1st Edition
Terrorist Recruitment, Propaganda and Branding Selling Terror Online
This book analyses the marketing techniques that terrorist organisations employ to encourage people to adopt their ideology and become devoted supporters.
The book’s central thesis is that due to the development of digital technologies and social media, terrorist groups are employing innovative marketing techniques and advertising strategies to foster an emotional connection with their audiences, particularly those in younger demographics. By conducting thematic and narrative analyses of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propagandist magazines, as well as looking at the group’s online communities, the book demonstrates that terrorist groups behave as commercial brands by establishing an emotional connection with their potential recruits. Specifically, groups and their potential supporters follow the logic of emotional choice. The book emphasizes that while ISIS became the first group that discovered and benefited from the power of marketing, it did not have a supernatural power and thus it is possible to find a response to it, which is particularly important now. The book eventually poses a question about whether terrorism has become the product of marketing in the same way as any mainstream consumer product is, and asks what can we do to battle the appeal of marketing-savvy terrorist groups.
This book will be of interest to students of terrorism studies, radicalisation, and propaganda, communication , and security studies.
Introduction. Terrorism, Propaganda and Branding: The (In)visible Connection
1. Emotional Choice: How to Make You "Buy" What You Did Not Plan to
2. Heroes, Princesses and True Believers: The Images ISIS "Sells"
3. Narrative Advertising: Selling Caliphate Through Stories
4. Falling in Love with the Caliphate: Self-illusion and Immersion into the Imaginary World
5. Getting Lost in the Fantasy: "Jihadi culture", Excitement and Bonding
6. Feeling No Regret: Guilt-Coping Mechanisms in ISIS’s Propaganda
Conclusion. Breaking the Terrorist Brand
Biography
Anna Kruglova is a Lecturer of Terrorism Studies at the School of Arts and Media at the University of Salford and has a PhD in international studies from Queen’s University Belfast.
'This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of marketing and communication in insurgency today. It provides a rich, nuanced, and well-evidenced exploration of how the Islamic State navigated the information battlefield during its peak years and, in doing so, is an important contribution to the theoretical literature on political, and politicised, outreach.'
Dr. Charlie Winter, Director of Research, ExTrac
'This book makes vital contributions to the research and policy fields. Dr Kruglova examines how Islamic State propagandists deploy marketing and branding techniques to persuade supporters to actively support the group. Methodical, multidisciplinary, and accessible, Dr Kruglova's study is an important resource for understanding not just the Islamic State but violent extremist propaganda and recruitment strategies more broadly.'
Dr. Haroro Ingram, Senior Research Fellow, George Washington University
