Unbranding: Disenfranchising Terrorism, Disenchanting Terror

Abstract

The Theory of Brand Reduction (TBR), or unbranding, genericizes an organizational brand in order to reduce or limit its impact within its category or brand group. Unbranding asserts a product is identified by its brand and is perceived by stakeholders based on the characteristics of that brand. For example, terror is a product of some organizations - a means to an end - usually political in natural. Unbranding posits the center of gravity (COG) of an extremist group or organization is its brand. Current and previous counter-terrorism efforts have addressed elements of products but not the source of power of the brand. Unbranding posits that terror is a product and terrorism is a franchise into which members ‘buy’ a brand of terror, establish a franchise of their own, using or adapting franchise ‘rules’ but relying on the franchise brand value and name to grow and expand. This paper explicates the core concept of unbranding and proposes six hypotheses for future research.