Effects of Military Advertising: Evidence from the Advertising Mix Test

摘要

Advertising is one of the central recruiting tools used by the military services in support of the all-volunteer force. This Note analyzes the effects of advertising on recruiting, providing quantitative estimates of the relative effectiveness of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and joint advertising programs. The findings indicated that, in general, the services gain enlistments from additional advertising, and the gains of any one branch do not seem to come at the expense (in terms of lost recruits) of any other. Not only are there no important interservice competitive effects of advertising, but the advertising done by a service apparently confers important benefits on the other branches as well. Consequently, both service and joint advertising appear to be powerful tools to help meet the recruiting requirements of the all-volunteer armed forces. (KR)