Marketing Terror: How ISIS utilise political marketing to gain support among Western audiences

This paper will discuss how ISIS utilise traditional political marketing techniques in their online communications to build support among Western audiences, an area of research that has been largely unexplored by political marketing literature.This question is explored through a qualitative case study, developed through an analysis of 51 primary sources, primarily published by the Al-Hayat media centre from 2014-2017, the period of ISIS’ greatest power and support. It will demonstrate that ISIS heavily leverage political marketing techniques in their communications, developing a sophisticated media strategy that may account for the scale of their support among Western audiences. The most prominent methods in this strategy are sales-orientation, nation branding, segmentation and targeted communications. This research outlines the political marketing of ISIS, and posits the view that political marketing is not limited to traditional political parties but is instead adopted by a range of political actors, including extremist political groups.