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Marketing Mix - 4P's (2)

The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps

Understanding how to position your market offering

What is marketing? The definition that many marketers learn as they start out in the industry is:

Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

It's simple! You just need to create a product that a particularly group of people want, put it on sale some place that those same people visit regularly, and price it at a level which matches the value they feel they get out of it; and do all that at a time they want to buy. Then you've got it made!

There's a lot of truth in this idea. However, a lot of hard work needs to go into finding out what customers want, and identifying where they do their shopping. Then you need to figure out how to produce the item at a price that represents value to them, and get it all to come together at the critical time.

But if you get just one element wrong, it can spell disaster. You could be left promoting a car with amazing fuel-economy in a country where fuel is very cheap; or publishing a textbook after the start of the new school year, or selling an item at a price that's too high – or too low – to attract the people you're targeting.

The marketing mix is a good place to start when you are thinking through your plans for a product or service, and it helps you avoid these kinds of mistake.

Understanding the Tool

The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.

"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4 Ps is one way - probably the best-known way - of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E J McCarthy.

The 4Ps are:

• Product (or Service)
  
• Place
  
• Price
  
• Promotion

A good way to understand the 4 Ps is by the questions that you need to ask to define you marketing mix. Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

Product/Service

• What does the customer want from the product/service? What needs does it satisfy?
  
• What features does it have to meet these needs?
  
  • Are there any features you've missed out?
    
  • Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
• How and where will the customer use it?
  
• What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
  
• What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be?
  
• What is it to be called?
  
• How is it branded?
  
• How is it differentiated versus your competitors?
  
• What is the most it can cost to provide, and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below).

Place

• Where do buyers look for your product or service?
  
• If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?
  
• How can you access the right distribution channels?
  
• Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?
  
• What do you competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?

Price

• What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
  
• Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
  
• Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you extra profit margin?
  
• What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of your market?
  
• How will your price compare with your competitors?

Promotion

• Where and when can you get across your marketing messages to your target market?
  
• Will you reach your audience by advertising in the press, or on TV, or radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshot? Through PR? On the Internet?
  
• When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch, or the timing of subsequent promotions?
  
• How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?

The 4Ps model is just one of many marketing mix lists that have been developed over the years. And, whilst the questions we have listed above are key, they are just a subset of the detailed probing that may be required to optimize your marketing mix.

Amongst the other marketing mix models have been developed over the years is Boom and Bitner's 7Ps, sometimes called the extended marketing mix, which include the first 4 Ps, plus people, processes and physical layout decisions.

Another marketing mix approach is Lauterborn's 4Cs, which presents the elements of the marketing mix from the buyer's, rather than the seller's, perspective. It is made up of Customer needs and wants (the equivalent of product), Cost (price), Convenience (place) and Communication (promotion). In this article, we focus on the 4Ps model as it is the most well-recognized, and contains the core elements of a good marketing mix.

Using the 4Ps Marketing Mix Model

The marketing mix model can be used to help you decide how to take a new offer to market. It can also be used to test your existing marketing strategy. Whether you are considering a new or existing offer, follow the steps below help you define and improve your marketing mix.

1. Start by identifying the product or service that you want to analyze.
   
   
2. Now go through and answers the 4Ps questions - as defined in detail above.
   
   
3. Try asking "why" and "what if" questions too, to challenge your offer. For example, ask why your target audience needs a particular feature. What if you drop your price by 5%? What if you offer more colors? Why sell through wholesalers rather than direct channels? What if you improve PR rather than rely on TV advertising?

Tip: Check through your answers to make sure they are based on sound knowledge and facts. If there are doubts about your assumptions, identify any market research, or facts and figures that you may need to gather.

4. Once you have a well-defined marketing mix, try "testing" the overall offer from the customer's perspective, by asking customer focused questions:
   
   1. Does it meet their needs? (product)
      
   2. Will they find it where they shop? (place)
      
   3. Will they consider it's priced favorably? (price)
      
   4. And will the marketing communications reach them? (promotion)
      
      
5. Keep on asking questions and making changes to your mix until you are satisfied that you have optimized your marketing mix, given the information and facts and figures you have available.
   
