Description
With the advent of mass media particularly traditional TV and contemporary digital media, marketing theory and practice has evolved as a prominent source of competition and political advantage in the fields of political science and international relations. The discipline of political marketing has established itself as a paradigm of marketing political ideologies, agendas, political goals and policy frames of political parties and electoral branding. Similarly, marketing as a source of advantage is also visible in the context of socio-political movements and political violence like Arab spring, Syrian Uprising, Orange revolution and global jihadism. To understand application of marketing theory and practice in the domain of political violence, war on terrorism and jihadism. The present research has examined jihadi organizations like Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Tehreek Taliban Pakistan, and Islamic State through an inductive theory building approach. By using case study method and fieldwork in Pakistan, this research has found “marketing” to be a source of resilience, competition, and political advantage. The strategic use of marketing by politically violent organization and phenomenon like jihadism is translated into the essential advantages like recruitment, support, and sympathy among public, competition with other politically groups, increased attention and hegemonic control and institutionalisation of violent ideas in the society. From the findings of current research, a new theoretical construct of marketing: "Jihadi Marketing" has been proposed in its contextual setting of political violence, warfare, and terrorism. Jihadi marketing is defined as the marketing philosophy of violent organizations to create public awareness and word of mouth for their ideology and underlying strategic objectives to attain and sustain political advantage. The research concludes by proposing jihadi marketing as a theoretical and practical framework to examine the underpinning rationale of violent ideologies and their branding management.
