Talking About The Navy

The February issue of Proceedings Magazine is out, and as usual we will be going over the various articles that capture our interest. Among the first to pop out at us was an interesting article by Steve Cohen called Marketing Is Not a Dirty Word discussing the marketing strategy of the Navy. We find it ironic that an article regarding the difficulty of the Navy to communicate a clear message is locked behind the subscription only section of the USNI website, but then again, we note every article this month is locked behind the subscription firewall. We see irony that we have spent the last several months marketing the Naval Institute which has probably resulted in dozens if not hundreds of people to sign up on their website, yet they have removed the limited access content. Maybe the Navy isn't the only one whose marketing strategy should be reviewed.

We observe a few paragraphs where the Navy measures internet communications.

One naval officer asked whether it was appropriate "to base a condemnation of the Navy/Marine Internet marketing efforts on the anecdotal reports of two teenagers. Wouldn't it be more significant [to track] hit counts, etc., that help determine the effectiveness of these things? These data also exist." That officer is half-right; hits and unique visitor counts do matter. But so do usability and what comes off the page into the user's mind. There is a saying among marketers that for every person who complains, ten others share the same sentiments but stay silent. It is essential to pay attention when people make the effort to complain.

Smart marketers use qualitative research to help gauge usability—things like focus groups and one-on-one interviews. So I asked both the Navy and its ad agency what sort of qualitative research they are employing to assess the Web site's effectiveness. None of the six people I asked knew, and finally, a senior officer in CHINFO tracked down the answer: they don't do any!

Admittedly, it took us a few days to get used to the new website, and it is certainly more interactive than the previous version. Now that we are used to the website changes, we like it, but we have no idea how that translates into recruiting or retention, two subjects Mr. Kohen covers. We do believe as a business function the photography is excellent in promoting the Navy. A picture can be worth a thousand words.

In general, we enjoyed Steve Cohen's article, but upon further review we question how he so clearly missed the obvious. He mentions YouTube as a marketing tool, and while it is probably a very effective tool for recruiting, video isn't the medium for selling ideas. In reading Mr. Cohen's article we became curious, why wouldn't he mention blogging? We assume he either misses the value, or the Proceedings editors told him to cut it out. Either way, big mistake.

We've been blogging almost exclusively Navy related issues since June 4th, 2007. We had more hits and visits yesterday than we did the entire month of June 2007. For January 2008, we had 22,202 visits and 37,561 hits for the month. We are averaging around 5000 visits and 10000 hits per week, so clearly the market for naval discussions exist. We aren't generating that kind of traffic talking about politics, or sports, rather almost exclusively Naval related content and discussions. When you consider our opinions count for nothing, and we don't even use our real names here, those two factors alone should indicate the potential size of the audience available to the Navy for a professional conversation on a blog.

We'd challenge anyone to point where else on the Internet (besides SteelJaw Scribes blog) where you can find a meaningful discussion on the Cooperative Maritime Strategy taking place. It isn't hard to tell this blog and SteelJaw Scribes place are the only mediums on the internet making the Maritime Strategy conversation happen, because between our blogs we dominate the Google results for searches on the topics.

Mr. Cohen appears to be a sharp guy, so we're going to see if he "is paying attention when people make the effort to complain." In less than a few months he may realize this blog entry represents the most influential marketing his article in Proceedings may get. When one considers the impact of a real conversation, one can begin to understand how to leverage the value of new media for the Navy and its marketing message, including when speaking to either Congress or the American people.

In the end, we don't see the lack of a proper medium the problem facing the Navy regarding its communication strategy, rather we observe the message itself as the biggest problem. Until the resource allocations matches the strategy in a convincing way, widespread exposure via effective communication mediums will only hurt the Navy in its communications.