This study presents a new and unique perspective – the marketing perspective – to analyse and increase our understanding of the global terror phenomenon. Based on a quantitative-statistical content analysis of the statements of Al-Qaeda's leaders, I examined how a global terror organisation, such as Al-Qaeda, markets itself using the international media and the Internet between the years 2000-2008.

The findings reinforce the idea that Al-Qaeda's leaders consciously adopt a nihilistic-destructive approach and aim to destroy the “other” world, which it views as a world that is not a “pure” and “authentic” Islam, from its point of view. They encourage the willingness to kill and to die in the name of God and emphasise that the Jihad activists are their primary agents for cultivating and distributing the “martyrdom culture”. Furthermore, Al-Qaeda and its partners utilise the Internet not only to intensify its power and radicalise the strength of the Jihadi image, but also to empower its worldwide strategic threat. By knowing “our enemy” and its uncompromising ideology and strategy, we can actively help to confront Al-Qaeda today, with counter-marketing-warfare and undermine its discourse.