The dirty side of corporate America, and by extension, the U.S. military: its ability to convince a significant percentage of the population of anything, even fighting in an immoral war.
How National Guard Is Fighting Attrition Despite the continuing unpopularity of the war in Iraq, the Air National Guard may be reversing a downturn in recruitment, according to documents obtained by Brandweek.The turnaround follows a course-change in positioning for the Air and Army National Guards after the advent of the Iraq war. A CNN poll last week showed 39% of Americans surveyed said they had no clear idea what the U.S. was fighting for in Iraq and 65% believed Iraq is engaged in a civil war.
Given such sentiment and a relatively low national unemployment rate, which means young people have a range of career options, it's no secret that the Pentagon's marketers have had an increasingly difficult time meeting their recruitment goals. The total Pentagon ad-spend went up 10.5% in 2005, to $276 million, after news that the Army and the Marines were not meeting their goals in some months in 2005. In the first six months of 2006, that spend ballooned to $177 million, putting the Pentagon on course for $345 million spent for the full year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
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The Pentagon's marketing papers show the military knew early on that the Iraq war was making young people resistant to military service.The documents—which describe internal market research memos, e-mails and PowerPoint presentations—offer an inside look at how Pentagon marketers saw consumer sentiment change, and they confirm that as the war progressed, particularly around 2004, their job got harder and harder.
That year, the Air National Guard saw recruitment struggle.
“It was the second year in a row where the ANG gained fewer than 10,000 members,” a memo titled Strategic Advertising Plan said.
...That message, however, also described the Guard's main problem with its target market: the real possibility of getting killed in Iraq was putting a significant damper on its marketing efforts.
In other words, soldiers are just numbers to be crunched, figuratively, and literally.
...Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 was actually good news for the Guard, the slides show, because it allowed recruiters to focus on the force's domestic duties as a crisis cop.
Wow. Not sure how to respond to such cynicism.
Tags: Advertising, /military
the Guard tested four character positions—the Hero, Everyman, Caregiver and Explorer—each of which characterized a different portrayal of life in the Guard.The Iraq war had “a tremendous impact on how these messages are viewed,” the study said. “It was striking how negative teens were on this topic” and “also striking how many teens believe that enlistment means they will go to Iraq,” the report continued.
The “Explorer” positioning—which promised recruits they would be exposed to new things they've never seen before—tested particularly badly with one young male, the slides indicate. His response: “The new things you could see is your friends getting killed and bombs exploding.”
The conclusion? “They don't buy it. There's too much cynicism,” the presentation said of a proposed “aspirational” positioning.
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Like other marketers trying to reach a young demo, the National Guard is considering opening a MySpace page, according to Lt. Col. Randy Johnson, director of recruiting for the Air National Guard. (The Marines, by the way, have a MySpace page—which showed 22,000 “friends” last week—and have released a viral video made by JWT, New York.)The Guard has targeted Arab Americans in an effort to bring in nontraditional candidates; it has used a cell phone text messaging campaign; and there have been efforts directed at niche populations like “tuners”—youths who customize Japanese import cars—and rodeo fans.
Like the Army, which increased its signing bonus from $20,000 to $40,000, the Guard has increased its cash incentives for joining. Also, existing members who refer new recruits can get a bonus of $2,000, according to Johnson.
Other branches of the Pentagon have seen similar shifts in the landscape. Despite its recent success, at the Army, “It's been very difficult the past several years,” said public affairs officer Douglas Smith. “We're recruiting in times of an improving civilian economy and we're recruiting for the first time in an ongoing wartime environment. It's taken a lot of hard work.”
As for the Navy, a rep said that while its messaging had not changed, the competing choices for recruits had. “Low unemployment has a significant impact on our recruiting capability,” said Capt. Tom Buterbaugh, USN director of advertising and marketing. “We're competing with colleges and universities.”
