Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth Implications for Military Recruitment (2003) / Chapter Skim
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8. Military Advertising and Recruiting
8. Military Advertising and Recruiting
Pages 218-249
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From page 218... ...
The chapter begins with an overview of the current situation, which identifies a 15-year decline in overall level of youth interest in military service as a significant factor affecting the success of military recruiting. Message strategies employed in advertising and recruiting techniques are examined in terms of their likely effects on the level of youth interest in military service.
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From page 219... ...
To meet its manpower needs, the DoD engages in an array of recruiting activities to inform and interest members of the youth population concerning military service. The recruiting process involves national and local advertising to efficiently supply information on a widespread basis; informational visits by recruiters to schools and student groups; traveling military exhibits to provide information to schools and the public; direct mail advertising and telephone solicitation to identify interested youth; web sites to provide information on military services; and contacts and visits with recruiters to qualify leads and to assist youth in gaining needed information about the decision to enlist and the selection of a particular ~ .
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From page 220... ...
The decline in the proportion of "propensed youth" those saying they definitely or probably will enlist means that the Services increasingly find themselves in competition with each other to meet their recruiting goals. If the recruiting focus remains on this declining group of propensed youth, the message strategies for military service advertising and military recruiters may become increasingly competitive, focusing on claims that differentiate one Service from another.
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From page 221... ...
While military recruiting once relied on communication strategies focusing on "selective demand" as the dominant approach, the new market situation calls for greater emphasis on the stimulation of "primary demand." Strategies to encourage selective demand portray the unique or differentiating characteristics of competing brands (such as the specific military Services) , while strategies for primary demand focus on information that promotes favorable reactions to the entire category of products (such as general interest in joining any military Service)
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From page 222... ...
be an important role for joint Services advertising, although the message approach employed in previous joint Service campaigns has not focused on the unique attributes of military service. In some cases, the absence of information to support primary demand in a product market can be associated with contraction of the demand for the product.
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From page 223... ...
MODEL OF THE MILITARY RECRUITING PROCESS The model in the figure presents a schematic of the primary factors involved in military recruiting (Penney et al., 2000:1~. The model indicates that recruiter production that is, a recruiter's level of success in meeting recruiting goals is a function of recruiter performance in the context of current youth interests in military service, as measured by the propensity to enlist.
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From page 224... ...
This table makes apparent how many contacts are required to enlist one person. For example, the Army reports that, on average, recruiters TABLE 8-1 Stages in the Recruiting Process from Lead Generation (Contacts)
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From page 225... ...
ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN MILITARY RECRUITING Informing Interests and Tastes The purpose of advertising is to distribute information designed to influence consumer activity in the marketplace. Advertising messages convey information to support and promote consumer choices between or among competing brands (Hallmark greeting cards versus American Greetings)
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From page 226... ...
Advertising messages can help stimulate the interest of the youth population in military service and provide information bearing on the particular Service a youth might select. The model in Figure 8-2 indicates that the primary role of advertising in military recruiting is to support recruiting by influencing youth attitudes about military service (as reflected by measures of the propensity to enlist)
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From page 227... ...
The message strategies in Army advertising have generally focused on how military service can provide youth with job skills, college credits, and money to pursue education following military service (Eighmey, 2000) , material considerations for youth making comparisons among specific military Services (selective demand)
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From page 228... ...
However, that may not be sufficient. Within the message content of Army advertising, there is little that addresses either selective demand, the aspects of the Army that differentiate it from the other Services, or primary demand, the broader issues of the virtues of duty to country, service to others, heroism, and self-sacrifice for freedom and the benefit of others.
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From page 229... ...
Other Advertising Directed to the Youth Population The youth population is a primary audience for many sellers of products and public information campaigns concerning such issues as the decision to use cigarettes or drugs and sexual activity. The content of product advertising focuses on positive benefits, while public information campaigns sometimes employ "fear appeals" concerning personal risks.
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From page 230... ...
For example, the soft drink Mountain Dew continues to develop its market acceptance with imaginative advertising directed to the youth population. But whatever the fresh approach to storytelling employed in the advertising, the underlying message strategy remains focused on a product that delivers a highly energizing combination of product ingredients.
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From page 231... ...
the barriers to enlistment. The value "career preparation" reflects a primary theme in the content of the military advertising, "duty to country" reflects the particular public service role that defines military service, and "personal freedom" reflects a principal barrier to enlistment.
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SOURCE: Data from the Youth Attitude Tracking Study. (0.01 for "duty to country," and 0.0001 level of significance for "career preparation" and "personal freedoms.
