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Are the Army's New Marketing Tactics a Little too
Kid-Friendly?
Natalie Zmuda
AdAge.com
September 8, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The U.S. Army is turning up in a
lot of youthful places lately.
The Army Experience Center is the centerpiece of a
program to test and evaluate new marketing strategies
and is not a recruiting tool, according to an Army
spokesman.
The Army Experience Center is the centerpiece of a
program to test and evaluate new marketing strategies
and is not a recruiting tool, according to an Army
spokesman.
It has opened the Army Experience Center, including
Humvee and helicopter simulators, near Dave & Buster's
and an indoor skate park in Philadelphia's Franklin
Mills Mall. The popular "America's Army" online game
counts more than 9 million registered users, and an
updated game is scheduled for release in the coming
year, according to the Army website. And at Sears
Roebuck & Co., the First Infantry Division apparel
collection, featuring Army-licensed insignias in sizes
including boys,' is slated to launch in October.
A sensitive conundrum
For most civilian companies facing a conundrum similar
to the Army's -- a dwindling group of product loyalists
and a public-perception problem -- this might be
considered smart, or even brilliant, marketing to
attract new recruits to the brand. But in the case of
the military, when you factor in easily influenced
children, their parents and, oh yes, war, it becomes a
lot more sensitive.
"It's reasonable for anyone that's a parent ... to be
worried about the infusion of militaristic trappings
into children's culture," said Robert Weissman, managing
director of Commercial Alert. "It really has the
potential to put the Army or any other branches of the
military in the wrong position of marketing themselves
directly to kids."
Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the Army's overall
marketing message has been consistent for some 30 years,
and the current initiatives represent a desire to evolve
with the times. "We are very careful to make certain we
are reaching people who are of recruiting age," he said.
"These are wonderful introductions to young people ages
18 to 25, but at the same time, they're not necessarily
the stimulus behind recruiting. Ultimately, that is a
decision that is best made by the aspiring recruit, the
recruiter [and] the recruit's family."
The Army Experience Center, which opened Aug. 29, is a
14,500-square-foot educational facility that is the
centerpiece of a program to test and evaluate new
marketing strategies and is not a recruiting tool, he
said. "It's very much geared to show young people today
what the U.S. Army is like in a very rich, immersive,
educational and factual environment," Mr. Boyce said.
"And it's also entertaining."
Even so, Army equipment simulators and games in the Army
Experience Center carry a minimum age for use of 13
years old. The "America's Army" game is also rated T for
Teen, meaning it has content that may be suitable for
ages 13 and older. The sportswear collection includes a
range of casual T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, denim and
outerwear bearing Army marks.
Selling clothes, not a culture
Bob McGuinness, president of All American Army Brand,
which is manufacturing and selling the collection to
Sears, said the company is selling a stylistically
relevant collection, not Army culture. He said the
collection does not include fatigues or mimic uniforms.
Critics of the Army's new initiatives claim they are
aimed at boosting recruiting figures that have been
sliding as a result of the Iraq War. The military has
struggled with recruiting in the past couple of years,
said Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for
Peace & Justice. "So they've revved up their recruitment
operations, and part of that is, of course, advertising.
This strikes me as just another form of advertising."
Something seems to be working. The Army has rebounded
since it missed its recruitment goal in 2005 for the
first time in five years by 7,000 soldiers. In January
2006, the National Defense Authorization Act was signed,
providing a variety of payments, benefits and incentives
designed to boost recruiting and retention. Since then,
the Army has steadily come back, beating its goal by 645
recruits in fiscal 2006 and 407 recruits in fiscal 2007.
(According to the National Priorities Project, that
success has come with a price, as the Army has been
accepting more recruits who don't have high-school
diplomas. And the Army is issuing more moral, physical
and medical waivers for new recruits.)
Attracting 80,000 recruits
Since 2004, the recruiting goal has been 80,000. Mr.
Boyce said the Army has met its recruiting goals every
month of this fiscal year, as well as in months prior to
this year. "We have done that by continuing to evolve
and change and refine our communications," he said.
"We've been looking at marketing carefully for a decade.
... We're an all-volunteer organization, where we have
to recruit more than 80,000 people every year, and we
have a force of 1.1 million. That is not something that
one does by the seat of the pants."
Mr. Weissman said regardless of the educational nature
of the Army's new programs, they are still, at the core,
branding exercises. "Even more with the Army Experience
Center than with the clothing line, you see the
glamorization and romanticism of the military in a
context that is targeted at kids who don't probably have
broader vantage points to understand that complexity of
military operations," he said.
Mr. Boyce "strongly refutes" the notion that any of the
Army's initiatives glamorize war, adding that care is
taken to avoid portraying violence. |
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