desirable values and goals; religious and theological concepts; modes and styles of action; perceived negative consequences and harms; negative attitudes and cognitive barriers; social responsibilities and roles; and ethical norms and social capital. Behavioral associations included hijab, clothing, modesty, prayer, fasting, lying, and backbiting. Desirable outcomes included social reform, social health, security, peace, and a better life. Religious associations included religious obligation, duty, God, the Qur’an, Islam, Imam Hussein, and Imam Mahdi. At the same time, negative cognitive associations included meddling, interference, coercion, imposing beliefs, bullying, and violence.
The findings also revealed a meaningful coexistence of positive and negative representations. Approximately 27% of the distinct associations were negative, whereas about 73% were positive or neutral. When the frequency of all associations was considered, approximately 20% had negative connotations and 80% were positive or neutral. Negative associations included meddling, conflict, bullying, imposed beliefs, tension, fear, violence, insult, insecurity, and counterproductive reactions. Positive or constructive associations included social reform, security, peace, compassion, friendship, respect, justice, kindness, and social responsibility.
Comparative analysis further demonstrated that respondents’ level of knowledge regarding the religious conditions of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong was associated with the nature of their mental associations. As respondents’ knowledge increased, positive and religious associations such as “Imam Hussein” and “divine obligation” became more prominent, whereas negative associations such as “meddling,” “bullying,” and “Guidance Patrol” became less prominent. Age differences were also observed. Younger respondents were more likely to associate the concept with negative terms and with the “Guidance Patrol,” whereas older respondents more frequently mentioned concepts such as “duty” and “compassion.”
Discussion and Conclusion: The central finding of the study is that the mental image of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong among religious and veiled women is characterized by a substantial degree of reductionism. Although the religious and social scope of the principle encompasses a broad range of individual, ethical, social, economic, and political issues, respondents’ spontaneous mental representation was strongly concentrated on “hijab” and, to a lesser extent, religious rituals such as prayer and fasting. Thus, hijab was not merely the most frequent association; it constituted the central element of the overall associative network. This finding suggests that a strong cognitive connection has developed between Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong and the issue of hijab.
This reduction has two important implications. First, other forms of good and wrongdoing that are socially significant—such as combating corruption, injustice, embezzlement, hoarding, violation of rights, and social responsibility—may receive considerably less attention in the public understanding of the concept. Second, because hijab has itself become associated with social tensions and negative experiences for some members of society, negative associations attached to this particular manifestation may be transferred to the broader concept of enjoining good and forbidding wrong. Consequently, the simultaneous presence of positive concepts such as “religious obligation,” “Imam Hussein,” “prayer,” and “social reform” alongside negative concepts such as “meddling,” “bullying,” “conflict,” and “Guidance Patrol” reflects a complex and partly ambivalent mental image.
From the perspective of religious-value marketing, the findings suggest that an effective promotional strategy should not begin simply with increasing the volume of communication or issuing more persuasive messages. Rather, it should begin with a systematic understanding of the existing mental image of the target audience. Negative associations, reductionist interpretations, and cognitive barriers should first be identified and addressed. Communication strategies can then emphasize broader dimensions of the principle, including social responsibility, compassion, respect, ethical conduct, mutual care, and social reform. In this sense, nonprofit marketing can contribute not merely through advertising but through audience understanding, segmentation, message design, relationship management, and gradual reconstruction of the perceived value of the religious principle.
Overall, the study demonstrates that the effective promotion of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong requires a shift from a predominantly directive approach toward an audience-centered approach based on understanding perceptions, reconstructing mental images, and developing persuasive communication. The finding that greater knowledge is associated with stronger positive religious associations and weaker negative associations provides an important practical implication: improving accurate understanding of the philosophy, scope, conditions, and social dimensions of the principle may constitute an important mechanism for improving its public image. Accordingly, identifying and gradually correcting existing mental representations should be regarded as a fundamental first step in developing marketing-based cultural and religious promotion programs.