Why Marines win recruiting battle too

Strategy Page:

The U.S. Marines have a macho reputation. And they like it that way. One member of the Clinton administration described the marines as "extremists." Privately, many marines took that as an unintended compliment. Potential recruits see the marines the same way, a bunch of tough, lethal, disciplined troops with impressive uniforms. And since most of the potential recruits for any branch of the military are teenagers, the marines have a natural appeal. If you need any convincing, just take note of the kinds of music and movies teenagers like, and the fact that the marines have the least trouble meeting their recruiting goals. Further proof can be found by attending the recruiting presentations regularly held in many high schools. Each of the services gets up and makes their pitch. The army, air force and navy rattle off all the goodies they offer, like travel to foreign countries, money for college, career training. Many of the students nod off. Then the marine sergeant gets up and shows a short video of tough looking teenage marines storming beaches, jumping out of armored vehicles and helicopters and generally behaving like natural born killers. The sergeant then tells the kids that the marines can only promise them challenges. Not everyone can be a marine and he only wants to recruit those who are up to it. The students are fully awake through all this, and the marines generally end up with more recruits than anyone else. Recruiters from the other services mutter about how they would do better if they had a more impressive looking uniform.

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But soldiering has changed for most of the other troops in the world. It's fashionable to play down grim and costly ground combat in favor of precision weapons and push button warfare. For this reason, the marines are seen as a bunch of roughneck throwbacks. Yet, even today, in any of the two dozen wars being fought around the world, the troops who are the most successful are the ones that operate most like the marines. What the marines are may not be fashionable, but when you have to get close to the enemy, what they do works.

Marines appeal to those who want to be with the best and prove that they are among them. While they are usually in the think of things, one of their advantages is that the Marines have other Marines around them to protect each other and close and destroy the enemy. The few, the proud, the Marines. It is an appeal to exclusivity. Only one or two percent of the people in this country have what it takes to be a Marine. That is one reason that being one is so special.

Here is one of my favorite ads.