EDITOR’S NOTE: We mistakenly qualified the total annual number of recruits necessary for Army end strength as active duty only. The number cited in fact accounts for the total force of active duty, National Guard and Reserves.
Every year the U.S. Army seeks out 125,000 to 140,000 new recruits to maintain the desired end strength and capability of the force. And that’s just for the active duty component. In order to do that the Army Enterprise Marketing Office has to craft a message that appeals to a broad audience across the shrinking qualified U.S. population. All the while the Army has to compete with the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines and now the Space Force also trying to attract the most qualified recruits from the U.S. citizenry. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Matt Lawrence and John Horning to the virtual studio to discuss the myths a-nd challenges Army marketing has to contend with. They join podcast editor Ron Granieri to look at what it takes to create a message campaign that entices high quality personnel and dispel the myth that the Army is “the bureaucratic meat grinder of the underprivileged.”
They’re not just going to show up at the door. We have to reach out to them and we have to get them interested in taking a look at the military and start what John mentioned, that consumer journey.
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John Horning is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and a graduate of the AY20 Resident class of the U.S. Army War College. He is the director of marketing execution at the Army Enterprise Marketing Office in Chicago, IL.
Matt Lawrence is a Colonel in the U.S. Army and a faculty member at the U.S. Army War College. He is a communications specialist at the Strategic Studies Institute and teaches an elective course on manning and marketing the military.
Ron Granieri is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Army War College and the Editor of A BETTER PEACE.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the U.S. Army