Singapore shows how to market an Army brand and make it personal

By February 9 2011, 7:27 am 1 Comment
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Despite being a county of only 5 million people Singapore have one of the leading and most well equipped armies in the world and their marketing matches that investment. I have been struck by how personal they make the Singapore army sound. They don’t even call it the Singapore army. It’s “Our Army”, inclusive from the start.

Our Army currently has a massive poster, TV, online and print campaign around My Boyfriend. Our Home. Our Singapore. Our Army. The boyfriend opening is then alternated between husband/brother/father and family. They very cleverly link the family connection and the personal story of the girlfriend/wife/mother/child left behind to the larger inclusive “family” of the entire Army which includes all Singaporeans they are saying.

They don’t even feature any reference to the army until the end of the TV advert for example and you wonder what they’re talking about drawing you in and making the army feel like a friend/part of your family. They follow up this messages elsewhere with “Our soldiers – everyone knows one” and the official website follows that through with Our Army. Our forces. Our stories. Personalizing everything yet further, emotionalizing the soldiers connection to every Singaporean. You can’t help but feel personally involved, connected and protected by someone you know. http://www.mindef.gov.sg/arc/index.html. Compare that with the British Army adverts which are all about selfishness (free pension), boredom (bored of the same routine) and supposedly being the best along with finding out who you want to be when Singaporeans appear to know who they are and they come across as intelligent and modest people – the opposite to the way that the British one communicates British soldiers as being. The British website is full of bad news and comes across as very impersonal and remote and not in the least connected to anyone else in Britain. I’m not even Singaporean and I feel more empathy towards the Singapore Army than I ever felt towards the British one!

  • CJ Reed

    comment from the post via linked in from Ange Teo: “It is *Our* Army since National Service [NS] has been part of Singapore’s cultural landscape and cultural psyche. Since 1967 when NS was first enforced. Also, citizen soldiers aka reservists make up the bulk of the armed forces. But then, there is also the psychological element to this latest advert. Given the general populace’s general dissatisfaction of things.”

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