Recruitment Strategies of the

United States Military

ARMY VS

MARINES

Threat of New Entrants:

Very low

Threat of Substitutes or

Service:

Medium

Bargaining Power of the

Supplier:

Low

Bargaining Power of the

Buyer:

High

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Porter’s 5 Competitive Forces

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

WHO WAS MORE SUCCESSFUL

● QUANTITY OF RECRUITS

● QUALITY OR RECRUITS

● SATISFACTION OF RECRUITS

QUANTITY

NAVY100%

• 9,047 accessions

• 8,968 goal

• 17,241 accessions

• 16,935 goal

• 18,456 accessions

• 18,440 goal

• 40,964 accessions

• 49,285 goal

ARMY

83%

NAVY

100%

AIR FORCE

101%

MARINE CORPS

103%

QUALITY

MILITARY RECRUIT QUALITY

Fraction of recruits graduating from high school,

a measure of "recruit quality" used by the military.

SATISFACTION

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

Surveys & Interviews

1. Current/former Army personnel

2. Current/former Marines

3. Current Army recruiters

4. Current Marine recruiters

Segmentation Factors

1. Gender

2. Years of Service (by decade)

3. Age Decision to Join Was Made

4. Enlisted or Commissioned

5. Number of times deployed

KEY FINDINGS

Pre Decision Considerations• A Recruiter for their chosen Military branch

• Family Member / Legacy

• TV Commercial

How Decisions Were Made• Army - Duty to Country / To Pay For College (G.I. Bill)

• Marines - Sense of Personal Achievement / World Travel / Develop Leadership Abilities

• Values at Time Of Enlistment - Pride, Honor, Respect vs. Overall Service Goals and Duties

Post Decision Satisfaction

ARMY MARINE CORPS

CompletelySomewhat VeryNot at

all

A little

Head to Head, the Army should be able to attract more recruits to their organization;

so why couldn’t they achieve this from 2005-2008???

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

While the Army promoted and

marketed the tangible:

- Education

- A Career Path

The Marines promoted and

marketed the intangible:

- “Becoming instead of Joining”

- “the few and the proud, the marines”

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

ARMY

MARINES

Offers tangible

options

Offers intangible

options

The difference between “joining” and

“becoming”

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

SWITCHING

SWITCHING TO THE ARMY

• Emphasize education and career

choices

• Opportunities to advance in rank

• Re-enlistment bonuses

SWITCHING TO THE MARINES

• Emphasize “the best of the best”

• Sense of community

• Acceptance from other branches

RECRUITER ANALYSIS

MARINES

Advantages

• “Esprit de corp”

• Elite group

• Leadership

training

• Professional

development

• “Becoming” vs.

“Joining”

• GI Bill

Disadvantages

• 13 week boot

camp

• Smallest

government

funding

• “Re-used”

equipment

• 4 year

enlistment time

RECRUITER ANALYSIS

ARMYAdvantages

• Career focused

• 8 week boot

camp

• Enlistment time

*2 years

• Signing bonus

• World travel

• GI Bill

Disadvantages

• Large branch

• Not as close-knit

• “joining” vs.

“becoming”

• Less strict entry

requirements

THE 5 Ms

MISSION

MESSAGE

MEDIA

MONEY

MEASUREMENT

MISSION

ENLISTMENT

• On-the-job Training

• Career-minded Focus

• Respect and Honor Seekers

• Adventurer

• Intangible Sense of Belonging

• Purpose Driven

• Esprit de Corps

• Call to Duty

MESSAGE

MESSAGE

Principle Target When Used

Persuade Recruits Wartime, Favorable Economy

InformRecruits +

PublicPeacetime, Unfavorable Economy

RemindRecruits +

Public

Wartime/Peacetime,

Favorable/Unfavorable Economies

Persuade

Remind

Inform

MEDIA

Dialogue-centric Reach-centric

SOCIAL MEDIA WINNER

3,213,882 4,070,959 MARINES

392,758 135,971 ARMY

20,177 78,860 MARINES

636,000 546,000 ARMY

366,781 74,001 ARMY

8,300 4,200 ARMY

28,000 11,000 ARMY

63,000 263,000 MARINES

MEDIA

MONEY

MEASUREMENT

WEB 2.0

Facebook Insights

Free Analytic Software

Twitter: counts to assess tweets and

raw numbers

YouTube: option to count channels

Facebook Insights

Free Analytic Software

Audience Demographics

Posted Content Conversations

- No Measurement Data Available

Note: Current ROI model is not adequately suited for measurement

purposes

TECHNOLOGY

RECENT / CURRENT EMERGING FUTURE

PROBLEM SOLUTION

Costly | Outdated | Slow |

Paper-based

50% savings in cost | Faster | Mobile | Fewer Devices | Enhanced

Security

- DEPLOYED TO FORCE FUTURE

Laptop + Paper +

Scanners/Printers/FaxSmart Phones (fully-enabled) Thin clients + Cloud

Virtual Private Network

(VPN)

Social Media engagement,

Dynamic Collaboration,

Increased Responsiveness

Mobile applications designed to integrate

and increase recruiter efficiences

Costly: $1,200 per laptopGPS merged with contact

information

Secure for PHI/PII (Legal & GOV/DOD/DA

compliant)

3-Yr. Tech Upgrade cycle (if

budget available) MCRISS Recruiter Software E-signatures, Image Capture: certify/sign

- ARISS Recruiter SoftwareVirtual Interactive Processing Systems

(VIPS)

Virtual Interactive Processing System Goal:

Provides a system that adapts to the changing recruit demographic

CURRENT SYSTEM FUTURE SYSTEM BENEFITS

Time Intensive for Applicants Reduced Processing Time

Considerable (system) down time Improved Data Quality

Labor intensive for Recruiting Personnel Save Recruiter Time & Resources

Sequential / Batch Processing Single Data Entry

TECHNOLOGY

SALES PROMOTION

Army reduced their requirements:

ASVAB

Physical Fitness

Marines did not run “promotions”

SWOT - MARINE

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

High Quality Recruits

Reputation

Sense of brotherhood

Old/hand me down equipment

Lowest pay/bonus

Commanders pick MOS

Longer Basic Training/Boot Camp

Lack of career training for after

service

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Public perception of

heroism

Improving Economy

Wartime

Media Portrayal

SWOT - ARMY

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

Recruitment Bonuses

Number of recruiters

Pick your career

Longer deployment

Sense of community

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Public perception of

heroism

Career Path

Improving Economy

Wartime

Media Portrayal

ARMY

RECOMMENDATIONS

Thrillseeker“Warriors Welcomed” Campaign

Utilize Social Media with video

vignettes – Army Rangers,

Paratroopers, Special Forces

“Warriors Welcomed” Campaign

Create testimonials with

active/veteran– Army Rangers,

Paratroopers, Special Forces

ARMY

RECOMMENDATIONS

High Achiever

Couch to Combat

Video Game Trucks

America’s Toughest Teenager

Adventure Days/Summer Camp

ARMY

RECOMMENDATIONS

Teenager

MARINE

RECOMMENDATIONS

Career Education

After Marine Life Program

Sponsorships

“Don’t forget that human beings have

a responsibility to one another and

that Americans will always have a

responsibility to the oppressed.”

2LT Mark Daily