Focus Groups Anyone?


Jim Wolf of Reuters has a catchy story today:

Like the maker of an out-of-favor car or sneaker, the U.S. military needs a new "branding" campaign to earn civilian support in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots, a report for the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

"We will help you" could be the pitch, said the 211-page survey by RAND Corp...

snip

"Like commercial firms that must update unattractive brand identities, so too should the United States consider updating its military's brand identity to suit current and future operational environments," the report said.

snip

The "we will help you" line is the brainchild of Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, a leading global advertising agency, the report said.

"It is a promise that can be kept," the authors said. "And because it positions the United States as a partner of indigenous populations, it does not usurp their authority, dignity or responsibility."(emph added)

I wonder if those guys are still giving out the Shinola Awards for "the world's worst rebranding?"

h/t Ran at Moon of Alabama for Reuters link


Siun July 18, 2007 - 12:14am
( categories: USA: Armed Forces )

I'll cheerfully wield the red hot iron if I can get two volunteers to pin them down and one to yank their trousers off.

Escher Sketch July 18, 2007 - 2:32am

However the efforts for rebranding have a corporate pr push smell to it. All the words and gimmicks don't mean shit to those killed on accident or by 'collateral damage" or to those who are in danger of being killed next. Action speak louder than words and our actions appear to tell others how little we value their lives, no slogan will change that.

Tina July 18, 2007 - 8:11am

Change tune on war, PM told

OTTAWA -- The Harper government has been told to stop referring to "fighting terrorism" and the Sept. 11 attacks, and to banish the phrase "cut and run" from its vocabulary if it is to persuade a skeptical public that the military mission in Afghanistan is worth pursuing.

A public-opinion report says only 40 per cent of respondents across Canada, and almost none in Quebec, support the deployment. To change the perceptions, it recommends putting the emphasis on "rebuilding," "enhancing the lives of women and children," and "peacekeeping."

adrena July 18, 2007 - 8:53am

That's pretty good.

How about "We are trying to help you, please help us do that"?

(Brand's work both ways, of course. They send a message to consumers, sure, but also they (really, corny as it sounds) help set a tone within the branded firm.)

-t

dasht July 18, 2007 - 2:44am

"Let us know how we can serve you better... Inform!"

Escher Sketch July 18, 2007 - 3:07am

"Let us know how we can serve you better... Inform!"

That fails internally to the firm, at least, because it is sarcastic. A mission statement or slogan should convey to external listeners that we seek win-wins. Internally, on the other hand, it should convey that win-wins are the ultimate goal and that, to get there, we try to give 110% towards best practial service.

-t

dasht July 18, 2007 - 3:23am

EOM

Bolo July 18, 2007 - 10:12am

with apologies to K. Marx

"Opium is the religion of the people. Let's 'congregate' in Afghanistan."

Nah. Too complicated.

Working on it.

(Note to self: Ask Dasht for help. He's a natural born sloganeer.)

Chickadee July 18, 2007 - 3:13am

"rape is Right Out!"
"but we're not bombing your town!"
"just shut up and give us the oil"

this war sure proves that "dying is easy, but comedy is hard."

chicago dyke July 18, 2007 - 6:54am

“We have trained them there to fight us here.”

Source

canuck July 18, 2007 - 6:59am

of the usual garbage about "fighting them over there." A very accurate summary of our policy too.

I'm going to have to get a T-shirt that says that.

Bolo July 18, 2007 - 10:10am

Chickadee July 28, 2007 - 10:15pm

Wouldn't "let us help you" be better. Wouldn't it give a person more of a sense of empowerment and choice? "We will help you" sounds too much like a statement than a offer of help.

Tina July 18, 2007 - 9:03am

What did Reagan say about the government coming to help you?

I can only imagine the Iraqis laughing themselves sick at the idea the military is there to help them.

Ian Welsh July 18, 2007 - 4:57pm

I recall seeing coverage of a 'focus group' on the News Hour, and was surprised at how inane the people in it were.

Regardless, it seems that the Army (and whatnot) would gain a whole lot of public favor if, the activities in Afghanistan and Iraq had clear easily understood, measurable and achievable military objectives.

I hear the anti-war slogan 'Support our troops, bring them home!', and I keep thinking, why isn't anybody saying, 'support our troops, give them clear objectives!'

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I cringe whenever someone says 'the mission in Iraq', because there isn't one. The platitudes about things being better in Iraq aren't really backed up by anything testable.

NateTG July 19, 2007 - 1:39pm

U.S. Needs to Devise a Different 'Brand' to Win Over the Iraqi People, Study Advises

Washington Post, By Karen DeYoung, July 21

In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its "show of force" brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.

The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves "shaping" both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.

Helmus and his co-authors concluded that the "force" brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies' competing brands. While not abandoning the more aggressive elements of warfare, the report suggested, a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been "We will help you." That is what President Bush's new Iraq strategy is striving for as it focuses on establishing a protective U.S. troop presence in Baghdad neighborhoods, training Iraq's security forces, and encouraging the central and local governments to take the lead in making things better.

Many of the study's conclusions may seem as obvious as they are hard to implement amid combat operations and terrorist attacks, and Helmus acknowledged that it could be too late for extensive rebranding of the U.S. effort in Iraq. But Duane Schattle, whose urban operations office at the Joint Forces Command ordered the study, said that "cities are the battlegrounds of the future" and what has happened in Baghdad provides lessons for the future. "This isn't just about going in and blowing things up," Schattle said. "This is about working in a very complex environment."

In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become "collateral damage" in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English. Cultural connections -- seeking out the local head man when entering a neighborhood, looking someone in the eye when offering a friendly wave -- are key.


"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity."

Raja July 21, 2007 - 11:19am

Escher Sketch July 21, 2007 - 11:27am

“Quit putting dollar signs on everything in the fucking world!”

But I do have to say that makeovers worked for Stephen Harper. He’s now our Prime Minister, thanks to an American marketing consultant he hired. The twit wraps himself in Canadian flags, and the bill that the Afghanistan war delivered is rising. There is no military solution that would win that war. The only reason Canadian troops are in Afghanistan is they weren’t sent to Iraq. Thank goodness for small mercies, or the deaths would have been more.

Slogans and propaganda are no substitutes for rational reasoning. I agree with the comedian and the message I would send to marketers is, “Go suck on a exhaust pipe!

canuck July 21, 2007 - 2:09pm

McClatchy, By Dion Nissenbaum, July 27

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — If you think of the Gaza Strip as a volatile, violent battleground run by fanatic Islamist militants bent on destroying Israel, Hamas wants you to think again.

Think: "Safe, clean and green."

One month after seizing the Gaza Strip in a military rout that shattered brittle Palestinian unity, Hamas is embarking on a radical marketing campaign to promote what it calls "the new face of Gaza."

They call it the "Gaza Riviera."

Lime-green Hamas banners flutter over Gaza City with a message in English for aid workers and journalists worried about being kidnapped: "No more threat for our foreign visitors and guests."


"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity."

Raja July 28, 2007 - 11:56am

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