   
6. Review you marketing mix regularly, as some elements will need to change as the product or service, and its market, grow, mature and adapt in an ever-changing competitive environment.

Key points:

The marketing mix helps you define the marketing elements for successfully positioning your market offer.

One of the best known models is the Four Ps, which helps you define your marketing options in terms of product, place, price and promotion. Use the model when you are planning a new venture, or evaluating an existing offer, to optimize the impact with your target market.

Marketing Mix - 4P's

Marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories:

• Product
• Price
• Place (distribution)
• Promotion

The term "marketing mix" became popularized after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Borden began using the term in his teaching in the late 1940's after James Culliton had described the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients". The ingredients in Borden's marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis. E. Jerome McCarthy later grouped these ingredients into the four categories that today are known as the 4 P's of marketing, depicted below:

The Marketing Mix

These four P's are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject to the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P's on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response.

Product Decisions

The term "product" refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Here are some examples of the product decisions to be made:

• Brand name
• Functionality
• Styling
• Quality
• Safety
• Packaging
• Repairs and Support
• Warranty
• Accessories and services

Price Decisions

Some examples of pricing decisions to be made include:

• Pricing strategy (skim, penetration, etc.)
• Suggested retail price
• Volume discounts and wholesale pricing
• Cash and early payment discounts
• Seasonal pricing
• Bundling
• Price flexibility
• Price discrimination

Distribution (Place) Decisions

Distribution is about getting the products to the customer. Some examples of distribution decisions include:

• Distribution channels
• Market coverage (inclusive, selective, or exclusive distribution)
• Specific channel members
• Inventory management
• Warehousing
• Distribution centers
• Order processing
• Transportation
• Reverse logistics

Promotion Decisions

In the context of the marketing mix, promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication, that is, the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response. Marketing communication decisions include:

• Promotional strategy (push, pull, etc.)
• Advertising
• Personal selling & sales force
• Sales promotions
• Public relations & publicity
• Marketing communications budget

Limitations of the Marketing Mix Framework

The marketing mix framework was particularly useful in the early days of the marketing concept when physical products represented a larger portion of the economy. Today, with marketing more integrated into organizations and with a wider variety of products and markets, some authors have attempted to extend its usefulness by proposing a fifth P, such as packaging, people, process, etc. Today however, the marketing mix most commonly remains based on the 4 P's. Despite its limitations and perhaps because of its simplicity, the use of this framework remains strong and many marketing textbooks have been organized around it.

Product Manager - Delegate Tactical Responsibilities

Delegate tactical responsibilities

If you want to be a bad product manager, do everything yourself. You’re the product manager, after all, so you should be the final authority on everything related to the product. You should be the one answering questions from salespeople, drafting press releases for marketing, defining all of the processes for suppliers, and poring over every detail with engineering. Sure it takes a lot of your time, but that’s what a product manager should be spending time on. What other more important things are there to do?

If you want to be a good product manager, delegate tactical activities to allow you to spend time on the strategic aspects of the job. Effective product managers pass on product knowledge and responsibility for tactical decision-making as much as possible to others on the product development team. By leveraging the rest of the team, the product manager can focus on the strategic role of product management.

It is difficult for many product managers — especially new product managers — to effectively balance the strategic and tactical priorities of product management. With so many competing priorities, the minutia and day-to-day tends to take over. To extend a common metaphor, it’s not just that product managers sometimes focus on the trees instead of the forest — they go so far as to end up focusing on a specific piece of bark.

