Lo and behold! The second part of the final H2O assignment!

The US Army

It seems  weird to brand governmental institutions. Nevertheless, America has accomplished it both with the presidential elections as with the American army. The marketing of the US army is extensive and very tactical (just like the army itself I guess). Now, the newest medium attributed is the internet: sites with information and even a warfare game have to attract young American citizens to join.

The site is developed to inform interested visitors, but also to attract recruits. Its main focus ofcourse is to get people interested, and it has done this by making a very attractive site that has a lot of nice extra’s to the information: movies with the training of new recruits and soldier profiles, a search engine for the different army careers, links to download the game ‘America’s Army’ and a chatroom.

Next to this there is information to be found on the benefits in the army, a smaller site about the daily life of different soldiers in the army, information about the racing cars and bikes the army sponsors, and information about certain ‘special professions’ within the army.

The site states it’s important to get information about the army first if you’re considering to sign up. This is ofcourse self-evident. The difference is that they not only want you to read articles about army benefits, basic training or special professions, but also want you to interact with soldiers already in the army:

Arming yourself with knowledge is the first step to becoming a Soldier in the U.S. Army. And that means talking to an experienced Army recruiter.

So, information requires participation. There’s no better statement for the active use of the net.

Either way, the main focus of the site is to attract new recruits, which means that the American army had been branded. A key feature of a brand is that it must be recognizable for a customer in name, logo, and reputation. In this case it is not a product to be bought, but nevertheless it has aspects of branding: the institution is personified by a name and logo. The US Army has a recognizable logo that is used in every of its marketing schemes. Playing into recent events in the US which have caused Americans to be even more patriotic and bonded with each other, the US Army has changed its slogan from: “Be all you can be” to “An army of one”. Also, the army has been recognized by their reputation. While a brand is personified by its consistence in quality, the American army has been consistent in getting involved in other people’s businesses and making a mess of it (but this is my opinion).

The value of the American army has been established by an image. One can therefore claim that the American army has a lot in common with image brands. In my opinion, the term brand does apply to the US army, because it is based on a sort of selling strategy towards future recruits, it shares several aspects with the branding of products and because it needs the participation of internet users and recruits to show their image. The US army has made something essentially not sellable into a brand.