A marketing firm’s take on selling to veterans

The commercial exploitation of the military market is at hand!

(This may not be all bad).

A marketing firm has recently laid out the possibilities of selling to the block of 25 million Americans who have served in the U.S. armed forces. The idea is that by appealing to this group’s affinity, they have a ready-made audience that loves to be appealed to.

They cite USAA as a good example. I use USAA, and it is a pretty great product in that it markets itself to veterans.

Still, the report echoes what I have suspected:

Over 50 percent of military veterans reported being turned off by communications pandering to veterans with overtly patriotic, disingenuous, or unauthentic messages.

Moreover, 67 percent 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.

Marketers can use simple and easy symbols, but those who have lived them know that they are actually quite complicated to use.