While it is easy to say that product managers should be more strategic and less tactical (see Spend your time in the right places, for example), actually accomplishing that is a significant challenge. Pragmatic Marketing recently released the free ebook “The Strategic Role of Product Management,” by Steve Johnson, which describes why product management is a strategic role and why product managers need to think and act strategically. Buried in the “Final thoughts” section is this beautiful nugget of wisdom (emphasis added):

Product management is a strategic role. Yet as experts in the product and the market, product managers are often pulled into tactical activities. Developers want product managers to prioritize requirements; marketing people want product managers to write copy; sales people want product managers for demo after demo. Product managers are so busy supporting the other departments they have no time remaining for actual product management. But just because the product manager is an expert in the product doesn’t mean no one else needs product expertise.

Product managers should take heed of this last sentence. Think about all of the tactical activities in which you engage — documenting details, answering questions, describing functionality, responding to feedback, tracking down responses, and the like. How much of your time is taken up by these activities? Why are you engaged in them? Is it because

1. you are the only person in the company who knows how?
2. everyone else is busy and you are the only one who has free time?
3. they are so important that they must be done by you and only you?

The answer to these questions is probably an emphatic NO in most cases. The real reason that product managers are engaged in these activities is because they have done them in the past, so others assume they will do them in the future. Every time a product manager writes copy for marketing, or conducts a demo for sales, or investigates some technical issues for development, the product manager creates the expectation that he or she will do that in the future. Obviously, there are some occasions where this may be appropriate, However, the vast majority of the time, the product manager can and should be giving the necessary direction, context, and guidance to allow other people to accomplish these tasks themselves.

Most product managers do not have staff reporting to them, so it is not necessarily as easy as delegating tasks to a direct report. Instead, product managers need to leverage others and teach them to be self-sufficient. This is not to say that product managers should ignore requests or haphazardly push off their responsibilities, of course. Instead, product managers should look to make those around them more effective by providing them with the tools, information, or resources they need.

Every time you as a product manager are presented with a task, ask yourself these questions:

• Is this helping to advance the product strategy?
• Does this support one of the high-level goals for my product?
• Is there anyone else within the company besides me who can accomplish this task (e.g. answer this question, investigate this problem)?
• Is this something that has come up before or is likely to come up again?
• Is this a valuable use of my time?

It’s never easy saying “no,” though it may be easier to look at it this way — every time a product manager says “yes” to something that is tactical and routine, they are saying “no” to something that is forward-looking and strategic. Which would you feel more comfortable telling your boss — or the CEO — that you said “no” to?

So what do you do with the tactical activities — those requests for copy writing, operational meetings, responses to customers, and discussions of detailed product minutia? Ask yourself — and others — whether they are really necessary, or at least whether it is really necessary for you to be included. Going back to the three questions posed earlier, look at why you are engaged in tactical activities:

1. If you are the only one who knows some vital piece of information, figure out some way to rectify that. Document it, communicate it, teach it to others, pick someone to transfer knowledge — find some way to make sure that someone else has the information. Beyond just providing better use of your time, this can be vital for business continuity and succession planning.
2. If everyone else is claiming to be busy and is offloading responsibilities, the same can be doubly true for a product manager. Help create ways for people to answer questions or streamline tasks on their own, rather than passing on their additional work for you.
3. If there really are activities that appear to be vital enough to be performed by you and only by you, analyze those activities closely. Some may seem critical at first glance, though upon review you may notice that they are not as important as originally thought. Also, other people may be turning to you because they think you want to be involved, or because they think you would be offended if you were not consulted. Just because someone else thinks a task is crucial enough that it must only be done by you does not mean that you have to agree with them.

Lastly, if you are involved in these activities only because you have always been — well, then make it a resolution to stop today! The more product managers can think about their role as being strategic and market-focused, the more they can add value to the organization and to customers. Effective product managers help create more product expertise within the company. This gives the product manager as much time as possible to focus on the reason the company created the position — to add value by creating and improving market-focused products.

Note: This post is part of a Pragmatic Marketing’s BlogFest. Other posts as part of previous BlogFests include:

• Understand your product’s domain (part of the BlogFest on Everyone needs to know what we do here)
• Use conferences to learn, not to sell (part of the BlogFest on Why Demo at Trade Shows?)

Product Manager - Role & Responsibilites

The Product Manager represents the Product Owner and the End-User/Customer – they are responsible for defining and scheduling the delivery of high quality output in line with business requirements and priorities.

The Product Manager and the Product Owner define the ‘What’, The Scrum Team define the ‘How’ and they work together to agree the ‘When’.

The Product Manager is on hand during the course of the Sprint for questions and confirmation of progress in the ‘right direction’. For example, the Scrum Team may approach the Product Manager mid-Sprint with an “is this what you were after” or “I could either do this or that… which would you prefer?”

The Product Manager works with Stakeholders and the Product Owner to set Product Strategy and will often be responsible for managing the Product P&L – they seek to identify and define the highest value deliverables Just In Time for each Sprint Planning Session.

The Product Manager tracks progress across sprints in the form of a Release Plan, Release Burndown and/or Agile Epic Board to ensure that delivery stays on track and remains alligned with the overall programme/business strategy and objectives.

It’s important to note that this role will vary slightly different from one organisation to another. The main contentious issue seems to be whether it falls to the Product Owner or the Product Manager to own the communication of new product requirements to the team.

Best practice dictates that this communication should be owned by the Product Owner. With that said, as the number of Product Owners increases, it can become less efficient to run things this way.

In order to keep planning sessions to a minimum and to reduce the points of contact for the Team, a Product Manager may become empowered to take responsibility for more of the direct communication. In order to ensure the Product Owner has buy-in and remains in the loop, they attend the Sprint Review sessions and or Daily Scrum plus other sessions where appropriate. It’s not ideal to have this extra degree of separation but it does seem to work alright nevertheless.

Key Responsibilities of the Product Manager (Scrum Meetings):

Pre-Requirements Workshop (and Ongoing)

• Meet with business stakeholders to discuss, define and capture requirements – User Research
• Consider Market conditions – Market Research e.g. SWOT analysis , Marketing Mix - Product, Price, Promotion, Place
• Manage the Product Management documentation- Product Backlog(s), Release Plan(s), Product Roadmap(s), Release Notes and any other Requirements-level notes/sketches
• Communicate and capture requirements in a way that people can understand them e.g. Themes, Epics,User Stories, Test Cases, UI sketches, Conditions of Satisfaction etc.

Requirements Workshop

• Presentation of new user stories/requirements (this may also be done by the Product Owner)
• Document feedback from the development team (e.g. viability of stories and top-level effort estimates)
• Re-prioritise, expand and more clearly define the product backlog
• Add/remove user stories and conditions of satisfaction as necessary

Planning Poker

• Introduction of user stories and agreed conditions of satisfaction to the development team
• Document level of effort estimated to deliver each user story – use these to drive prioritisation and release planning

Post-Planning Poker

• Re-prioritise Product Backlog – Ensure that the product backlog is prioritised in a way that minimises risk, maximises Business Value and end-user satisfaction in advance of the Requirements Workshop
  
• Add/remove user stories and conditions of satisfaction as necessary so to ensure that each sprint is value-packed

Sprint Planning

• Present the highest priority User Stories – and suggest the proposed scope of iteration (this may be done by the Product Owner)
• Negotiate top-level Sprint scope and ensure that requirements are fully understood
• Agree Sprint Objectives with development team – this is a collaborative process
• Remain on hand for questioning whilst the Scrum Team defines their Sprint Delivery Strategy (if required)

Post-Sprint Planning

• Update release plan further to the meeting and ensure that the Product Owner (and Key Stakeholders where appropriate) are aware of the Sprint scope

Daily Scrum

• May attend the Daily Scrum to receive update on Sprint progress, but is not allowed to actively contribute – they are an observer
• May be alerted to impediments, that they can help to clear

Sprint Review

• Circulates Sprint Review invitation to relevant key stakeholders
• Receives a presentation of the work completed during the course of the sprint
• The Product Manager and Product Owner(s) decides whether the Sprint Objectives have been achieved (or not).

Post-Sprint Review

• Define, schedule and monitor progress against a top-level product Release Plan, Release Burndown and/or Agile Epic Board

Sprint Retrospective

• The Product Manager is an optional attendee to this session, however I recommend they attend so to promote transparency, trust and collaboration between them and the Scrum Team
• The focus of this session is to review what went well in the previous sprint, what didn’t go so well and what the team can/will do together and individually in order to improve performance in the next sprint.

Product Manager (1)

Oftentimes our clients ask us if we have sample Product Manager job descriptions for use in hiring or defining job roles and responsibilities. We've put together these feel free to modify the samples and use them for recruiting purposes.

Product Manager Job Description Sample #1 (Primarily inbound)

Job Description
The Product Manager is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle, including: gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager's job also includes ensuring that the product supports the company's overall strategy and goals.

The Product Manager is expected to:

1. Define the product strategy and roadmap
2. Deliver MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
3. Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities
4. Run beta and pilot programs with early-stage products and samples
5. Be an expert with respect to the competition
6. Act as a leader within the company

Required experience and knowledge

1. Minimum of N years experience as a Product Manager
2. Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products
3. N+ years of experience in a job in the XXX market
4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
5. Bachelor's degree (MBA preferred)
6. Technical background, with experience in XXX
7. Excellent teamwork skills
8. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
9. Must be able to travel XX% of the time
10. Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past

Product Manager Job Description Sample #2 (inbound and outbound)

Job Description
The Product Manager is responsible for both product planning and product marketing. This includes managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, tod deliver winning products. It also includes working with sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager's job also includes ensuring that the product and marketing efforts support the company's overall strategy and goals.

The Product Manager is expected to:

1. Define the product strategy and roadmap
2. Deliver MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
3. Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities
4. Be an expert with respect to the competition
5. Develop the core positioning and messaging for the product
6. Perform product demos to customers
7. Set pricing to meet revenue and profitability goals
8. Deliver a monthly revenue forecast
9. Develop sales tools and collateral
10. Propose an overall budget to ensure success
11. Brief and train the sales force at quarterly sales meetings
12. Brief press and analysts and go on press tours
13. Act as a leader within the company

Required experience and knowledge

1. Minimum of N years experience as a Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager
2. Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products
3. N+ years of experience in a job in the XXX market
4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
5. Bachelor's degree (MBA preferred)
6. Technical background, with experience in XXX
7. Excellent teamwork skills
8. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
9. Must be able to travel XX% of the time
10. Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past

Menyikapi Perbedaan Pendapat Menurut Islam

“Orang-orang beriman itu sesungguhnya bersaudara. Sebab itu damaikanlah antara kedua saudaramu itu dan takutlah terhadap Allah, supaya kamu mendapat rahmat, (QS al-Hujurat [49]: 10).

Islam berasal dari kata salima yuslimu, yang berarti tunduk atau patuh. Menurut bahasa Arab, pecahan kata Islam mengandung pengertian “islamul wajh” (ikhlas menyerahkan diri kepada Allah QS an-Nisa’ [4]: 125), aslama (tunduk secara total kepada Allah QS Ali Imran [3]: 83), salaamah atau saliim (suci dan bersih QS asy-Syu’ara’ [26]: 89), salaam (selamat sejahtera QS al-An’am [6]: 54), dan silm (tenang dan damai QS Muhammad [47]: 35).

Dari berbagai makna Islam yang salah satu maknanya adalah keselamatan, maka dapat disimpulkan bahwa agama Islam adalah agama yang mengajak penganutnya kepada kedamaian, persaudaraan, kasih sayang, persatuan, toleransi, dan saling menghargai satu sama lain. Hal ini ditegaskan dalam firman Allah Swt, “Dan tiadalah Kami mengutus mu (Wahai Muhammad) melainkan sebagai rahmatan lil-alamin, pengasih bagi alam semesta,” (Q.S. Al-Anbiya’ [21]: 107)

Karena itu, Islam sangat mengecam sikap permusuhan, otoriter, congkak, perpecahan, mau menang sendiri, dan melecehkan pihak lain. Firman-Nya, “Hai orang-orang yang beriman, janganlah sekumpulan orang laki-laki merendahkan kumpulan yang lain, boleh jadi yang ditertawakan itu lebih baik dari mereka. Dan jangan pula sekumpulan perempuan merendahkan kumpulan lainnya, boleh jadi yang direndahkan itu lebih baik,” (QS al-Hujurat [49]: 11).

