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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
During the last few years, the United States Army has experienced great
difficulties in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of quality soldiers, In 1999,
the U.S. Army suffered its worst recruiting year in 20 years (Harper, 1999). The
primary causes of the current recruiting crisis include the very robust U.S. economy,
record-low unemployment leveis, and an ever-decreasing propensity for military
service.
To resolve the current recruiting crisis and remain the high-quality, allvolunteer
force that it is today, the Army should abandon its traditional mass
marketing methods and focus its limited resources in a more effective and
economical manner. Current methods waste precious resources on segments that
are extremely unlikely to serve in the Army. The Army cannot compete and win in
ali segments; it must choose.
It is my recommendation that, based on the analysis presented in this
dissertation, that the U.S. Army, by adopting target marketing and a selective
specialization marketing strategy, can identify, select, and target high-payoff
segments where the Army possesses a competitive advantage. To achieve this
goal, the Army must conduct a three-step process: market segmentation, market
targeting, and market positioning.
The Army must abandon its "shotgun approach" to recruiting American youth
by developing customized marketing programs for each of its five recruiting
brigades. Through target marketing, the U.S. Army can increase its recruiting
effectiveness, reduce its advertising cqsts per recruit, and, ultimately, resolve the
current recruiting crisis.
Description
Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão.
Keywords
Segmentation Profiling Evaluation Target markets Positioning
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Cockerham, Kenneth Gray II (2000). " Improving U.S. army recruiting: using modern market segmentation methodology to select high-payoff target segments." Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade de Lisboa. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão.