Evaluating Military Advertising and Recruiting Theory and Methodology (2004) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4. Advertising Planning: Generative and Evaluative Approaches
4. Advertising Planning: Generative and Evaluative Approaches
Pages 68-89
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 68... ...
256 and 271~. However, in addition to the availability of civilian job opportunities and youth interests in higher education, the increasing difficulty in meeting recruiting goals in the late l990s can also be viewed in light of the direction of youth attitudes toward military service and corresponding trends in youth behavioral beliefs and outcome evaluations related to military service.
|
From page 69... ...
Figure 4-2 shows a similar trend for women. The downward trend in the highest propensity group coupled with the accumulation of a very substantial segment in the most negative group (the group at the top of Figures 4-1 and 4-2)
|
From page 70... ...
Such findings could give rise to message strategies specifically addressed to the relevant outcomes and behavioral beliefs. The potential for specific youth outcome evaluations and behavioral beliefs to relate to the continuing decline in the propensity to enlist was shown in a Defense Manpower Data Center report contrasting year-toyear results from the Youth Attitude Tracking Studies (YATS)
|
From page 71... ...
Possible effects of these changing circumstances can be examined by comparing the results from the 1999 YATS survey with the Department of Defense (DoD) Youth Polls conducted in 2001 and 2002.1 These are surveys of youth who have never served in the military and who were neither accepted for military service at the time of the survey interviews nor enrolled in postsecondary reserve officer's training corps programs.
|
From page 72... ...
For women, the same comparison dropped 16.4 percentage points, from 77.7 to 61.3 percent. Turning to behavioral beliefs about the extent to which the 24 outcomes are seen as associated primarily with work in the military, the 2001 Youth Poll revealed significant changes in youth perceptions since the 1999 YATS survey with respect only to beliefs about "doing something for your country." For men, the percentage saying that "doing something for your country" was more likely to be realized through military service (than civilian work)
|
From page 73... ...
Indeed, as shown by the pre-l999 YATS surveys and the 2001 DoD Youth Poll, the direction of youth beliefs relating to doing something for your country appears to be closely associated with the direction of the propensity to enlist. An understanding of the current status of such beliefs is essential to effective development and planning of advertising message strategies.
|
From page 74... ...
7~. This finding suggests that budget increases since 1994 may have served only to compensate for the long-term decline in the purchasing power of the year-to-year budget for military advertising.
|
From page 75... ...
The second-level competitive frame involves the selection of a specific Service, and it applies to youth whose behavioral beliefs and outcome evaluations support the possibility of military service. This kind of more specific level of "brand choice" can involve already interested youth in the comparison or differentiation of the specific opportunities presented by essentially directly competing options from among the Services.
|
From page 76... ...
The Marines." However, the previously discussed trends shown by the YATS studies and the results of the recent DoD Youth Polls point to the value of focusing additional advertising message attention on the broad competitive frame in which youth view and contrast civilian employment, higher education, and military service. The fact that over half of the youth ages 16 to 21 say "definitely not" with respect to the possibility of military service, and that this percentage continues to grow, indicates the need to develop an appropriate information campaign for the purpose of market development as opposed to the brand selection approach typically employed in military advertising.
|
From page 77... ...
The survey results from the former annual YATS surveys and the recent DoD Youth Polls have shown that significant recent events, such as on September 11, 2001, and recent war fighting actions can have important effects on youth beliefs and interest concerning service in the military. As previously discussed, youth interest in military service (as measured by the propensity to enlist)
|
From page 78... ...
The questionnaires used in the 1999 YATS survey program and the 2001 DoD Youth Poll provide useful starting points for further research concerning youth values and beliefs. In addition to the standard measures of propensity, the YATS survey included questions about the importance of 26 behavioral outcomes and their related behavioral beliefs concerning the likelihood of successful pursuit of the values in civilian or military contexts.
|
From page 79... ...
Following the approach used in YATS and the 2001 DoD Youth Poll, ratings for importance (or outcome evaluations) and attribution (behavioral beliefs)
|
From page 80... ...
The results of studies of this kind, including the approaches detailed in Chapter 3, would provide a more comprehensive and reliable view of the belief context (both outcome evaluations and behavioral beliefs) for youth decision making about military enlistment and would provide a basis for the development of alternative message strategies to inform youth concerning the possibility of military service.
|
From page 81... ...
Armed with this information, organizations are better prepared to update existing message strategies, to appropriately change message strategies to respond to the competitive context, or to utilize a productive combination of mutually supporting message strategies to better inform relevant audiences. To effectively select message strategies, communicators should develop a range of possible message strategies that are based on what is known about problems in the competitive context and an understanding of the relevant beliefs of the audience as they relate to youth choices in the competitive frame (or the available alternative actions, such as continuing in education, civilian employment, or military service)
|
From page 82... ...
No single approach is ideal, and it is generally good practice to use multiple methods that effectively examine audience comprehension of the prototype advertising and the extent to which the advertising demonstrates the capacity to influence interest in military service. In an experimental design context, this kind of research approach performs the role of a treatment check.
|
From page 83... ...
With respect to the planning of military advertising, such goals can be stated in terms of desired effects on measurable variables, such as specifically targeted outcome evaluations and behavioral beliefs as well as the propensity to enlist. 4For reviews of the scientific status of advertising allocation decisions see Ramond t1974' and Mantrala <2002~.
|
From page 84... ...
Reliance on traditional economic analysis, with recruiting contracts as the dependent variable, would not be seen as necessarily productive in this regard because the communication effects of the advertising exposures would be embedded in a broad context subject to many other potential causes. In particular, the practice of keying the annual military advertising investment to year-to-year recruiting goal attainment, as measured by the number of enlistments, is to allow the process to be driven by such factors as the direction of the overall national economy, recruiter deployment decisions, and enlistment incentives and to ignore the ongoing information needs of youth as revealed by the continuous tracking of measures of youth beliefs relevant to the decision to enlist and measures of the propensity to enlist.
|
From page 85... ...
Although the favorability of the ongoing environment for military recruiting appears to be somewhat cyclical, the underlying downward trend in youth propensity to enlist will continue to periodically emerge as a barrier to reaching military enlistment goals.
|
From page 86... ...
could be used to represent differing message arguments. Alternative message approaches could be presented on a random basis to web site visitors, or selected media vehicles (individual ad placements in newspapers, magazines, or television commercial placements)
|
From page 87... ...
This approach would be useful for deciding whether there is underspending on the overall level of the military advertising effort and whether specific campaigns directed to youth beliefs supporting propensity and to youth influencers could improve the productivity of the military recruiting process. Decision making with respect to these issues could be supported by in-market experiments or market tests that are of sufficient duration and that employ noticeable levels of advertising in the selected test areas.
|
From page 88... ...
Once the relevant youth beliefs (outcome evaluations and behavioral beliefs) are examined to an improved extent, it is recommended that alternative advertising message strategies be developed and tested on a regular basis to identify a range of possible message strategies beyond those that have been traditionally employed to support military recruiting.
|
From page 89... ...
of advertising budgeting encouraged by focusing primarily on enlistment goals seriously undercuts the capacity of military recruitment advertising to help maintain the year-to-year readiness of the youth population with respect to the possibility of military service.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.