The power of military affinity is one of the strongest bonds and insights in society
Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) November 07, 2013
Eighty-six percent of active military and veterans say their military service experience influences the decisions they make in their life according to a new study. The study also revealed that they believe that if veterans don’t help each other, no one else will. Ninety-five percent of active military and veterans say they would take time to talk with a veteran who reached out for help, for example in finding a job. That strong kinship with other veterans exists regardless of age- contrary to many who focus on different age groups.
“So mutually supportive are veterans across generational lines, we’ve come to calling them “Generation V”, said MARCH Marketing’s Tom Aiello. “The power of military affinity is one of the strongest bonds and insights in society, yet few organizations understand how to effectively leverage these bonds to connect and communicate with Generation V. Sure, there are companies like USAA who understand military affinity, but more organizations need to refine how they communicate and provide products and services to the veteran population. In doing so, they will better serve this market and veterans will respond in kind.”
The annual MARCH Marketing research surveyed 7,509 respondents across different age groups and military status. It found that over 85% of active military and veterans seek to buy from businesses that offer military discount over those which don't.
“ ‘B2V’ (Business to Veteran) communications are critical,” said Aiello, “Over half in the study reported being turned off by communications pandering to veterans with overtly patriotic, disingenuous, or unauthentic messages.”
Over 67% said they are less likely to consider buying a product or service if military images within an ad have obvious errors, for example hair too long, uniform not to regulations, or not physically fit. “Generation V can spot a poorly executed ‘veteran wrapper’ in no time flat and they vote with their dollars,” Aiello said.
Tom Aiello is the founder and President of MARCH Marketing. MARCH is a service disabled veteran owned business founded by Tom Aiello, a graduate of United States Military Academy at West Point and Northwestern Kellogg Business School of Management. He’s a blogger for the Huffington Post with extensive advertising agency and veteran employment experience. MARCH Marketing specializes exclusively in strategy, consulting, marketing, recruiting, public relations, social media and word of mouth communications for products and services targeted to military and veteran families.
“Sometimes we’re working with agencies and other times directly with an employer, a CMO at a university, or a well-known veteran charity,“ said Aiello. “We’re able to take on full-service engagements for clients, but often act as a group of ‘special forces’ to help a client succeed in working with or employing the military population.”
MARCH Marketing also employs innovative technology and approaches to help clients reach the military community across channels. MARCH recently partnered with Troop ID to help deliver secure, technology that digitally verifies military affiliation online, through mobile and in-store, resulting in substantial incremental revenue and cost-savings for clients.
MARCH’s President, Tom Aiello, has created real impact in veterans’ charities raising over $118 million in 4 years and helping over 114,000 military and veteran families to include rebuilding 1,500 homes for Wounded Warriors. As such, he believes in a higher purpose of MARCH.
“The mission of MARCH is to improve the lives of military and veteran families. We do that through impactful strategy to make our client’s programs better serve this community. We also donate part of our annual revenue toward veteran charities. MARCH has high esprit de corps because we know we’re helping a very deserving group on Americans.”
About MARCH Marketing, LLC
MARCH Marketing provides best in class military and veteran expertise to inform strategy, marketing, and services to commercial, government, and non-profit clients. With offices in Chicago and DC, the agency is one of the few Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOB) that provide these type of world-class marketing and consulting services, and the only with deep expertise into the military and veteran audience. When it comes to strategy and communications to military and veterans, MARCH is the agency to call. For more information, visit us at http://www.marchcorp.com
About Study: The veteran and military omnibus study was conducted to 7,509 respondents to achieve statistical significance across different age groups and military status.