Introduction
Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) was previously a part of the Jihadi group, Al-Qaeda, working under the name of Al-Qaeda. But soon after several internal conflicts and issues, the Syrian hub of Al-Qaeda cut off their roots with them and renamed them as ISIS (Al-tamimi, 2014). They announced their formation officially in April 2013. From then, it has emerged as the main jihadist group which is launching highly active operations and fighting the government of Iraq and Syria as well.
The territory of ISIS covers the land area of thirty-five thousand square miles. This size of land is equal to the size of Jordan. ISIS is comparatively a new self-proclaimed caliphate state, and it has been continuously making the headlines of big news channels. They had managed to conquer the various towns along the borders of Syria and turkey, the capital of Raqqa, parts of northern Syria, across the demolished places at the border of Iraq into Mosul, and till the farming towns, situated in the southern part of Baghdad. Moreover, they have been using and made the most of all the gas and oil fields in Syria. In addition to this, they have also seized the largest refinery of Syria, located in Bajji. They manage to get their funds by trading oil and electricity, capturing banks and obtaining by threatening those families who loved ones they kidnap. One of the former officials of Pentagon, Janine Davidson, has even said that ISIS has got such a huge volume of resources and assets which is visibly higher than any of the extremist organization in the past.
Brand Positioning
The primary target customers of ISIS are mainly the foreign young Jihadists, particularly from Iraq, Gulf States and Arab Peninsula. ISIS has major ideological differences with other operating jihadi group across the globe (Welford, 2014). Their direct competitors are Al-Qaeda and Jabhat-al-Nusra (JN). ISIS has been strictly strategic from the starting, and they started recruiting people through various networks such as, Facebook and Twitter.
ISIS is getting high on its graph of brand equity. Their growth rate is quite commendable. They are not operating like traditional ways of Al-Qaeda. ISIS has been very smartly utilizing the digital tactics in order to frame them as a better organization. If we analyse their brand references, it’s very evident that they have been building their basis on the theories of Al-Qaeda, which lately got changed due to various conflicts.
Branding Strategy
The Islamic State in Iraq al Sham (ISIS) reported the bunch's rebranding as the "Islamic State," announcing itself a Caliphate and pronouncing its pioneer, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Caliph Ibrahim. ISIS is additionally reclassifying the way we consider fear associations and how they advertise themselves to the outside world.
In 2007, they renamed the association the Islamic State of Iraq and in the most recent year; the name was changed at the end of the day to Islamic State in Iraq al-Sham (ISIS). To place it in viewpoint, Al Sham alludes to the locale of the Middle East that incorporates Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian regions, so that rebranding exertion grew the proposed span of ISIS past the outskirts of Iraq (Hegghammer, 2011).
The rebranding exertion targets more diminutive aggressor amasses liable to venture up and battle for ISIS as it endeavours to increase its compass in the Middle East. The expected system: unification of different jihadist amasses under the Islamic State. In a 34 moment feature, al-Baghdadi published the name change and expressed "the Islamic State will unite the individuals who need unity."
Moreover, ISIS has settled an entire unit of social media campaign through which they interact with people. Their most commonly used mediums are Facebook and Twitter. They often use them in order to disseminate highly strategized propaganda. Undoubtedly, they were well effective in striking the nerves of people with their videos.
Strengths and Weakness
ISIS's quick development among Syrian resistance developments is halfway attributable to its fizzled merger with the Syrian-overwhelmed JN. ISIS picked up new warriors and limits, which likely provided for it triumphs and domain it may overall not have had. ISIS's recruitment deliberations have kept on increasing its quantities of outside contenders. Its robust financing in different parts, all alone exercises, essentially refining oil bored in Syria's "freed" regions.
ISIS's expanding believability and riches have ended up keeping up toward oneself: the more remote warriors it has in its positions, the all the more recently arrived outside contenders look to join, wanting to battle for a generally subsidized and thus overall furnished association. As the positions swell, the more taught and affluent outsiders additionally incline toward ISIS, taking up initiative positions in the field and bringing yet more cash and systems of contacts to the gathering.
Some of the prominent weaknesses in ISIS are their lacking in sufficient numbers of fighting forces. Their main forces are largely comprised of foreign fighters. They are operating with the estimated numbers of thousands. Moreover, they have made connections with other groups and work jointly. The diversity factor in its forces is also a major weakness in this organization.
References
Hegghammer, T. (2011). The rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters: Islam and the globalization of Jihad.
Welsford, K. (2014). When borders are meaningless: the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. Institute for Islamic Strategic Affairs.
Al-tamimi, A. (2014). The Dawn of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham | Clarion Project.ClarionProject.org. Retrieved 3 October 2014, from http://www.clarionproject.org/research/dawn-islamic-state-iraq-and-ash-sham
