Target Practice for Military Recruiters

The Pentagon's Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies project has "finely sliced and diced its data enough to determine that the U.S. Army's prospective recruits come from households likely to listen to Spanish radio," while "the reading list at the households of U.S. Marine Corps prospects includes Car Craft, Guns and Ammo and Outdoor Life." Good U.S. Air Force prospects "listen to Nascar on the radio," while U.S. Navy enthusiasts "expect to get married within the next year." To "navigate a fragmented media environment," the Defense Department analyzed military applicants from 2000 to 2004, and identified 18 demographic groups "that provide the highest rate of prospective recruits." These include "Beltway Boomers," "Blue Chip Blues," "Young & Rustic," and "Multiculti Mosaic," as defined by Claritas, a "marketing information resources company." To reach these groups, "direct, interactive and other one-to-one marketing tactics," including email, are used; the Navy is "exploring emerging media such as cellphones and text messaging."