COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch
Uncle Sam Wants You, But Ads Target Mom, Dad
YOCHI J. DREAZEN, The Wall Street Journal
November 29, 2007
For the Army, it's out with "Be all you can be" and in with "Buy allyou can buy."
The Army has been enlisting youths for decades by promising them
money for college. Starting in January, it will try out a different
sort of pitch in selected cities: offering up to $40,000 toward the
purchase of a home or the creation of a business.
The new recruitment program, dubbed the "Army Advantage Fund," is
meant to show parents and other adult "influencers" that Army service
offers tangible benefits to young Americans. As the Iraq war
continues, the Army is struggling to recruit enough new soldiers --
and such influencers are less and less likely to recommend military
service to youths.
"If you want to get a soldier, you have to go through mom, and moms
want to know what kind of future their children will have when they
leave the Army," said Lt. Col. Jeff Sterling, the program's
architect. "This is meant to answer that question in a tangible, concrete way."
The program is the latest sign of the military's growing use of
marketing and other recruitment strategies from American corporations.
The Army's overall advertising budget has increased steadily in
recent years, climbing to $174 million last year from $121 million in
2003 , according to TNS Media Intelligence, a New York research firm
that tracks ad spending. The Army's ad budget is on pace to be even
higher in 2007, according to TNS. A growing number of slick
commercials touting military service air during National Football
League games and other television programs popular among youths.
Taking a page from law firms and investment banks, the Army has
already begun to offer hefty signing bonuses to recruits separate
from the housing and business incentives. Those who sign on for four
years of service can receive up to $40,000, with those willing to
begin basic training within 30 days of signing their enlistment
contracts receiving up to $20,000 more, depending on their specialty.
The aggressive marketing and large cash bonuses have helped the Army
meet its recruiting goals, but barely. It missed its monthly targets
earlier in the year, signing up 5,101 of the 5,500 recruits it wanted
in May and 7,031 of the 8,400 recruits it sought for June. It
exceeded its targets for the rest of the summer, however, recruiting
9,972 soldiers in July and 10,126 in August compared with goals of
9,750 and 9,600, respectively. The Army exceeded its overall goal of
80,000 for fiscal 2007 by recruiting 80,407 soldiers but only after
allowing in a large number of recruits who had criminal records or
who lacked high-school diplomas.
The recruiting strains are expected to grow in coming months, as the
Army races to complete an expansion plan. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates recently announced that the size of the active-duty Army would
increase by tens of thousands of soldiers by 2010, two years earlier
than planned.
Col. Sterling, who has a master's in business administration from
Penn State, developed the idea for the Army Advantage Fund after
reviewing internal Pentagon market-research data that showed a
decline in the number of parents, teachers and coaches recommending
the Army to youths.
According to a Defense Department market-research report, 23% of
adults surveyed in June 2006 said they were likely to recommend Army
service, compared to 36% in August 2003, shortly after the March 2003
invasion of Iraq. The report, by the Pentagon's Joint Advertising,
Market Research and Studies division, attributed the decline "in
large part to a fear that youth will face personal hardship, danger,
and a lifestyle that is not attractive to them if they enlist."
The declines were likely to continue unless "something is done to
improve the image and appeal of joining the military," it said.
Under the Army Advantage program, recruits signing on for three years
will be eligible for a $25,000 payout. The total would rise to
$35,000 for those willing to serve four years, and $40,000 for those
committing to five. The soldiers would be eligible to receive the
money as soon as they finish their initial Army service.
Col. Sterling said that soldiers wanting to put the money towards a
mortgage would likely be asked to send paperwork showing they were in
the process of actually buying a home, while those opting to use the
money for a new business would be asked to show they had registered
the company with state tax authorities. He said that soldiers would
keep the money even if the deals fell through.
Military officials plan to market the new program by placing ads in
magazines, radio shows and TV programs for older audiences. The Army
has hired McCann Erickson Worldwide, a division of advertising giant
Interpublic Group, to develop the advertising campaign. A McCann
Erickson spokeswoman referred questions to the Army, which declined
to provide examples of the advertisements.
"We know most 18-year-old kids don't think about mortgages yet," Lt.
Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army's deputy chief of staff for
personnel, said recently. "We're going after the influencers. "
The program, long in development, has sparked controversy inside and
outside the Army. Many older officers and outside experts are
uncomfortable with giving large financial incentives to join the military.
"When the military offers money for college, it specifically attracts
the self-directed, ambitious people the Army most wants," said Cindy
Williams, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
who specializes in military-manpower issues. "This would seem to
attract people who are already thinking about settling down and
leaving the Army, which is a very different kind of person."
The Army had originally planned to roll out the program nationally,
and early market-research projections suggested it would attract as
many as 3,000 new recruits a year. Now the Army is going to make the
program available in five cities -- Montgomery, Ala., Albany, N.Y.,
Seattle, San Antonio and Cleveland -- in what Col. Sterling called a
"controlled experiment." The experiment is likely to draw, at most, a
few hundred new recruits each year. If the test run does well, the
effort is then expected to go national, he said.
Col. Sterling, who is retiring from the Army early next year to join
the business world, said the new effort could eventually include
other recruiting incentives, such as college funding for dependents
of military personnel and money for health-savings accounts, tax-free
programs that allow Americans to set aside money for future medical needs.
"In marketing terms, the Army's core product -- military service --
is a tough sell right now," he said. "That means the Army needs to
develop new ways of reaching people. We need a new kind of
competitive advantage."
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