The Brand of the American Soldier

Published: May 24, 2015, By Stephanie Millman

As we approach Memorial Day in America, I have been overwhelmed by the power of the American Soldier brand. You see, for over a year now, my daughter’s friend Maggie has been missing her dad who was deployed to Afghanistan. To serve his country, he had to leave his wife, a high school principal, with four girls under the age of ten including twin baby girls. But this weekend our community lined the streets with American flags and got to welcome Maggie’s dad home! The experience has sparked a great deal of reverence, excitement and joy for our soldiers.

When we consider our own brand, we think about capturing strong thoughts and feelings about our company and its products and services in order to grow market share. Often people mistakenly assume that their brand is a logo or package but brand is actually the emotion and thoughts about the company or product. In fact, until those thoughts are developed in others, you have no brand at all!

The brand of the American Soldier has even more responsibilities in terms of developing emotion. In order to recruit talent and inspire support among the families and communities that send their young people away to serve our country, the military has to focus on promoting strong thoughts and feelings to inspire taking action. Here are the latest examples the Army and Air Force have launched to promote the desire to support their brands. There is no greater intensity of emotion that must be developed about a brand than that of the Soldier because the cost of ‘purchasing’ the brand is so high… putting a life on the line to protect our freedom.

So as we welcome home one of our own this weekend, I’d like to thank those who have served our country and encourage others to show gratitude both in small ways (offer your preferred seats on flights, purchase a coffee for them, simply thank them, etc.) as well as big ways. And as I personally experience joy and pride for what Maggie’s family has sacrificed, I am just pleased as punch that Maggie finally got her daddy back!