"Al Qaeda Co-opts Islam's Message" - 2009 biggest branding success

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From 2009's Biggest Branding Success.
Al Qaeda Co-opts Islam's Message.

You’d think that an organization committed to turning back the clock to the dark ages would have problems making its message heard in today’s hyper-wired world. Quite the contrary. Over 2009, Al Qaeda continued its highly successful campaign to position itself as the only “true” form of Islam.

While Al Qaeda goals and methods may be disgusting and stupid and its claims to religious legitimacy completely ridiculous and ahistorical, there’s no question that their leaders — many of whom were educated in the West –have created the most brand-savvy religious group on the planet.

Barred from TV ads, billboard, direct mail, trade shows and other traditional lead generation methods, Al Qaeda launched a three part “guerrilla marketing” plan:

1. Build a strong presence on the web. Compare to the boring “brochure ware” that’s common for most religious and terrorist group, Al Qaeda has gone for the Sales 2.0 approach, big time, leveraging social networking, blogs, and email marketing to build a loyal following and cultivate big money contributors.
2. Create a compelling narrative. The entire Al Qaeda/Radical Islam story, while completely ridiculous to non-believers, obviously has real appeal to those who take the Koran really, really seriously. It’s one thing to have a product that people will kill to get; it’s quite another to have one “to die for.”
3. Stage dramatic “street theatre” events. Say what you will about the morality of it, there’s no question that Al Qaeda has mastered the art of creating publicity. They’ve done such a great job that in 2009, they convinced the U.S. to launch a major troop increase in Afghanistan, even though Al Qaeda has only a handful of operators there.

Lesson Learned: You can have big brand impact without spending big money.

Taken from: http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=7499&page=3&tag=col1;post-7499