Jangankan menyakiti fisik, berkata jelek terhadap saudara seiman, seperti membicarakan kejelekan orang atau ghibah, disamakan dengan makan daging saudara sendiri. “Hai orang-orang yang beriman, jauhilah kebanyakan purba-sangka, karena sebagian dari purba-sangka itu dosa. Dan janganlah mencari-cari keburukan orang dan janganlah menggunjingkan satu sama lain. Adakah seorang diantara kamu yang suka memakan daging saudaranya yang sudah mati? Maka tentulah kamu merasa jijik kepadanya,” (QS al-Hujurat [49]: 12).

Selain itu, Islam mengajak umatnya untuk bersatu (QS Ali Imran [3]: 103) dan melarang bercerai-berai (QS Ali Imran [3]: 105) karena sesungguhnya kaum beriman adalah bersaudara. “Orang-orang beriman itu sesungguhnya bersaudara. Sebab itu damaikanlah antara kedua saudaramu itu dan takutlah terhadap Allah, supaya kamu mendapat rahmat, (QS al-Hujurat [49]: 10).

Hubungan Antar Muslim
Hubungan Muslim dengan Muslim lainnya digambarkan Rasulullah Saw bak satu tubuh. Jika salah satu anggota tubuh sakit maka anggota tubuh yang lain pun ikut sakit. Dalam hadits Qudsi dikatakan bahwa tidak beriman seseorang sebelum ia menginginkan agar yang baik terjadi pada saudaranya sebagaimana ia menghendaki demikian untuk dirinya. “Cinta-Ku akan Kuberikan kepada orang-orang yang saling mengunjungi karena-Ku. CintaKu akan Ku-berikan kepada orang-orang yang saling mencintai karenaKu. Cinta-Ku akan Ku-berikan kepada orang-orang yang saling berkorban untuk yang lainnya karena-Ku. Dan cinta-Ku akan Ku-berikan kepada orang-orang yang saling tolong menolong karena-Ku.”

Seorang Muslim dilarang menyakiti Muslim lainnya. Dilarang memukulnya. Dilarang membunuhnya. Dilarang mengganggunya. Dilarang memfitnahnya. Dilarang menuduhnya. Dilarang membencinya. Dilarang memeranginya. Dilarang berkata jelek terhadapnya. Dilarang berbuat jahat. Dilarang berkata bohong. Dilarang mencari kesalahan orang lain, dan dilarang mencercanya.

Maka siapa pun yang melakukan demikian, sebagaimana sabda Rasul saw, mendapat kutukan Allah Swt. “Kehormatan Muslim itu satu. Seseorang harus membela kehormatan saudaranya. Maka barang siapa yang mencemarkan kehormatan seorang Muslim Allah mengutuknya. Demikian pula para malaikat dan semua manusia. Sesungguhnya Allah tidak akan menerima amalnya di hari kiamat.”

Karena itu seorang Muslim harus ber-husnuz-zhan, berprasangka baik terhadap sesama Muslim lainnya. Ia sekali-kali tidak boleh berprasangka buruk atau suuz zhan, karena prasangka buruk dapat merusak hubungan baik dan menimbulkan bencana. Bukan hanya prasangka buruk, bahkan seorang Muslim tidak boleh menilai orang lain atas dasar prasangka dan dugaan semata. la harus mencari tahu keadaan yang sebenarnya. Dan tidak boleh mengikuti prasangkanya atau kata orang lain sebelum tahu persis persoalannya.

