Product Post #1: A look at Product and the U.S. Army

Marketing Product presentation

The United States Army has entered a new arena: the video game industry. In the article It's a Video Game, and an Army Recruiter that appeared in the Washington Post on May 27th, Josh White describes how the Army developed a new video game that is being used both as a marketing and recruiting tool. With waning numbers of volunteers for the army, Casey Wardynski, director of the Army's office of economic and manpower analysis, sought a new way to "market" the army. Right now the game, entitled America's Army is available for free on the internet. The game, White explains, "employs a realistic and team-oriented approach to give players a sense of what it is like to join the Army, to train how to use weapons and then how to work together on missions. Players progress through the game and its many updates in a variety of ways, learning how to jointly acomplish military tasks while using different skills, such as fighting as infantryman or saving lives as a medic." The game is targeted at boys age 14 and older, with the aim of increasing knowledge of and interest in the United States Army, thereby boosting its image and adding to recruitment efforts. It was introduced in 2002, and since then approximately 5.4 million users have registered on the website. Not only does the website have links to information on the U.S. Army and recruitment, but specific links that enable players to contact recruiters are also embedded within the game. Furthermore, since the game is played at gaming tournaments around the country, these events provide a physical location for Army recruiters to make contact with the players of their game.

I found this article to be extremely interesting, and particularly striking as an example of how organization marketing and product marketing (Kotler, 282) are evolving. Organization Marketing "consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain, or change the attitudes and behavior of target consumers toward an organization" (282). For the Army, the game America's Army is both a marketing tool to aid in it's corporate image advertising and organization marketing, as well as a new product that warrants development and promotion in its own right. In this way, the Army and it's new game also relate to the discussion of product concerning product and service classifications (280-281), product and service decisions (283-284), and customer experiences (277-278).

The United States Army is not a typical company or business whose main purpose is to put out product lines and brands. The Army is a government organization that provides a service - the protection of the American people- with the help of paid volunteers, the soldiers. Recruiting for the Army is similar to the Red Cross's efforts to get blood donations; they are both unsought products, or "products that the consumer either does not know about or knows about but does not normally think of buying" (281). For this reason, it is necessary for the army to be innovative and engage in a lot of advertising, personal selling, and marketing efforts.

The textbook states,"Companies that market experiences realize that customers are really buying much more than just products and services" (277). With its many memorable advertising campaigns and slogans like "Be all you can be, In the Army" and "Army of One", it is clear that the Army has long understood the idea that they were marketing an experience. The focus has not been on the monetary compensation, but rather on the invaluable skills, instilment of values, chance for character-building experiences, and the promise of educational opportunities. Despite succes with previous marketing campaigns, the Army was having a lull (a crisis, as White described it) in enlistment and was forced to seek new ways to vamp up recruitment and generate new interest in the Army.

The new marketing strategy employs an interactive internet game that is both a product in itself, as well as a mareting tool for the Army. It is a modern and more technological way to continue to emphasize the experience of military service. Not to mention, the new game is perfect for the Army's target market: young teenage men. In terms of new product development, it was an internal employee who came up with the idea for the game. Yet, in the FAQ section of the website, it stated that "Firms such as Toyota have used games for educational purpose with considerable success," suggesting that the idea for the game may have come from looking at other companies' marketing products and strategies. The quality, design, features, and content of the game were carefully thought out and are explained fully on the website. The game is supposed to be interactive, fun, and informative. In terms of pricing, the game is free on the internet, requiring only that the user registers on the site. There is a link to a site selling official merchandise relating to the game. Also, the article does mention that the Army has plans to release the game offline for gaming systems like Sony Play Station and Microsoft's X-Box. Already millions of pepole have been exposed to the game and its website. The success of this product bodes well for the Army, as well as for the continuation with this game and the possibilities for expansion of this product line.