Marine Corps Recruiting Incumbency and the Disruptive Internet

摘要

Thesis: Comforted by its military recruiting incumbency, the Marine Corps Recruiting Command (MCRC) believes the other military services' rush to attain strong Internet presence is not worth joining. This thesis posits a strong and relevant Internet presence, focused between the Marine Recruiter and the recruitable public, will add tremendous value to the Corps' recruiting efforts. Background: Throughout the 1970's and 80's, the Marine Corps incorporated some non-traditional recruiting methods, centered on better business practices, and slowly overcame disruptive generational change. This thesis understands a different environment for change exists. There is currently a revolution in business affairs (RBA) and revolution in military affairs (RMA) centered on the Information Age. But, as the military recruiting incumbent, the Corps is not under unusual pressure to execute substantial change within its recruiting force to capture the potential of these revolutions. The Internet is a potentially disruptive force that Marine Corps recruiting must contend with. Principally, the in-coming recruitable population is beginning to make the Internet their entertainment and communication medium of choice, and it is the fastest growing segment of an exponentially growing Net population. The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab's research established the in- coming generation may not identify with the military, but the generation happens to exhibit many values associated with the military. Key to recruiting this generation will be bridging these parallel values. The incoming generation's media center of gravity is the Internet, and the generation is establishing preferences and expectations through the use of this new medium.