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As mentioned earlier, the noble virtues of military service are emphasized only in Marine advertising, and there are questions about the extent to which these virtues are taught or reinforced elsewhere in society. This situation suggests declining trends in propensity to enlist might be abated
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This suggests that the recent military advertising message strategies focused on the career advantages gained through military service may not have been as effective as might be desired. For example, the review of current military advertising indicated that Army, Air Force, and Navy advertising generates leads by focusing on three different types of interests held by youth.
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From page 235... ...
When meeting potential applicants, recruiters use an interview process to ensure that the applicant is at least potentially qualified (age, education, medical history, history of involvement with law enforcement authorities, etc.) They may also use a short cognitive ability test to estimate whether the applicant will score sufficiently high on the ASVAB to justify further testing.
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From page 236... ...
For example, if a potential applicant sees a Service magazine ad and calls the appropriate toll-free number (or mails back the postage-paid card) , the recruiter responsible for the geographic zone where the respondent lives would be given whatever contact information the respondent made available.
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From page 237... ...
One crucial source of leads the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of students in high schools is often made available as a result of cooperative efforts among recruiters for the various Services who have been assigned responsibility for that school. Similarly, leads result from a school's participation in the DoD Career Exploration Program, a program that provides schools with a free multiple aptitude battery, interest inventory, and interpretive materials.
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From page 238... ...
Of the leads generated from the Army's online chat, 10 percent end up being converted into enlistment contracts far better than the less than 1 percent conversion rate for all sources of leads combined (Browning, 2002~. Process for Determining Individual Goals As noted above, individual recruiters have specific monthly (and annual)
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From page 239... ...
Unlike most sales forces, however, military recruiting incentive systems do not include financial rewards such as commissions for meeting or exceeding goals. (Recruiting duty itself does bring with it increased compensation in the form of special duty assignment pay.
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tests and behavioral job analysis to improve the recruiter selection process. At the same time, they note research initiated in the 1970s but never implemented operationally that found reasonable validity predicting military recruiting success for personality constructs (including "working hard,"
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From page 241... ...
all reviewed the links between sales success and the military recruiting job. All noted past research establishing the validity of numerous measures in the prediction of sales success in general and success as a military recruiter specifically.
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In considering the military recruiting sales force, it is not clear that these issues have been resolved in a manner that maximizes the probability of recruit~ng success. RECRUITING PRACTICES IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY One way to evaluate the effectiveness of military recruiting activities is to compare them to the recruiting strategies used in private industry for the same target population.
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From page 243... ...
In addition to the size problem, the military Services also experience a geography problem; they must recruit everywhere in the nation and then often move the new employees to distant locations for training and work assignments. Civilian employers often target their recruiting of hourly and nonexempt (from overtime regulations)
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Here, too, the military recruiting commands often use print media ads that are not traditional newspaper want ads. The military services have extensive advertising campaigns targeted toward recruitment.
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From page 245... ...
Despite the costs of program development, start-up, ongoing program administration, recruitment of students, wages, training and supervision and training materials, the other costs associated with recruitment, training and supervision, and turnover were reduced, and higher retention and productivity benefited the organization (Overman, 1999~. To a large extent, the military Services have led the way in combining training and employment since military service usually merges continued training in an occupational specialty and paid practice of that skill.
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From page 246... ...
According to a 1999 research report published by Creative Good, which studied the electronic recruiting experiences of six large companies (Baxter, Cisco, Citibank, Granite Rock, Procter and Gamble, and Trilogy) a company using the Internet saved $2,000 in advertising costs and $6,000 in time spent looking for new hires by reducing the hiring cycle time by 60 days (Creative Good, 2000; NUA Internet Surveys, 1999~.
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From page 247... ...
Improving Efficiencies in the Recruiting Process While the military Services cannot alter minimal qualifications or use unusual inducements, they have embraced new approaches to recruiting and often could serve as a role model for private organizations facing large hiring demands. Another approach to improving recruiting outcomes and reducing costs in private industry is analyzing the process and identifying opportunities to make the process itself more efficient.
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From page 248... ...
Thus, organizations could choose recruiting strategies carefully and deploy the money saved toward more exposure with existing recruiting techniques, additional recruitment efforts, or research. However, few if any of these analy
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From page 249... ...
Our analysis suggests that in order to be most effective in increasing overall propensity, advertising messages should focus on the intrinsic and unique benefits of military service, such as patriotism and duty to country, and should be provided jointly across the Services. Service-specific advertising campaigns then could continue to be keyed to immediate recruiting goals and focus on more immediate extrinsic benefits, such as pay, bonuses, and education.
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