Hal ini ditegaskan Allah dalam firman-Nya yang menyamakan perbuatan ghibah dengan memakan daging saudara sendiri (QS al-Hujurat [49]: 12). Dalam ayat lain Allah Swt menyatakan agar kaum mukmin menjauhi prasangka karena prasangka tidak berguna mencapai kebenaran. “Dan kebanyakan mereka tidak mengikuti kecuali persangkaan saja. Sesungguhnya persangkaan itu tidak sedikitpun berguna untuk mencapai kebenaran. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mengetahui apa yang mereka kerjakan. (Q.S. Yunus [10]: 36).

Perbedaan Pendapat (khilafiah)
Dalam tradisi ulama Islam, perbedaan pendapat bukanlah hal yang baru, apalagi dapat dianggap tabu. Tidak terhitung jumlahnya kitab-kitab yang ditulis ulama Islam yang disusun khusus untuk merangkum, mengkaji, membandingkan, kemudian mendiskusikan berbagai pandangan yang berbeda-beda dengan argumentasinya masing-masing.

Yang menarik, dalam mengemukakan berbagai pendapatnya, ulama-ulama Islam, terutama yang diakui secara luas keilmuannya, mampu menunjukkan kedewasaan sikap, toleransi, dan objektivitas yang tinggi. Mereka tetap mendudukkan pendapat mereka di bawah Al Qur’an dan Hadits, tidak memaksakan pendapat, dan selalu siap menerima kebenaran dari siapa pun datangnya. Dapat dikatakan, mereka telah menganut prinsip relativitas pengetahuan manusia. Sebab, kebenaran mutlak hanya milik Allah subhanahu wata’ala. Mereka tidak pernah memposisikan pendapat mereka sebagai yang paling absah sehingga wajib untuk diikuti.

Dalam kerangka yang sama, Imam Ahmad bin Hambal pernah berfatwa agar imam hendaknya membaca basmalah dengan suara dikeraskan bila memimpin shalat di Madinah. Fatwa ini bertentangan dengan mazhab Ahmad bin Hambal sendiri yang menyatakan bahwa yang dianjurkan bagi orang yang shalat adalah mengecilkan bacaan basmalahnya. Tapi fatwa tersebut dikeluarkan Ahmad demi menghormati paham ulama-ulama di Madinah, waktu itu, yang memandang sebaliknya. Sebab, menurut ulama-ulama Medinah itu, orang yang shalat, lebih utama bila ia mengeraskan bacaan basmalahnya (Ibn Taimiyah, Majmu’ ar Rasa’il al Muniriyah, Juz I (Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al Turats al ‘Arabi, 1343 H.), h. 124).

Berikut adalah sikap islami dalam menyikapi perbedaan pendapat yang dikemukakan oleh Muhammad bin Husain al Jizani, dalam disertasi doktornya untuk kajian Ushul Fiqh di Universitas Islam Madinah. Pertama, Tidak menganggap fasiq, mubtadi’ dan kafir pihak yang berselisih paham. Kedua, Melakukan dialog yang sehat dengan mengutamakan dalil dan argumentasi. Ketiga, Tidak memaksakan kehendak atau paham kepada pihak lain. Dan keempat, Tidak mengklaim kebenaran mutlak berada pada pihaknya. Meskipun demikian, patut ditambahkan pula bahwa kendati saling menghormati perbedaan pendapat, ulama-ulama itu tetap sepakat tentang kewajiban untuk selalu merujuk kepada Al Qur’an dan Hadits.

Keempat sikap di atas mesti dijadikan pijakan oleh umat Islam dalam menyikapi perbedaan pandangan—selama masih berada dalam koridor al-Quran dan Hadits—agar umat Islam tidak terpecah belah dan saling menyalahkan satu sama lain. Sepanjang perbedaan itu menyangkut masalah furu’iyah (cabang: fikih), bukan akidah, seperti membaca qunut, tidak usah dipermasalahkan. Lebih baik energi difokuskan pada pemberdayaan agar umat Islam tidak menjadi umat yang terbelakang. Wallahu a’lamu bis shawab.